January • 1 January – The
phase-out of incandescent light bulbs commenced in Ireland. • 6 January – A priest, Michael Mernagh, completed a nine-day 272 km atonement pilgrimage from
Cobh to the
Pro-Cathedral in Dublin to repent the
Roman Catholic Church's response to clerical child sex abuse. • 8 January –
Post-2008 Irish economic downturn:
Dell announced the axing of almost 2,000 jobs at their factory in Limerick, with the total job loss predicted to rise to 10,000 in the region. • 9 January – The inaugural
Art O'Neill Challenge took place, with participants opting to walk or run from
Dublin Castle to
Glenmalure, starting from midnight and arriving in Glenmalure the day after (10 January). • 9 January – Confidential documents from
Letterkenny General Hospital were revealed to have been discovered in a public area of
Derry. • 11 January – A woman died in childbirth at
Kerry General Hospital in
Tralee, County Kerry. • 17 January – A
County Down woman was killed in extreme weather when her car was struck by a tree. • 21 January –
Anglo Irish Bank hidden loans controversy:
Anglo Irish Bank was nationalised when the President,
Mary McAleese, signed the
Anglo Irish Bank Corporation Bill 2009. • 22 January – A
County Roscommon woman was jailed for seven years after her conviction for incest, sexual abuse and neglect of her children. • 30 January –
Post-2008 Irish economic downturn: After an announcement that the
Waterford Crystal plant at Kilbarry was to shut down, its employees began an unofficial sit-in which led to some scuffles that damaged the main door to the visitors' centre. The sit-in continued until 22 March.
February 's
College Green branch in February. • 2 February –
extreme weather across the country disrupted transport services, including flights, and bus routes. • 2 February – former Taoiseach
Bertie Ahern was blockaded and jostled out of
National University of Ireland, Galway by angry students
protesting at the reintroduction of fees as he attempted to lecture the
Literary and Debating Society. • 4 February – unemployment reached 9.2 percent with a record 326,100 people signing onto the live register. It was the highest monthly increase in 40 years with an average 1,500 people being
laid off daily. • 4 February – an estimated 15,000 students protested in Dublin at the
threatened reintroduction of university fees, blockading government buildings for a time. • 12 February – a man was arrested after threatening to set fire to himself outside
Government Buildings in Dublin. • 17 February –
Irish Nationwide Chairman Michael Walsh resigned over his involvement in the
Anglo Irish Bank hidden loans controversy. • 21 February – up to 120,000 people marched in Dublin in protest at how the
Government was handling the economic crisis. • 24 February –
Gardaí raided the headquarters of
Anglo Irish Bank in
St Stephen's Green, Dublin. • 25 February – two thousand members of the
Garda Síochána marched through the streets of Dublin to protest against a pension levy. • 25 February –
The Irish Times suspended supply of its newspapers to the retailer
Dunnes. • 27 February – the
Bank of Ireland robbery took place.
March • 2 March – the left door of a helicopter carrying politician
Martin Cullen fell off at a height of 150 metres but no-one was hurt. • 5 March – items belonging to singer
Michael Jackson went on view in
County Kildare. • 6 March – the
Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed an appeal by Joe O'Reilly against his conviction for the murder of his wife, Rachel Callely, in October 2004. • 7 March –
Dissident Republicans opened fire on British soldiers in
County Antrim. Two were killed and two injured while two civilian pizza delivery men, one Polish, were seriously injured. The
Real IRA later claim responsibility. • March –
Odyssey Marine Exploration announced the discovery of the wreck of (torpedoed 1917) northwest of
Fastnet Rock.
April • 8 April –
the Supplementary Budget was announced by
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan. • 25 April – an opinion poll showed a five percent drop to 23 percent in support for the governing
Fianna Fáil party in the wake of early April's Supplementary Budget.
Fine Gael, in opposition, was ten points clear at 33 percent, an increase of two, while the
Labour Party, also in opposition, was also up two to 19 percent. • 27 April – four people were tested after
swine flu broke out from Mexico. • 28 April – tests on all four Irish people with suspected cases of swine flu proved negative. • 29 April – figures from the
Central Statistics Office showed a record 388,600 people on the live register; the figure had almost doubled in one year, rising by 96 percent. • 30 April – the
Department of Health and Children's
Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan confirmed the first probable case of swine flu at a news briefing in Dublin.
