• 20 January –
Peter Brooke offered to resign as
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland following criticism of his singing on
The Late Late Show only hours after an
Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb exploded. • 30 January –
Charles Haughey resigned as
Taoiseach and as leader of the
Fianna Fáil party. • 31 January – The Government sold the
B+I Shipping Line to the
Irish Continental Group. • 4 February •
Mary Robinson became the first President of Ireland to visit
Belfast. • An off-duty
Royal Ulster Constabulary officer in Belfast killed three people in a
Sinn Féin office before committing suicide. • 5 February –
Loyalist gunmen killed five Catholics in an attack on a bookmaker's shop in Belfast. • 6 February –
Albert Reynolds was elected the fifth leader of
Fianna Fáil. • 11 February – Charles Haughey resigned as Taoiseach and was succeeded by Albert Reynolds. • 18 February – Albert Reynolds discussed the situation with other party leaders as the High Court prevented a 14-year-old rape victim from going to Britain for an abortion. • 26 February –
The Supreme Court lifted the High Court ruling preventing a girl from travelling to Britain for an abortion; it was duly performed. • 15 March –
Proinsias De Rossa led a breakaway group from the
Workers' Party to form what would shortly become
Democratic Left. The majority of the breakaway group including De Rossa joined the
Labour Party in 1999. • 13 April – Two hundred and fifty years after the first performance of
Handel's
Messiah in
Dublin, the
Academy of St Martin in the Fields performed the oratorio at the
Point Theatre. • 7 May – Bishop
Eamon Casey of Galway resigned following the revelation that he was the father of a teenage boy. • 8 May – The third
People In Need Telethon was held. • 9 May –
Linda Martin won the
Eurovision Song Contest (staged in Sweden) for Ireland with "
Why Me?". This was the first of three consecutive Irish wins. • 31 May –
Christy O'Connor Jnr won the British Masters golf tournament. • 18 June – A referendum approved the
Maastricht Treaty on European Union: 69.1% voted in favour; 30.9% against. • 25 June – The issue of a new, smaller 5 pence coin meant that, after 21 years, it was no longer the same size as a
shilling. • 8 July – President
Mary Robinson addressed both houses of the
Oireachtas. • 23 September – The IRA destroyed the forensic science laboratory in Belfast with a huge bomb. • 3 October – Irish singer-songwriter
Sinéad O'Connor on Saturday Night Live on U.S. television performed a song protesting against
Catholic Church child sexual abuse and ripped up a photograph of
Pope John Paul II, causing huge controversy. • 5 November – The Government lost a confidence motion and the Dáil was dissolved. Two former Taoisigh,
Charles Haughey and
Garret FitzGerald, announced their retirement from politics. • 6 November – A new purple £20 note depicting
Daniel O'Connell was issued. • 25 November – Three referendums were held on abortion-related issues. The right to abortion-related travel and the right to abortion-related information were supported. • November – An appearance by
Christine Buckley on
The Gay Byrne Show on
RTÉ Radio 1 brought an "overwhelming response" from others who felt they had been victims of incarceration and abuse in
industrial schools. • 31 December – Unemployment reached record levels: 290,000 people were out of work. • Undated –
Trustee Savings Bank dropped the previous Cork and Limerick Savings Bank name. ==Arts and literature==