1980 in Ireland

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««« 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975	1980 in Ireland	»»» 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985
Decades: 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s Centuries: 18th • 19th • 20th • 21st See also: 1980 in Northern Ireland Other events of 1980 List of years in Ireland

Events

• January 9 - Charles Haughey addresses the nation by television on the matter of its worsening finances.
• March 25 - CIÉs first bus lane comes into operation on Parliament Street in Dublin.
• April 19 - Johnny Logan wins the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland with the song "What's Another Year".
• May 1 - The Derrynaflan Chalice is discovered in a bog.
• August 1 - Eighteen people die in the Buttevant Rail Disaster.
• August 8 - Ten people die in the Central Hotel Fire, Bundoran.
• September 1 - China's first Ambassador to Ireland, Madame Gong Pusheng, arrives in Dublin.
• October 6 - Justice Mella Carroll is the first woman to reach the position of High Court Judge.
• October 27 - Over 2,000 people take part in the first RTÉ Radio 2 Dublin City Marathon.
• November 1 - The controversial Health (Family Planning) Act, 1979 comes into operation, permitting the provision of contraceptives by presecription.
• November 11 - National Institute for Higher Education, Dublin, admits its first students to the college, a total of two hundred.
• December 8 - Taoiseach Charles Haughey meets with the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at Dublin Castle. It is the first visit by a British prime minister since independence.
• December 19 - Former Taoiseach Jack Lynch is conferred with the freedom of his native city, Cork.
• The Wicklow Way is designated as the first waymarked long-distance walking trail in Ireland.^[1]
• W. A. McCutcheon's official survey The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland is published.

Arts and literature

• Eavan Boland's poetry In Her Own Image is published in the UK.^[2]
• Dermot Bolger's poetry The Habit of Flesh is published.
• Seamus Heaney's Selected Poems 1965–1975 is published in the UK.
• Thomas Kinsella's Poems 1956–1973 is published in the UK.^[2]
• Paul Muldoon's poetry Why Brownlee Left is published in the UK.^[2]
• Tom Paulin's The Strange Museum, including "Pot Burial" and "Where Art Is a Midwife", is published in the UK.^[3]
• Bernard Farrell is awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.^[4]
• Central Bank of Ireland's new offices in Dublin, designed in brutalist style by Sam Stephenson.

Sport

Golf

• Carroll's Irish Open is won by Mark James (England).

Births

January to March

• 11 January - Liam O'Brien, actor.
• 14 January - Clive Clarke, soccer player.
• 19 January - Kevin McHugh, soccer player.
• 31 January - Gary Doherty, soccer player.
• 1 February - Justin Kehoe, golfer.
• 6 February - Bernard Dunne, boxer.
• 3 March - Toiréasa Ferris, Sinn Féin politician.
• 14 March - Colin Healy, soccer player.

April to June

• 12 April - Brian McFadden, singer and songwriter.
• 17 April - Richie Baker, soccer player.
• 18 April - Kevin Doherty, soccer player.
• 29 April - Kian Egan, singer with Westlife.
• 21 May - Darragh Ryan, soccer player.
• 28 May - Mark Feehily, singer with Westlife.
• 3 June - Ciarán Walsh, visual artist.
• 6 June - Colin Moran, Gaelic footballer.
• 16 June - Richie Foran, soccer player.
• 19 June - Derek Geary, soccer player.

July to December

• 8 July - Robbie Keane, soccer player.
• 13 August - Paul Crowley, soccer player.
• 22 August - Alan Reilly, soccer player.
• 30 August - Damien Brennan, soccer player.
• 12 September - Richie Partridge, soccer player.
• 15 September - Dean Delany, soccer player.
• 28 September - Danny O'Connor, soccer player.
• 8 October - Tony Buckley, rugby player.
• 27 October - Peter Murphy, soccer player.
• 28 October - Darren McKenna, soccer player.
• 14 November - James Ryall, Kilkenny hurler.
• 17 December - Conor Armstrong, cricketer.
• 22 December - Noel Hickey, Kilkenny hurler.

Full date unknown

• Graham Canty, Cork Gaelic footballer.
• Brian Geary, Limerick hurler.
• Stephen Lucey, Limerick hurler.
• Pearse O'Neill, Cork Gaelic footballer.
• Mark O'Riordan, Limerick hurler.

Deaths

January to June

• 26 January - John Doherty, fiddle player (b.1895).
• 14 March - Gustavus Kelly, cricketer (b.1901).
• 2 May - Cecile O'Rahilly, scholar of the Celtic languages and writer (b.1894).
• 11 June - William J.E. Jessop, professor, represented Dublin University in the Seanad from 1951 to 1973.
• 25 June - James Hamilton Delargy, folklorist.

July to September

• 2 July - Tom Barry, guerrilla leader in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence (b.1897).
• 5 July - A. J. Potter, composer (b.1918).
• 13 July - Joseph Brennan, Fianna Fáil TD, Cabinet Minister and Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann (b.1912).
• 24 August - Frederick Maurice Watson Harvey, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1917 at Guyencourt, France (b.1888).
• 5 September - Eric Cross, scientist.
• 21 September - Mick Gill, Galway and Dublin hurler (b.1899).

October to December

• 7 November - Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary (b.1889).
• 9 November - Patrick Campbell, 3rd Baron Glenavy, journalist and author (b.1931).
• 10 November - John Moyney, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1917 north of Broembeek, Belgium (b.1895).
• 22 November - Norah McGuinness, artist (b.1901).
• 25 November - Joseph Sweeney, member of 1st Dáil representing West Donegal, (Pro Treaty).
• 16 December - Roddy Connolly, Labour Party TD, Seanad member, son of James Connolly (b.1901).
• 24 December - Arland Ussher, academic, essayist and translator (b.1899).
• 30 December - Patrick Hennessy, painter.

Full date unknown

• Bill Delaney, Laois Gaelic footballer.
• Jimmy McCambridge, soccer player (b.1905).

References