May since at least 1650 closed its doors in May. (Pictured: A 1919 advertisement for Beamish Stout) • 6 May – the chief economics editor of broadcaster,
Raidió Teilifís Éireann,
George Lee, was named as the
Fine Gael party nomination for the
Dublin South by-election. • 11 May –
Ryan Tubridy was named as the new presenter of
The Late Late Show, replacing
Pat Kenny. His first show as presenter was in September 2009. • 14 May – Ireland failed to progress to the final of the
2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
Sinéad Mulvey and
Black Daisy's song "
Et Cetera" was not one of the ten selected from the second semi-final in
Moscow. • 15 May – a 27-year-old man was shot dead and another man was wounded during a shootout with gardaí during an attempted raid on a cash-in-transit van in
Lucan in west Dublin. • 20 May – the
Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse report was published. The long-delayed investigation into Ireland's
Roman Catholic-run institutions said that priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades. • 25 May – a new stretch of motorway between
Fermoy and
Mitchelstown in north Cork opened to traffic nine months ahead of schedule. • 26 May – former Government press secretary
Frank Dunlop was sentenced to two years incarceration for corruption, with the final six months suspended. He pleaded guilty to five charges of corruption. • 29 May – Ireland's oldest brewery in
Cork since at least 1650, and home to
Beamish and Crawford since 1792, ceased operations.
June • 3 June – the
Leaving Certificate English Paper 2 was postponed for two days after it emerged that students in one
County Louth centre had already seen the exam paper. • 15 June – mayoral elections were held in several towns and cities. • 16 June – the body of the man pertaining to the
Peter Bergmann case was discovered at
Rosses Point beach,
County Sligo.
July • 1 July – a woman died after falling 20 metres off the
Mweelrea mountains in
County Mayo. • 3 July – GOAL charity aid workers
Sharon Commins and Hilda Kawuki were abducted from their compound in
Darfur. • 3 July – a child in Roxboro National School in
County Roscommon was found to have a case of
swine influenza. • 6 July – the
Treaty of Lisbon Bill was published. • 7 July – a 61-year-old woman was stabbed to death in
Castlebar, County Mayo. Her son was charged with her murder the following day. • 10 July – Ronnie Dunbar was sentenced to life imprisonment for the manslaughter of Melissa Mahon. • 12 July – the Broadcasting Act changed the spelling of the national broadcaster from Radio Telefís Éireann to
Raidió Teilifís Éireann. • 16 July – the report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes, also called
An Bord Snip Nua, was published by
University College Dublin economist Colm McCarthy. It recommended €5.3 billion in potential savings, including 17,300
public service job cuts and a five percent drop in social welfare. • 23 July – the Defamation and Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bills became law, after being signed by President Mary McAleese. • 30 July – draft legislation to establish the
National Asset Management Agency was published. The Bill proposed to give NAMA extensive powers to take over land and development loans from banks in an effort to get them lending again and supporting economic recovery.
August from U.S. President
Barack Obama • 5 August – a murder investigation was launched after a woman's body was discovered under a tree in
Phoenix Park. The woman was later found to be 50-year-old Eugenia Bratis from
Timișoara in
Romania, who had been in Ireland for several months. Her torso was stabbed several times. • 12 August – former President
Mary Robinson received the United States
Presidential Medal of Freedom from
Barack Obama at a ceremony in the
White House in Washington, D.C., with Obama declaring her to have "not only shown a light on human suffering, but illuminated a better future for our world". • 21 August – a section of the main Dublin to Belfast railway line collapsed in
Malahide in north Dublin. A 20-metre section of
viaduct on the Broadmeadow estuary, between Malahide and Donabate gave way. A preliminary assessment carried out on 24 August identified significant erosion of the seabed as a possible reason for the collapse. The viaduct reopened to traffic on 16 November.
