1959 in Ireland

2025-07-21T10:42:56Z

51.199.232.21: /* Events */Corrected spelling.

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{{Use Hiberno-English|date=August 2022}}
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{{YearInIrelandNav|1959}}
Events from the year '''1959 in Ireland'''.

==Incumbents==
* [[President of Ireland|President]]:
** [[Seán T. O'Kelly]] (until 24 June 1959)
** [[Éamon de Valera]] (from 25 June 1959)
* [[Taoiseach]]:
** [[Éamon de Valera]] ([[Fianna Fáil|FF]]) (until 23 June 1959)
** [[Seán Lemass]] ([[Fianna Fáil|FF]]) (from 23 June 1959)
* [[Tánaiste]]:
**[[Seán Lemass]] ([[Fianna Fáil|FF]]) (until 23 June 1959)
**[[Seán MacEntee]] ([[Fianna Fáil|FF]]) (from 23 June 1959)
* [[Minister for Finance (Ireland)|Minister for Finance]]: [[James Ryan (Irish politician)|James Ryan]] ([[Fianna Fáil|FF]])
* [[Chief Justice of Ireland|Chief Justice]]: [[Conor Maguire (judge)|Conor Maguire]]
* [[Dáil Éireann|Dáil]]: [[16th Dáil|16th]]
* [[Seanad Éireann|Seanad]]: [[9th Seanad|9th]]

==Events==
* 7 January – [[Dáil Éireann]] debated a motion that [[Éamon de Valera]]'s position as controlling director of the ''[[Irish Press]]'' newspaper could be regarded as incompatible with his duties as [[Taoiseach]].
* 23 January – The government was considering the introduction of a [[Pay-as-you-earn tax#Ireland|pay-as-you-earn]] system of income tax.
* 10 February – Unions voted to end the 15-year split in the Irish trade union movement. The [[Irish Congress of Trade Unions]] resulted from the merger of the [[Irish Trades Union Congress]] and the [[Congress of Irish Unions]].
* 8 April – [[James Dillon (Fine Gael politician)|James Dillon]] of the [[Fine Gael]] party wanted to abolish compulsory [[Irish language]] studies at school as he felt they were counter-productive.
* 17 June – In the [[1959 Irish presidential election|1959 presidential election]], Fianna Fáil party candidate [[Éamon de Valera]] beat Fine Gael party candidate [[Seán Mac Eoin]], and was inaugurated at [[Dublin Castle]] on June 25 as [[President of Ireland|Ireland's third president]].<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://electionsireland.org/result.cfm?election=1959P&cons=194
| title = Presidential Election 17 June 1959
| last1 = Took
| first1 = Christopher
| last2 = Donnelly
| first2 = Seán
| access-date = 2024-05-07
| website = ElectionsIreland.org
}}</ref>
* 9 July – The first twelve female recruits were selected to join the [[Garda Síochána]] (police).
* 29 July – The new [[Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport|Department of Transport and Power]] was established. [[Erskine Hamilton Childers|Erskine Childers]] was the first Minister, and [[Thekla Beere]] was departmental Secretary, the first woman to achieve this grade in the Irish Civil Service.<ref>{{cite news|author-link=Fintan O'Toole|first=Fintan|last=O'Toole|title=First Among Unequals|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/indepth/sisters/first-among.html|newspaper=[[The Irish Times]]|date=2012-07-06|access-date=2012-07-06}}</ref>
* 22 September – At its inaugural conference the [[Irish Congress of Trade Unions]] attacked the government of Northern Ireland for not recognising the new organisation.
* 4 October – Three men collapsed and died at [[Croke Park]] during the All-Ireland Hurling Final Replay.
* 21 October – [[James Dillon (Fine Gael politician)|James Dillon]] was elected leader of the [[Fine Gael]] Party. He replaced [[Richard Mulcahy]] as leader and [[John A. Costello]] as parliamentary leader.
* 4 December – Twelve new female members of the Garda Síochána (police), known as {{lang|ga|banghardaí}}, passed out of the training depot in the [[Phoenix Park]] in Dublin.
* Figures released on 4 February 1960 showed that 118 million telephone calls were made in 1959.

==Arts and literature==
* 2 February – [[John B. Keane]]'s play ''[[Sive (play)|Sive]]'' was premiered at Walsh's Ballroom, [[Listowel]], by an amateur group.<ref name=PI>{{cite web|title=Playography Ireland|url=http://www.irishplayography.com/|publisher=Irish Theatre Institute|location=Dublin|access-date=2015-04-08}}</ref>
* 12 February – The first edition of the Irish Music Charts Top 10 was printed in the ''[[Evening Herald]]'' newspaper. [[Elvis Presley]]'s "[[One Night (Elvis Presley song)|One Night]]" became the first song to top the charts. (The official charts were founded by [[RTÉ]] in 1962.)
* 3 March – The film ''[[Home Is the Hero]]'', based on the play by and starring [[Walter Macken]], was released in Dublin.
* 24 June – [[Walt Disney]]'s film ''[[Darby O'Gill and the Little People]]'', based on [[Herminie Templeton Kavanagh|H. T. Kavanagh]]'s short stories, had its world premiere in Dublin.
* 15 September – [[Donagh MacDonagh]]'s play ''Lady Spider'', a retelling of the [[Deirdre]] myth, premiered at the Gas Company Theatre, [[Dún Laoghaire]].
* 28 September – [[Dominic Behan]]'s play ''Posterity Be Damned'' premiered at the [[Gaiety Theatre, Dublin]].
* 30 September – The film of ''[[Mise Éire]]'', made by [[George Morrison (documentary maker)|George Morrison]] with music by [[Seán Ó Riada]] for [[Gael Linn]], premiered to conclude the [[Cork Film Festival]], the first feature-length [[Irish language]] film.
* December – British-Irish actor [[Peter O'Toole]] married Welsh actress [[Siân Phillips]] in Dublin.

