Events

• 24 January - The international body proposes six principles of democracy and non-violence ('the Mitchell principles') as conditions for entry to all-party talks in Northern Ireland.
• 31 March - Crumlin Road (HM Prison) in Belfast is closed.^[1]
• 1 October - Radio station Belfast CityBeat begins broadcasting.
• Northern Ireland Forum is established.

Arts and literature

• Seamus Deane's novel Reading in the Dark is published.^[2]
• Seamus Heaney publishes the collection, The Spirit Level which wins the poetry section of the 1996 Whitbread Awards.

Sport

Football

• Irish League

Winners: Portadown

• Irish Cup

Winners: Glentoran 1 - 0 Glenavon

Motorcycling

• 20 April - Robert Dunlop, after an accident in 1994, returns to race in the Cookstown 100, taking ninth place in the 125cc race won by brother, Joey Dunlop.

Births

Deaths

• 12 February - Bob Shaw, science fiction novelist (b.1931).
• 6 August - Havelock Nelson, composer and pianist (b.1917).
• 1 October - Pat McGeown, volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army, took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike (b.1956).
• 4 October - Humphrey Atkins, fifth Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
• 17 December - Ruby Murray, singer (b.1935).

Full date unknown

• Arthur Armstrong, painter (b.1924).

References