September • 1 September – at a civic reception,
Muhammad Ali was made the first Honorary Freeman of
Ennis, the birthplace of his great-grandfather, Abe Grady, who left the town in the 1860s. Ali later sends a letter of thanks to the people of Ennis. • 5 September – apprentice jockey
Jamie Kyne from
Claregalway,
County Galway was killed in a fire at his flat in
Yorkshire, UK. • 13 September – the
Dublinbikes bicycle-sharing system was launched. • 14 September – Ireland's
2008 Olympic bronze medalist, boxer
Darren Sutherland, was found dead in
London at the age of 27. Hundreds of people attended his funeral one week later in
Navan,
County Meath. • 16 September – 21 people were injured, three seriously, after a collision involving a
Luas tram and a double-decker bus on
O'Connell Street in Dublin, the worst accident to date involving the Luas service. • 18–20 September – the three-day
Global Irish Economic Forum was held in
Farmleigh House in Dublin. • 20 September – the Government announced their intention to introduce a national
postal code system in 2011. • 21 September – Lisa Cummins and 16-year-old Owen O'Keefe set new records for swimming the
English Channel. • 22 September – Mary McAleese opened the
National Ploughing Championships in
Athy,
County Kildare. • 27 September – the presence of
swine influenza in Irish pigs was confirmed for the first time. • 30 September – thousands of people protested in Dublin against Colm McCarthy's
An Bord Snip Nua proposals.
October on the
Treaty of Lisbon; Ireland voted Yes,
Donegal voted No. • 1 October – the Chairman of
FÁS, Peter McLoone, resigned. • 2 October – the
second referendum on the
Treaty of Lisbon was held. The treaty was passed with a 67 percent Yes vote.
Donegal voted No. • 10 October – singer
Stephen Gately died in an apartment in
Majorca that he shared with his husband, Andrew Cowles. Thousands of people attended the funeral in Dublin one week later, including fans from South Africa and Taiwan. • 11 October – Michael Sinnott, a priest from
Barntown,
County Wexford, was abducted in the Philippines. He was held until 11 November, then he arrived in Ireland on 3 December. • 12 October – two
Air Corps pilots were killed when their plane crashed during a training flight in
Connemara. They received military funerals. • 13 October –
Séamus Kirk was elected
Ceann Comhairle following the resignation of
John O'Donoghue over an
expenses scandal. • 18 October – GOAL charity aid workers
Sharon Commins and Hilda Kawuki were released after more than one hundred days in captivity in
Darfur in Sudan. • 19 October – the
River Suir Bridge opened to traffic as part of the
N25 Waterford Bypass. The 230-metre main span was the longest single bridge span in the country. • 27 October – a tenth person was confirmed to have died from
swine influenza in Ireland.
November caused
a controversy in November. • Continuing:
Mass floods across Ireland, the most affected areas were the south coastal counties and cities, such as Cork City, the worst hit. • 1 November – the
Gaelic Athletic Association celebrated its
125th anniversary. • 6 November – tens of thousands of people marched across eight cities in protest at government cutbacks. • 7 November – a street in
Belfast disappeared into a large hole. • 9 November –
Sligo was heavily flooded. • 12 November –
Passage West in
County Cork was heavily flooded. • 13 November – John McFarlane was sentenced to at least twenty years in prison at the
Old Bailey in
London for the murder of Dublin mother Mary Griffiths at her home in
Suffolk. • 14 November – the
Papal ban on discussion of the
ordination of women priests was challenged by
Willie Walsh,
Bishop of Killaloe, during his address to the
Association of European Journalists in Dublin. • 14 November – Scoil Mhuire Community School in
Clane,
County Kildare removes security cameras from student toilets following a two-day protest by parents and students. • 17 November – Brian Hennessy, a 23-year-old postal worker, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of Sharon Whelan and her two daughters, Zara and Nadia, in
Roscon,
County Kilkenny in the early hours of Christmas Day of 2008. • 19 November – the Football Association of Ireland made
an official complaint to
FIFA and requested a replay, after
France qualified for the
2010 FIFA World Cup the previous night with a goal resulting from a
double handball by their
striker and team captain
Thierry Henry. FIFA and the
French Football Federation refused. The incident attracted comment globally. Fans protested outside the French embassy in Dublin. The match had been watched by Ireland's highest television audience of 2009 and the highest audience for any sporting event in the country since 1995. • 20 November – the
Progressive Democrats political party was officially dissolved. • 25 November – Ireland's largest tour operator, Budget Travel, ceased trading. • 26 November – the
Murphy Report of the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin was published. • 26 November – an outbreak of
measles occurs in
Galway. • 27 November – it was announced that
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has been allocated Research and Innovation in the
European Commission. • 30 November – the
Health Service Executive began an expected two-month
swine influenza vaccination programme in the nation's primary and secondary schools designed to combat the
2009 flu pandemic. • 30 November – it was announced that
Monaghan's former army barracks is to be converted into an educational campus in a €20 million project intended to accommodate a primary and secondary
Gaelscoileanna as well as a higher education institute.