==Sports==

===Association football===
*[[St Patrick's Athletic]] won the [[FAI Cup]]
*[[Shamrock Rovers]] won the [[League of Ireland]]

===Hurling===
*[[Waterford GAA]] won the [[All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship]]

==Births==
* 6 January – [[Davy Spillane]], folk rock musician, [[uilleann pipes|uilleann piper]].
* 6 February – [[Dermot Bolger]], novelist, playwright and poet.
* 22 February – [[Matthew Dwyer]], cricketer.
* 23 February – [[Linda Nolan]], singer (died 2025).
* 12 April – [[Tony Mulcahy]], politician.
* 21 May
** [[Fergus Johnston]], composer.
** [[Brian Lenihan Jnr|Brian Lenihan]], [[Fianna Fáil]] [[Teachta Dála]] (TD) for [[Dublin West (Dáil constituency)|Dublin West]] and [[Minister for Finance (Ireland)|Minister for Finance]] (died 2011).
* 13 June
** [[Mairead McGuinness]], journalist, [[Member of the European Parliament]].
** [[Mary Wallace]], [[Fianna Fáil]] TD for [[Meath East (Dáil constituency)|Meath East]] and [[Minister of State (Ireland)|Minister of State]] at the [[Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine|Department of Agriculture and Food]].
* 4 August – [[John Gormley]], leader of the [[Green Party (Ireland)|Green Party]], [[Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage|Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government]] and TD for [[Dublin South-East (Dáil constituency)|Dublin South-East]].
* 9 August – [[Hugh Brady (academic)|Hugh Brady]], President of [[University College Dublin]].
* 28 August – [[Lorcan Cranitch]], actor.
* 28 September – [[Michael Scott (Irish author)|Michael Scott]], genre fiction author.
* 1 October – [[Billy Timmins]], Fine Gael TD.
* 8 October – [[Gavin Friday]], singer, songwriter, composer and painter.
* 20 October – [[Niamh Cusack]], actress.
* 7 November – [[John Anderson (Irish footballer)|John Anderson]], association football player.
* 28 November – [[Stephen Roche]], road racing cyclist, in 1987 wins [[Tour de France]], the [[Giro d'Italia]] and the [[World Cycling Championship]].
* 4 December – [[Paul McGrath (footballer)|Paul McGrath]], association football player.
* 20 December – [[Patrick Walker (football manager)|Patrick Walker]], association football player and manager.
* Full date unknown – [[Lorcan O'Herlihy]], architect and artist in the United States.

==Deaths==
* 9 January – [[A. M. Sullivan (Irish lawyer)|A. M. Sullivan]], lawyer (born 1871).
* January – [[Patrick O'Connell (Irish footballer)|Patrick O'Connell]], association football player and manager (born 1887).
* 1 February – [[Frank Shannon]], Irish-born American actor (born 1874)
* 4 February – [[Una O'Connor (actress)|Una O'Connor]], actress (born 1880).
* 7 March – [[T. C. Murray]], dramatist (born 1873).
* 13 March – [[Robert Forde]], Antarctic explorer (born 1875).
* 16 March – [[Dick Doyle (Kilkenny hurler)|Dick Doyle]], [[Kilkenny GAA|Kilkenny]] hurler (born 1884).
* 21 April – [[Sep Lambert]], cricketer (born 1876).
* 15 May – [[Liam de Róiste]], company director, member [[1st Dáil]] ''(Pro Treaty)'', representing [[Cork City (UK Parliament constituency)|Cork City]].
* 16 May – [[Elisha Scott]], footballer (born 1894).
* 13 June – [[Seán Lester]], [[diplomacy|diplomat]] and last [[Secretary General]] of the [[League of Nations]] (born 1888).
* 25 June – [[Mick Kenny (Galway hurler)|Mick Kenny]], [[Galway GAA|Galway]] hurler (born 1893).
* 21 August – [[Denis Devlin]], poet and diplomat (born 1908).
* 1 December – [[Caitlín Brugha]], [[Sinn Féin]] [[Teachta Dála|TD]] (born 1879).

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Years in Ireland}}
{{Year in Europe|1959}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1959 In Ireland}}
[[Category:1959 in Ireland| ]]
[[Category:1950s in Ireland]]
[[Category:1959 by country|Ireland]]
[[Category:Years of the 20th century in Ireland]]

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1959 in Ireland