1980 in Ireland

Events

*January 9 - Charles Haughey addresses the nation by television on the matter of its worsening finances.
*March 25 - CIÉs first bus lane comes into operation on Parliament Street in Dublin.
*April 19 - Johnny Logan wins the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland with the song 'What's Another Year.'
*May 1 - The Derrynaflan Chalice is discovered in a bog.
*August 1 - Eighteen people die in the Buttevant Rail Disaster
*August 8 - Ten people die in the Central Hotel Fire, Bundoran
*September 1 - China's first Ambassador to Ireland, Madame Gong Pusheng, arrives in Dublin.
*October 6 - Justice Mella Carroll is the first woman to reach the position of High Court Judge.
*October 27 - Over 2,000 people take part in the first RTÉ Radio 2 Dublin City Marathon.
*November 1 - The controversial Health (Family Planning) Act, 1979 comes into operation.
*November 11 - National Institute for Higher Education, Dublin admitts its first students to the college, a total of 200 students.
*December 8 - An Taoiseach Charles Haughey meets with the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at Dublin Castle. It is the first visit by a British prime minister since independence.
*December 19 - Former Taoiseach Jack Lynch is conferred with the freedom of his native city, Cork.

Arts and literature

port

Golf

*Carroll's Irish Open is won by Mark James (England).

Births

January to March

*11 January - Liam O'Brien, actor.
*14 January - Clive Clarke, soccer player.
*19 January - Kevin McHugh, soccer player.
*31 January - Gary Doherty, soccer player.
*1 February - Justin Kehoe, golfer.
*6 February - Bernard Dunne, boxer.
*14 March - Colin Healy, soccer player.

April to June

*12 April - Brian McFadden, singer and songwriter.
*17 April - Richie Baker, soccer player.
*18 April - Kevin Doherty, soccer player.
*29 April - Kian Egan, singer with Westlife.
*21 May - Darragh Ryan, soccer player.
*28 May - Mark Feehily, singer with Westlife.
*3 June - Ciarán Walsh, visual artist.
*6 June - Colin Moran, Gaelic footballer.
*16 June - Richie Foran, soccer player.
*19 June - Derek Geary, soccer player.

July to December

*8 July - Robbie Keane, soccer player.
*13 August - Paul Crowley, soccer player.
*22 August - Alan Reilly, soccer player.
*30 August - Damien Brennan, soccer player.
*12 September - Richie Partridge, soccer player.
*15 September - Dean Delaney, soccer player.
*28 September - Danny O'Connor, soccer player.
*8 October - Tony Buckley, rugby player.
*27 October - Peter Murphy, soccer player.
*28 October - Darren McKenna, soccer player.
*14 November - James Ryall, Kilkenny hurler.
*17 December - Conor Armstrong, cricketer.
*22 December - Noel Hickey, Kilkenny hurler.

Full date unknown

*Graham Canty, Cork Gaelic footballer.
*Toireasa Ferris, Sinn Féin politician.
*Brian Geary, Limerick hurler.
*Stephen Lucey, Limerick hurler.
*Pearse O'Neill, Cork Gaelic footballer.
*Mark O'Riordan, Limerick hurler.

Deaths

January to June

*26 January - John Doherty, fiddle player (b.1895).
*14 March - Gustavus Kelly, cricketer (b.1901).
*2 May - Cecile O'Rahilly, scholar of the Celtic languages and writer (b.1894).
*11 June - William J E Jessop, professor, represented Dublin University in the Seanad from 1951 to 1973.
*25 June - James Hamilton Delargy, folklorist.

July to September

*2 July - Tom Barry, guerrilla leader in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence (b.1897).
*5 July - A. J. Potter, composer (b.1918).
*13 July - Joseph Brennan, Fianna Fáil TD, Cabinet Minister and Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann (b.1912).
*24 August - Frederick Maurice Watson Harvey, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1917 at Guyencourt, France (b.1888).
*5 September - Eric Cross, scientist.
*21 September - Mick Gill, Galway and Dublin hurler (b.1899).

October to December

*7 November - Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary (b.1889).
*9 November - Patrick Campbell, 3rd Baron Glenavy, journalist and author (b.1931).
*10 November - John Moyney, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1917 north of Broembeek, Belgium (b.1895).
*22 November - Norah McGuinness, artist (b.1901).
*25 November - Joseph Sweeney, member of 1st Dáil representing West Donegal, "(Pro Treaty)".
*16 December - Roddy Connolly, Irish Labour Party TD, Seanad member, son of James Connolly (b.1901).
*24 December - Arland Ussher, academic, essayist and translator (b.1899).
*30 December - Patrick Hennessy, painter.

Full date unknown

*Bill Delaney, Laois Gaelic footballer.
*Jimmy McCambridge, soccer player (b.1905).