January • 1 January • The
Civil Partnership Act came into effect allowing
civil partnerships where hetero- and homosexual cohabiting couples have the same rights. •
Met Éireann confirmed that December 2010 was the coldest on record, with a temperature of -17.5°C recorded in
Straide, County Mayo, on Christmas Day. • 5 January •
Michael Finneran, Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government of the
Fianna Fáil party, announced he would not contest the
2011 general election. •
Minister for Defence, Fianna Fáil's
Tony Killeen announced he will not contest the 2011 general election. • 18 January – A spectacular
fireball that exploded in the clear Irish sky at 6pm was witnessed across the country. Astronomers calculated that it may have landed as a
meteorite in
County Clare. • 22 January – The Taoiseach,
Brian Cowen, resigned his position as leader of the Fianna Fáil party. • 23 January – The
Green Party withdrew from the coalition government, making an immediate general election necessary.
John Gormley (Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government) and
Eamon Ryan (Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources) resigned, leaving only seven ministers remaining in the
cabinet, the
constitutional minimum. • 25 January • Fianna Fáil's
Micheál Martin was
elected party leader. • Fianna Fáil TD for
Galway East,
Noel Treacy, announced he will not contest the 2011 general election, while Fianna Fáil's
Mattie McGrath, TD for
Tipperary South, announced he is leaving the party to become an independent. • 26 January – British Prime Minister
David Cameron announced that
Sinn Féin's
Gerry Adams has
resigned from the British parliament by nominal appointment as
Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead. • 28 January – Another
fireball exploded in the Irish atmosphere.
Astronomy Ireland appealed to the public to report sightings.
February • 1 February • Fianna Fáil TD for
Limerick West,
John Cregan, announced he will not contest the 2011 general election. • It was announced that the
Sunday Tribune newspaper had gone into
receivership following the decision of
Independent News & Media to stop funding it. • The Taoiseach dissolved the
Dáil and went to
Áras an Uachtaráin where
President McAleese signed a proclamation of dissolution. The
Minister for Local Government made an order appointing 25 February as polling day. The Clerk of the Dáil issued a
writ to the constituency
returning officers to initiate a
general election, officially allowing posters of the candidates to be displayed. • A
Russian agent was expelled from Ireland because of his role in the forgery of
Irish passports for use in the "
Illegals Program"
spy ring in the United States. A
Garda investigation discovered that members of the Russian espionage agency,
the SVR, were involved in the forgeries. Alexander Smirnov, the first secretary in the Russian embassy's consular section, was instructed to leave Ireland. • 2 February – Russian deputy foreign minister Vladimir Titov threatened Ireland that Russia will retaliate for the Irish expulsion of a Russian forger. Ireland warned Russia that retaliation would be unjustified. An Irish government spokesman said Irish embassy staff in
Moscow perform no spying activity. • 7 February – The first gay civil partnership under the newly enacted civil partnership law took place in the Civil Registration Office in Dublin. • 10 February – A
small plane carrying ten passengers and two crew
crashed while landing in fog at
Cork Airport. Six people were killed. • 25 February – A
general election was held. There were party reverses and gains on a historic scale with support for the outgoing government parties Fianna Fáil and the
Green Party collapsing.
Dominic Hannigan and
John Lyons were the first openly LGBT members of
Dáil Éireann at the time of election.
March Enda Kenny (right), visited to the Embassy of Japan in Dublin, to sign a book of condolence for the victims of the
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and he met with Japanese Ambassador to Ireland Toshinao Urabe (left), on 22 March 2011. • 9 March – The members of the
31st Dáil convened for the first time and elected
Enda Kenny as
Taoiseach by a vote of 117–27.
April • 12–14 April – The
Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso visited Ireland for the third time. He delivered a speech on the 13th to 2,000 people at a conference in
Saggart and visited the town of
Kildare. The following day, he gave an address to 3,100 people at the
University of Limerick entitled "The Power of Forgiveness". He last visited Ireland in March 1991, and has also visited Northern Ireland three times.
May •
Mission to Prey, a television programme presented by
Aoife Kavanagh, was aired on
RTÉ One, which defamed
Fr. Kevin Reynolds. Justice and Defence Minister
Alan Shatter supported the programme at the time. • 17 May–20 May –
Elizabeth II paid the
first state visit by a
monarch of the United Kingdom to Ireland since
its Independence. • 23 May – President
Barack Obama of the United States paid an official visit to Ireland which included Dublin and his ancestral village of
Moneygall. He curtailed his visit because of a looming volcanic ash cloud from the
Grímsvötn volcano, and departed for London instead of staying the night in Dublin.
June • 30 June–3 July – the
Tall Ships' Races began in
Waterford. Half a million people were expected to attend the festival.
July • 1 July – The
value added tax rate was lowered from 13.5% to 9% for a range of services connected to the hospitality and tourism sectors. • 7 July – Politician
Avril Doyle withdrew from the race to be the
Fine Gael party's
presidential candidate. • 13 July – The
Cloyne Report was published, an investigation into how the
Cloyne Diocese mishandled child sexual abuse allegations. The investigating commission stated that the greatest failure by the diocese was the failure to report all abuse cases to the
Gardaí. • 20 July – The taoiseach,
Enda Kenny,
delivered a speech in
Dáil Éireann, in response to the Cloyne Report, strongly attacking the
Vatican and the Catholic Church. • 28 July – The Irish writer
Jonathan Swift was honoured by the
International Astronomical Union when it named two geological features on the Martian moon
Phobos after geographical entities from Swift's novel, ''
Gulliver's Travels''. The (Lagado plain) on Phobos was named after the fictional city
Lagado, while (Laputa region) was named after the fictional flying island,
Laputa.
