1939 in Northern Ireland

Events

*17 April - The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Lord Craigavon, dismisses the Dublin government's position of neutrality as cowardly.
*4 May - The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland announces that conscription will not be extended to Northern Ireland.
*3 September - The UK declares war on Germany following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September.

Arts and literature

port

Football

*Irish League::Winners: Belfast Celtic

*Irish Cup::Winners: Linfield 2 - 0 Ballymena United

Births

*1 January - Billy Reid, volunteer in Provisional Irish Republican Army, killed in gunfight with British Army (d.1971).
*13 April - Seamus Heaney, poet, writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
*17 May - Eddie Magill, footballer and football manager.
*6 July - Mary Peters, pentathlete and 1972 Summer Olympics gold medal winner.
*27 July - Michael Longley, poet.
*9 August - Vincent Hanna, television journalist (d.1997).
*16 August - Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland
*11 October - Austin Currie, founder-member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and former Fine Gael TD.
*8 December - James Galway, flautist.
*22 December - Seamus Robinson, songwriter and composer.

Deaths

*20 September - Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin, astronomer (b.1865).
*Amanda McKittrick Ros, novelist and poet (b.1860).