2004 in Northern Ireland

Events

*27 March - Ireland's rugby team wins the Triple Crown for the first time since 1985.
*27 March - David Trimble retains leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party at their annual general meeting.
*30 June - Northern Ireland population estimated to be 1,710,300, a 4.1% increase over the 1994 figure [ [http://www.dfpni.gov.uk/news-july05-mid-year-pop-estimates Mid-year population estimates] ] .
*14 September - Mary McAleese announces her intention to run for a second term as President of Ireland.
*30 September - The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Ian Paisley, makes an historic first visit to Dublin for political talks with An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
*1 October - As nominations for candidates close, Mary McAleese is re-elected unopposed for a second term as President of Ireland.
*11 November - Mary McAleese is inaugurated for a second term as President of Ireland.
*8 December - Negotiated proposals to restore the power-sharing institutions to Northern Ireland by March fail to reach finality. The main sticking point was a refusal by the Provisional Irish Republican Army to allow photographs be taken of arms decommissioning and a refusal by the DUP's Ian Paisley to witness disarmament himself.
*21 December - £22 million is stolen in the Northern Bank robbery in Belfast.

Arts and literature

*Seamus Heaney publishes a version of Sophocles' "Antigone", entitled "The Burial at Thebes".
*Seamus Heaney composes a poem called "Beacons of Bealtaine" for the 2004 EU Enlargement and reads it at a ceremony for the 25 leaders of the enlarged European Union arranged by the Irish EU presidency.

port

Football

* Football World Cup 2006 Qualification
**Northern Ireland 0 - 3 Poland (4 September)
**Wales 2 - 2 Northern Ireland (8 September)
**Azerbaijan 0 - 0 Northern Ireland (9 October)
**Northern Ireland 3-3 Austria {13 October)

*Irish League::Winners: Linfield

*Irish Cup::Winners: Glentoran 1 - 0 Coleraine

*The Irish Football Association takes over control of the remaining divisions run by Irish Football League, renaming them the IFA Intermediate League First and Second Divisions, effectively winding up the Irish Football League as a separate organisation after 114 years.

Golf

*Ryder Cup
**Three Irishmen, Pádraig Harrington, Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley, feature prominently on the victorious European team.
*Graeme McDowell wins the Telecom Italia Open.

Motorcycling

*Robert Dunlop retires at the Isle of Man TT.

Rugby Union

*Rugby Union Six Nations Championship
*Ireland win the Triple Crown for the first time since 1985. The team also becomes the first to beat England since their World Cup win. The results in full are as follows:
**Ireland 19-3 Italy
**Ireland 37-16 Scotland
**Ireland 19-13 England
**Ireland 17-35 France
**Ireland 36-15 Wales

Births

Deaths

*11 January - Mairtín Crawford, poet and journalist (b.1967).
*5 February - Harry West, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party from 1974 to 1979, Stormont MP, Minister for Agriculture (b.1917).
*2 March - Cormac McAnallen, Tyrone Gaelic footballer (b.1980).
*13 April - Caron Keating, television presenter (b.1962).
*24 June - Douglas Gageby, editor of Evening Press (1954 - 1959) and editor The Irish Times (1963-1974) and (1977 - 1986).
*22 July - Bertie Peacock, footballer and football manager.
*23 July - Joe Cahill, former Chief of Staff of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (b.1920).
*7 September - Ian Cochrane, novelist (b.1941).
*28 October - Jimmy McLarnin, boxer (b.1907)
*5 November - Basil McIvor, Ulster Unionist politician (b.1928).
*8 December - Digby McLaren, geologist and palaeontologist in Canada (b.1919).
*26 December - Frank Pantridge, physician, cardiologist and inventor of the portable defibrillator (b.1916).

References