1958 in Ireland

• President: Seán T. O'Kelly • Taoiseach: Éamon de Valera (FF) • Tánaiste: Seán Lemass (FF) • Minister for Finance: James Ryan (FF) • Chief Justice: Conor Maguire • Dáil: 16th • Seanad: 9th ==Events==

• 6 February – Association football player, 22-year-old Billy Whelan, who played four times for the Irish national team, was among 21 people killed in the Munich air disaster involving English football team Manchester United. • 18 March – Taoiseach Éamon de Valera said he would be willing to have talks with the government of Northern Ireland on wider economic co-operation. • 20 March – Work began on the £80,000 restoration of the State Rooms at Dublin Castle. • 10 May – The Independent Teachta Dála (TD), Jack Murphy, resigned in protest at the indifference of the main political parties to the plight of the unemployed. • 12 May – The Ardmore Film Studios were opened by the Tánaiste, Seán Lemass. • 22 May – The Minister for Education, Jack Lynch, told the Dáil that the ruling requiring women teachers to retire upon marriage was to be revoked. • 25 July – £100 damages were awarded to a nine-year-old boy who was beaten by his teacher in a national school. • 28 July – The Carlisle Monument, an eight-foot bronze statue in the Phoenix Park in Dublin, was blown up by an Irish republican bomb in the early hours. • 8 August – The United States Embassy in Merrion Square, Dublin displayed plans for a new embassy. • 8 September – Pan Am's Boeing 707 became the first jetliner to touch down on European soil at Shannon Airport. • 1 October – Assets and management of the Great Northern Railway were divided between and the Ulster Transport Authority. • 29 October – The Government announced that the question of ending the proportional representation method of voting was to be put to the people in a referendum. • 4 November – In the Vatican, Taoiseach Éamon de Valera attended the four-hour coronation of Pope John XXIII. • 31 December – The Harcourt Street railway line in Dublin closed, having served Ranelagh, Milltown, Dundrum, Stillorgan, Foxrock, Carrickmines, Shankill and Bray. ==Arts and literature==

• 21 February – Desmond Guinness established the Irish Georgian Society for the promotion of Georgian architecture. • June – The first branch of record shop Dolphin Discs was opened in the Dolphin's Barn suburb of Dublin. • 16 June – Brendan Behan's one-act Irish language play was first performed at the Damer Theatre in Dublin. • 14 October – The English adaptation of , (The Hostage), was first performed by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, London. • 28 October – Samuel Beckett's monologue ''Krapp's Last Tape'' was first performed by Patrick Magee at the Royal Court Theatre, London. • Samuel Beckett's novel The Unnamable was published in English. • Brendan Behan's autobiographical Borstal Boy was published in London. On 12 November it was banned in Ireland by the Censorship of Publications Board. • Thomas Kinsella's poetry Another September was published in Dublin. • Patrick MacDonogh's poetry One Landscape Still was published. • John Montague's poetry Forms of Exile was published. • The Oxford Book of Irish Verse, XVIIth century-XXth century, edited by Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, was published. ==Sports==

Association football • Football World Cup (The Republic of Ireland did not qualify for the 1958 world cup) Northern Ireland: • Group stage • Northern Ireland 1–1 Czechoslovakia • Northern Ireland 1–1 Argentina • Northern Ireland 1–1 West Germany • Northern Ireland entered group playoff stage • Northern Ireland 2–1 Czechoslovakia AET • Northern Ireland qualified for the quarterfinal stage • Northern Ireland 0–4 France • Northern Ireland were knocked out at the quarterfinal stage ==Births==

• 1 January – Liam Fennelly, Kilkenny hurler • 27 January – Synan Braddish, association football player • 1 February – Seán Fleming, Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for Laois–Offaly • 2 February – Paddy Prendergast, Kilkenny hurler • 16 February – Fintan O'Toole, journalist and drama critic • 1 April – Stephen O'Rahilly, Irish-British physician and academic • 19 April – Denis O'Brien, entrepreneur • 30 April – James Hewitt, soldier and lover of Diana, Princess of Wales • 6 May • Tommy Byrne, motor racing driver • Ivor Callely, Fianna Fáil politician, member of the 23rd Seanad, TD and Minister of State • 8 May – Roddy Doyle, novelist, dramatist and screenwriter • 11 May – Conor Hayes, Galway hurler and manager • 2 June – John Buckley, Cork hurler • 7 June – Aidan Fogarty, Offaly hurler • 8 June • Louise Richardson, political scientist and university vice-chancellor • Niall Williams, writer • 5 July – Veronica Guerin, journalist (murdered by drug dealers in 1996) • 10 July – Fiona Shaw, actress • 11 July – Martin Doherty, member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army • 16 July – Michael Flatley, American dancer • 10 September – Siobhan Fahey, musician • 16 September – Maura O'Connell, singer • 18 September – John Aldridge, Irish international association football player, in England of Irish descent • 11 November – John Devine, association football player • 21 November – Eddie O'Sullivan, head coach of the Ireland national rugby union team ;Full date unknown :* Noel Hill, concertina player :* Glenn Meade, fiction writer ==Deaths==

• 1 January – Richard Hayes, doctor and Sinn Féin Member of Parliament (born 1878) • 17 January – Michael Donohoe, Irish-born American politician, Democratic U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania (born 1864) • 24 March – Seamus O'Sullivan, poet and editor (born 1879) • 29 March – Jimmy Archer, Major League baseball player (born 1883) • 24 April – Mabel McConnell Fitzgerald, republican, suffragette and socialist (born 1884] • 6 July – John Esmonde, soldier, Fine Gael TD (born 1893) • 28 July – Dick Walsh, Kilkenny hurler (born 1878) • 13 August – James Lennon, member of 1st Dáil representing the County Carlow constituency • 24 August – Paul Henry, artist (born 1876) • 9 September – Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh, actress and Republican activist (born 1883) • 15 October – Lennox Robinson, dramatist, poet and theatre director and producer (born 1886) • 2 December – Alan McKibbin, businessman and Ulster Unionist Party MP (born 1892) • 8 December – Peig Sayers (Máiréad Ó Gaoithín), (traditional storyteller) (born 1873) • 19 December – Arthur Gore, 6th Earl of Arran, Anglo-Irish peer and soldier (born 1868) • 23 December – Dorothy Macardle, author and historian (born 1889) • 24 December – Martin O'Brien, hurler (Thurles Sarsfields, Tipperary) (born 1885) ==References==