1998 in Ireland

Incumbents

• President: Mary McAleese
• Taoiseach: Bertie Ahern (FF)
• Tánaiste: Mary Harney (PD)
• Minister for Finance: Charlie McCreevy (FF)
• Chief Justice: Liam Hamilton
• Dáil: 28th
• Seanad: 21st

Events

January

• 1 January – The Vocational Education Committees of the towns of Bray, Drogheda, Sligo, Tralee and Wexford were abolished.
• 14 January – The Mahon Planning Tribunal opened in Dublin Castle.

February

• 27 February – Ireland qualified for entry into the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union.

March

• 15 March – Former Fine Gael party minister Hugh Coveney died in a fall from a cliff in County Cork.

April

• 10 April (Good Friday) – The British and Irish governments and all the political parties in Northern Ireland (except the Democratic Unionists) signed the Belfast Agreement (also called Good Friday Agreement).

May

• 22 May – The Good Friday Agreement was endorsed in a referendum by people north and south of the Irish border.

July

• 1 July – The new Northern Ireland Assembly first met, in "shadow" form; Reg Empey and Seamus Mallon were elected First Minister and Deputy First Minister respectively.

• 11–13 July – The opening stages (Grand Départ) of the 1998 Tour de France were held in Ireland.

August

• 15 August – Omagh bombing: 29 people died in a car bomb explosion near the centre of Omagh, County Tyrone by the Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA).

September

• 4 September – President Bill Clinton of the United States began his second official visit to the island of Ireland (his first being in 1995).
• 20 September - The TV3 television station was launched.

October

• 22 October - Whistleblowers at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, drew attention to the excessive number of hysterectomies carried out by surgeon Michael Neary.

November

• 26 November – Tony Blair became the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Oireachtas.
• 30 November – Unemployment fell by 20% with the number of people in work rising by 100,000.

December

• 12 December – Members of the Labour Party and Democratic Left agreed to merge.
• 26 December – Great Boxing Day Storm ('Hurricane Stephen'): Severe gale-force winds hit northwest Ireland causing heavy disruption to services.
• 31 December – The punt currency was traded for the last time as the euro currency was launched.

Arts and literature

• 28 February – Actor and comedian Dermot Morgan died suddenly in London.
• 25 May – Patrick McCabe's novel Breakfast on Pluto was published.
• 3 July – The boyband Westlife was formed.
• 28 August – Maeve Binchy's novel Tara Road was published.
• 20 September – The TV3 television channel went on the air.
• 7 October – Marina Carr's drama By the Bog of Cats opened at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
• 24 December – Gay Byrne broadcast his final radio show, from St Stephen's Green, Dublin.
• John Montague became the first occupant of the Ireland Chair of Poetry.
• Garry Hynes became the first woman to win a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play (The Beauty Queen of Leenane) on Broadway.
• Brendan Graham's Great Famine novel The Whitest Flower was published.
• Terence Dolan's A Dictionary of Hiberno-English: The Irish Use of English was published.

Sport

Association football

• St Patrick's Athletic won the League of Ireland.
• Cork City won the FAI Cup.
• Shelbourne's home UEFA Cup tie against Rangers was moved to England due to fears of sectarian trouble. Despite taking a 3–0 lead, Shelbourne lost 3–5.
• 8 May – The Irish under-16 team won the European Championship.
• 26 July - The Irish under-18 team won the European Championship.

Gaelic football

• Galway won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, beating Kildare in the final.

Golf

• Murphy's Irish Open was won by David Carter (England).

Hurling

• Offaly won the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship for the second time in five years.

Swimming

• 6 August – Olympic gold medalist Michelle Smith was banned from competition for four years for tampering with a drug test.

Births

• 17 March – Nathan O'Toole, actor
• 8 August – Liam Scales, footballer

Deaths

• 26 January – Ernest Gébler, writer (b. 1914).
• 8 February – Niall Sheridan, poet, fiction writer and broadcaster (b. 1912).
• 28 February – Dermot Morgan, actor and comedian (b. 1952).
• 15 March – Hugh Coveney, Fine Gael TD and Cabinet Minister, yachtsman (b. 1935).
• 17 April – Robin Lawler, soccer player (born 1925).
• 6 May – Sybil Connolly, fashion designer (b. 1921).
• 22 May – Jim Power, Galway hurler (b. 1894).
• 26 May – Kate Cruise O'Brien, writer (b. 1948).
• 23 June
  • Paul O'Dwyer, lawyer and politician in the United States (b. 1907).
  • Maureen O'Sullivan, actress (b. 1911).
• 26 July – Seán Ó hEinirí, fisherman, seanchaí and monolingual speaker of the Irish language (b. 1915).
• 13 August – Liam de Paor, historian and archaeologist (b. 1926).
• 20 September – Robert Malachy Burke, Christian Socialist and philanthropist (b. 1907).
• 10 October – Tommy Quaid, Limerick hurler (b. 1957).
• 16 October – Patrick Hickey, visual artist (b. 1927).
• 11 November – Paddy Clancy, folk singer (b. 1922).
• 13 November – Valerie Hobson, actress (b. 1917).
• 21 November – John David Gwynn, cricketer (b. 1907).
• 26 December – Cathal Goulding, Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and the Official IRA (b. 1923).

References

References

1. Department of Health and Children (DOHC). (2006). "The Lourdes hospital inquiry: An inquiry into peripartum hysterectomy at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda. Report of Judge Maureen Harding Clark S.C.".
2. (2006). "Penguin Pocket On This Day". Penguin Reference Library.