December was destroyed by fire on 25 December • 1 December –
St. James's Hospital in Dublin reported a 20% increase in newly diagnosed
HIV patients for 2009, the highest annual increase ever. • 2 December – more than 1,200 students at
National University of Ireland, Maynooth signed a petition to university management objecting to the appointment of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to the position of Honorary Adjunct Professor to the university's School of Business and Law. It followed a letter of protest signed by 36 members of academic staff the previous week. • 3 December – a speech by
Paul McCartney in
Brussels angered the president of the
Irish Farmers' Association, Padraig Walshe, who accused the ex-
Beatle of "leading a flawed campaign against meat that is contradictory on climate change".
Member of the European Parliament Mairead McGuinness had earlier described the event as "a media circus without the animals". • 3 December – the
Sisters of Mercy announced that they would contribute property and money worth €128 million following the publication of the
Ryan Report in May. • 6 December – the
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food confirmed the slaughter at an undisclosed location of approximately 25–30 horses, some of whom were healthy, despite attempts by
Irish Horse Welfare Trust to save as many as possible. The horses had been taken from a farm in
County Kilkenny. • 7 December –
Bishop Dermot O'Mahony resigned as patron of
The Irish Pilgrimage Trust after his response to child
sexual abuse was described as "worse than that of any other living auxiliary bishop of Dublin". • 7 December – former prison officer Dillon O'Brien was imprisoned for four years on charges of smuggling alcohol, drugs, and mobile phones into
Mountjoy Prison, with Judge Katherine Delahunt saying his crime was "at the very high end of the scale". • 7 December – the funeral of
Liam Clancy, the last of
The Clancy Brothers, was attended by hundreds of mourners, including the aides-de-camp of the Taoiseach and the President, the
Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism,
Martin Cullen, and various musicians and artists. • 8 December – four new
Luas tram stations were opened in Dublin by
Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey as the Red Line was expanded to
Dublin Docklands. • 9 December –
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan delivered the nation's
Budget for 2010. • 9 December – the
Irish Bishops Conference apologised for the
sexual abuse suffered by its children after spending the first day of its winter conference in
Maynooth examining the
Murphy Report. • 10 December – in what was described as a landmark case, the
Supreme Court of Ireland ruled that a
gay man who donated his sperm to a lesbian couple would have access to the resulting child, overturning the original
High Court decision. The
Gay and Lesbian Equality Network expressed concern at the Supreme Court's rejection of the lesbian couple as a "de facto family". • 11 December – backbench
Green Party TD Paul Gogarty was condemned and forced to apologise for swearing after he yelled "Fuck you, Deputy Stagg, fuck you" at
Labour Party TD
Emmet Stagg during the
Budget 2010 debate on the Social Welfare Bill. • 13 December – two gardaí were injured in a traffic collision in
County Donegal. Garda Gary McLoughlin died the following day. Taoiseach Brian Cowen paid tribute and politicians attended his funeral in
County Leitrim on 16 December. • 15 December – the
Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of Mary Roche who sought to have three frozen embryos belonging to her estranged husband, Thomas, released to her for implantation in her womb, a case which highlighted the lack of legislation concerning
in vitro fertilisation. The court also ruled that embryos are not recognised or protected as "unborn" under the
Constitution. • 15 December – the funeral of renowned broadcaster and music collector
Ciarán Mac Mathúna was attended by hundreds of mourners, including the aides-de-camp of the
Taoiseach and the
President, the
Director-General of RTÉ Cathal Goan, poet
Séamus Heaney, and musicians and colleagues. • 16 December – 78-year-old priest
Thomas Naughton was given a three-year prison sentence for his sexual abuse of an
altar boy while he served in
Blessington,
County Wicklow. • 17 December –
Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of
Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray who was criticised by the
Murphy Report for his behaviour concerning child sexual abuse. • 18 December – Seán Sheehy, a priest in
Castlegregory, withdrew from work in his parish after shaking the hand of a convicted sex offender in a court in
Listowel days earlier.
Bishop of Kerry William Murphy disassociated himself from Sheehy and his actions. • 18 December – Ireland's first motorway to link two cities was opened several months ahead of schedule between Dublin and
Galway. • 23 December –
Jim Moriarty, the
Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, resigned, the second bishop to do so following the publication of the
Murphy Report. He was followed within 36 hours by the two remaining serving auxiliary bishops in Dublin, Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field. • 25 December –
St Mel's Cathedral, Longford was destroyed by fire. ==Arts and literature==