1978 in Ireland

Events

*January 18 - The European Court of Human Rights finds Britain guilty of "inhuman and degrading treatment" of republican internees in Northern Ireland.
*January 19 - The Fianna Fáil government dismisses the Garda Commissioner Edmund Garvey. No explanation is given.
*January 21 - John Giles resigns as manager of the Republic of Ireland national football team.
*March 23 - The state funeral of former President Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh takes place in Sneem, County Kerry.
*March 31 - 6,000 people march through Dublin to the Wood Quay site to protest the building of civic offices on the Viking site.
*June 1 - David Cooke of the Alliance Party becomes the first non-unionist Lord Mayor of Belfast.
*August 19 - Over 5,000 people take part in a nuclear rally against a nuclear power station at Carnsore Point, County Wexford.
*September 1 - Dublin Institute of Technology is created on an ad-hoc basis by the City of Dublin VEC.
*November 2 - Ireland's second national television channel, RTÉ 2, opens with a live broadcast from the Cork Opera House.

Arts and literature

* Iris Murdoch is awarded the Booker Prize for her novel "The Sea, The Sea."

port

Athletics

*March 25 - John Treacy wins the world cross-country championship in Glasgow.

Golf

*Carroll's Irish Open is won by Ken Brown (Scotland).

Births

January to June

*12 January - David Worrell, soccer player.
*19 January - Simon Webb, soccer player.
*28 January - Dave Mulcahy, soccer player.
*30 January - John Doyle, Kildare Gaelic footballer.
*21 February - Damien English, Fine Gael TD for Meath West.
*23 February - Jason Byrne, soccer player.
*9 March - Derek O'Connor, soccer player.
*2 April - John Hoyne, Kilkenny hurler.
*4 April - Alan Mahon, soccer player.
*5 April - Stephen Murphy, soccer player.
*19 April - Geordan Murphy, International rugby player.
*29 April - David O'Loughlin, cyclist.
*14 June - Alan Murphy, soccer player.
*21 June - Wayne Sherlock, Cork hurler.
*25 June - Kieran Kelly, jump jockey killed in a racing accident (d.2003).

July to September

*4 July - Derek Lyng, Kilkenny hurler.
*18 July - Shane Horgan, International rugby player.
*27 July - Brian Barry-Murphy, soccer player.
*July - Diarmuid O'Sullivan, Cork hurler.
*7 August - Alan Mahon, soccer player.
*8 August - Alan Maybury, soccer player.
*21 August - Alan Lee, soccer player.
*28 August - Barry Ryan, soccer player.
*29 August - Darren O'Keeffe, soccer player.
*27 September - John Paul Phelan, Fine Gael Senator.

October to December

*1 October - Barry Conlon, soccer player.
*2 October - Eddie Brennan, Kilkenny hurler.
*5 October - Shane Ryan, Gaelic footballer.
*9 October - Nicky Byrne, entertainer, member Westlife.
*17 October - Jerry Flannery, international rugby player.
*25 October - Chris Keane, rugby player.
*9 November - Martin Comerford, Kilkenny hurler.
*15 December - Edele Barrett, singer and songwriter.
*15 December - Keavy Lynch, singer and songwriter.
*22 December - Eugene Cloonan, Galway hurler.

Full date unknown

*Caoimhe Butterly, human rights activist.
*Julie Feeney, singer songwriter.
*Mike FitzGerald, Limerick hurler.
*John Miskella, Cork Gaelic footballer.
*Richie Mullally, Kilkenny hurler.
*Nicholas Murphy, Cork Gaelic footballer.
*Mike O'Brien, Limerick hurler.

Deaths

*23 January Cormac Breslin, Fianna Fáil TD and Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann (b.1902).
*4 March - Emmet Dalton, revolutionary.
*6 March - Micheál MacLiammóir, actor and dramatist (b.1899).
*21 March - Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, Attorney-General, Chief Justice of Ireland and fifth President of Ireland (d.1911).
*5 July - Mary Swanzy, painter.
*12 September - Wilfred Hutton, cricketer (b.1901).
*October - Moss (Maurice) Twomey, chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army (b.1897).
*5 November - Denis O'Dea, actor (b.1905).
*13 December - Jack Doyle, boxer, actor and singer (b.1913).

Full date unknown

*Gabriel Hayes, sculptor, designer of Irish coins (b.1909).
*Peter Kerley, radiologist (b.1900).