August • 2 August –
David Norris withdrew from
his presidential election campaign, following controversy (although he resumed his candidacy the following month). • 6 August – It was reported that surveys had suggested that a shipwreck found off
Rutland Island, County Donegal was from the
Spanish Armada.
September • 7 September – Telecommunication company
TalkTalk announced the loss of 575 jobs with the closure of its call centre in
Waterford. • 13 September – Homeowner
Teresa Treacy was jailed for contempt of court in
County Offaly. Government contractors cut down 12,000 of her trees to make way for electricity pylons while she was detained. • 22 September – The first Irish case of death by
spontaneous combustion was recorded in
Galway.
October • 8 October –
Occupy Dame Street began this afternoon. • 11 October •
Ireland's association football team reached the play-offs of the
UEFA Euro 2012 qualifiers. • 11 October – Two crosses were stolen in a masked raid on
Holy Cross Abbey. • 24 October – Ireland was struck
by flash floods including heavy torrential rain in Dublin with up to 90mm of rain falling during six hours in the evening. One off-duty
Garda, Ciarán Jones, was swept off a bridge and killed while helping motorists in Wicklow. • 27 October –
A presidential election and
two constitutional referendums were held.
November • 3 November – The
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced the closure of Ireland's embassies in Iran and the Vatican, and its representative office in East Timor, as a cost-cutting measure during the serious
Irish financial crisis. • 11 November –
Michael D. Higgins was inaugurated as
President of Ireland at a ceremony in
Dublin Castle. • 15 November • The Irish association football team qualified for
UEFA Euro 2012 in
Poland/
Ukraine. •
Willie Penrose resigned as Minister of State for Housing and Planning due to his opposition to the Government's decision to close the army barracks in
Mullingar. • 16 November – Thousands of students and their families from around Ireland marched on Government Buildings in Dublin to protest against the re-introduction of third-level education fees. A small group also engage in a sit-down protest outside the Fine Gael office on Upper Mount Street. • 22 November – Fine Gael's Darren Scully resigned as Mayor of
Naas after commenting on live radio about the alleged "aggressive attitude" of "black Africans". • 23 November – The
Prime Time Investigates television programme was cancelled as
Director-General of RTÉ Noel Curran described the broadcasting of "
Mission to Prey" as "one of the gravest editorial mistakes ever made" at RTÉ. • 26 November – Thousands of people marched against austerity in Dublin. • 29 November – Three student union presidents (of
Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology,
University College Cork and
IT Carlow) under the leadership of
Union of Students in Ireland (USI) President Gary Redmond, and in possession of a chemical toilet and supplies of food that could have lasted them weeks, occupied a room at the Department of Social Protection on Store Street in Dublin as part of a continued effort to have the Labour Party clarify its position on tuition fees. Ten student union presidents also attempted to occupy a room at the Department of Enterprise on Kildare Street. • 30 November • Nine
Free Education for Everyone (FEE) students seeking clarification of the government's view on third-level education fees participated in a sit-down protest by occupying the constituency office of Fine Gael TD and former mayor
Brian Walsh in Bohermore, Galway. They unfurled a banner on the roof with the message, "Free Education Nothing Less". • Audits of child protection practices conducted by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church were published by six dioceses, with the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Raphoe, overseen by
Philip Boyce, coming in for most criticism. • A settlement was reached between the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh and a man sworn to secrecy by
Seán Brady over abuse by
Brendan Smyth as a teenager.
December • 1 December •
Tommy Broughan TD was expelled from the Labour Party after voting to reject a government amendment to extend the bank guarantee for another year. •
Roscrea District Court solicitors walked out over the closure of the courthouse. • 2 December – Eight students from the
National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM), including the university's student union president Rob Munnelly, occupied the
Naas constituency office of Fine Gael TD
Anthony Lawlor. They brought sleeping bags, clothes, a chemical toilet and a week's supply of food. During the occupation Munnelly debated with Lawlor live on
Kildare TV, USI President Gary Redmond visited the students, and a banner with the slogan "Save the Grant" was erected at Lawlor's entrance. • 3 December – Hundreds of people from County Donegal assembled in
Buncrana to protest against austerity and to tell the government that "
Inishowen and Donegal says no to further cuts and austerity". • 6 December –
Patrick Nulty TD voted against the
value added tax increase in the
2012 budget and lost the Labour Party
whip as a result. • 16 December – Staff at the Vita Cortex plant in Cork
began a sit-in after being told their jobs were eliminated and that they were to receive no redundancy payments. • 19 December – The Criminal Law (Defence and the Dwelling) Act 2012 was signed by
President Higgins. The new home defence law, which came into effect on 13 January 2012, allowed householders to defend their homes against intruders using reasonable force, including lethal force. == The arts ==