1969 in Ireland

Events

*January 1 - The People's Democracy civil rights march leaves Belfast for Derry.
*January 4 - Militant loyalists, including off-duty B-Specials, attack the civil rights marchers in County Londonderry.
*March 4 - The Lichfield Report is issued - it proposes the creation of a "University of Limerick" which will be "orientated towards technological subjects".
*March 19 - Ireland receives its first loan from the World Bank.
*March 22 - Civil rights demonstrations take place all over Northern Ireland.
*April 17 - Bernadette Devlin, the 21-year-old student and civil rights campaigner, wins the Mid-Ulster by-election. She is the youngest female MP ever.
*April 28 - Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O'Neill, resigns.
*May 1 - Major James Chichester-Clark succeeds Terence O'Neill as the North's Prime Minister.
*May 7 - Minister for Finance Charles Haughey announces tax exemptions for painters, sculptors, writers and composers on earnings gained from works of cultural merit.
*June 18 - Former French President General Charles de Gaulle and his wife are greeted by President de Valera at Áras an Uachtaráin.
*July 21 - Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to set foot on the moon. President de Valera sends President Nixon a telegram of congratulations and admiration.
*July 31 - The halfpenny is withdrawn from circulation as the country moves towards decimalisation.
*August 1 - A huge protest rally over events in Northern Ireland is held outside the GPO. The crowd demands that the Irish Army cross the border.
*August 3 - An Taoiseach Jack Lynch makes a state visit to the Lebanon.
*August 5 - Belfast experiences the worst sectarian rioting since 1935.
*August 13 - As the siege of the Bogside in Derry continues the Taoiseach Jack Lynch makes a speech on Irish television. He says that the Irish government "can no longer stand by" and demands a United Nations peace-keeping force for Northern Ireland.
*August 15 - A night of shooting and burning takes place in Belfast. In Dublin a Sinn Féin protest meeting calls for the boycott of British goods, Irish government protection of the people of Northern Ireland and United Nations intervention.
*August 16 - British soldiers are deployed into particularly violent areas of Belfast.
*August 17 - Members of an Garda Síochána clash with protesters on O'Connell Street, Dublin, as a march against the Northern Ireland situation heads for the British embassy.
*August 27 - The B-Specials begin to hand in their guns following the decision by Lieutenant-General Freeland to disband them. British Home Secretary, James Callaghan, visits Belfast.
*October 10 - The Hunt Committee Report recommends an unarmed civil police force in Northern Ireland.
*December 1 - Fianna Fáil pays tribute to Seán Lemass as his forty-five years of public life come to an end.

Arts and literature

*October 5 - Samuel Beckett is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

ports

Births

January to June

*6 January - Jonathan Philbin Bowman, journalist and radio presenter (d.2000).
*19 January - Steve Staunton, former international soccer player, former manager of Republic of Ireland.
*15 March - Pat Fenlon, soccer player and manager.
*31 March - Lawrence Patrick Parsons, Lord Oxmantown.
*2 April - Ann Leonard, former Fianna Fáil politician.
*1 May - Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin MEP repesenting Dublin.
*10 June - Breandán de Gallaí, Irish dancer.
*13 June - Abe Elkinson, businessman.

July to December

*1 July - Séamus Egan, musician.
*10 August - Arthur Edward Rory Guinness, 4th Earl of Iveagh, Farmleigh.
*23 August - Brian Hayes, Fine Gael TD for Dublin South West.
*7 September - Barry Ferguson, soccer player.
*17 September - Ken Doherty, snooker player.
*22 October - Owen Casey, tennis player.
*24 October - Emma Donoghue, playwright, literary historian and novelist.
*28 November - Sonia O'Sullivan, runner, World and European Championship Gold medallist.
*30 November - Catherina McKiernan, athlete.
*16 December - Michelle Smith, swimmer and triple Olympic gold medallist.

Full date unknown

*Liz Allen, journalist and writer.
*Billy Dooley, Offaly hurler.
*Ciarán Farrell, composer.
*Graham Linehan, television writer and director.
*Mark Little, journalist and television presenter.

Deaths

*24 January - Patrick Hogan, Irish Labour Party, TD, Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann (b.1886).
*30 March - James Foley, cricketer (b.1898).
*1 April - Francis de Groot, upstaged New South Wales Premier Jack Lang at the 1932 official opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (b.1888).
*8 April - James Duffy, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1917 at Kereina Peak, Palestine (b.1889).
*22 June - Thomas J. O'Connell, trade unionist, Irish Labour Party leader, TD and Senator (b.1882).
*4 August - Stanley Bergin, cricketer (b.1926).
*September - Cecilia Thackaberry, Presentation Sisters nun, killed in Nigeria performing relief work (b.1909).
*4 October - Cathal O'Shannon, politician, trade unionist and journalist (b.1893).

Full date unknown

*Bridget Dowling, Adolf Hitler's sister-in-law via her marriage to Alois Hitler, Jr. (b.1891).
*Bulmer Hobson, member of Irish Volunteers, socialist and writer (b.1882).
*Séamus Ó Grianna, writer (b.1889).
*John "Pondoro" Taylor, hunter and writer (b.1904).