1969 in Ireland

← 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1969 in Ireland → 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s
See also:	1969 in Northern Ireland Other events of 1969 List of years in Ireland

Events from the year 1969 in Ireland.

Incumbents

• President: Éamon de Valera
• Taoiseach: Jack Lynch (FF)

Events

• 1 January – The People's Democracy civil rights march left Belfast for Derry.
• 4 January – Militant loyalists, including off-duty B-Specials, attacked civil rights marchers in County Londonderry.
• 10 January – Protestors in Northern Ireland defied police orders to abandon a planned march.^[1]
• 27 January – Ian Paisley was jailed for three months for illegal assembly in Northern Ireland.
• 4 March – The Lichfield Report was issued. It proposed the creation of a "University of Limerick" which would be "orientated towards technological subjects".
• 19 March – Ireland received its first loan from the World Bank.
• 22 March – Civil rights demonstrations took place all over Northern Ireland.
• 17 April – Bernadette Devlin, the 21-year-old student and civil rights campaigner, won the Mid-Ulster by-election. She was the youngest-ever female Member of Parliament.
• 20 April – British troops arrived in Northern Ireland as a back-up to the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
• 28 April – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O'Neill, resigned.
• 1 May – Major James Chichester-Clark succeeded Terence O'Neill as the Northern Irish Prime Minister.
• 7 May – The Minister for Finance, Charles Haughey, announced tax exemptions for painters, sculptors, writers, and composers on earnings gained from works of cultural merit.
• 18 June – Former French President Charles de Gaulle and his wife were greeted by President de Valera at Áras an Uachtaráin.
• 20 July – Telefís Éireann departed from its usual nightly schedule to broadcast its first programme late into the following morning when the first men landed on the moon at 21:17, Irish time. The moonwalk began at 03:39 the next morning and ended at 06:11. The entire broadcast was hosted live by Kevin O'Kelly, working alone in front of the camera, and he won a Jacob's Award for his performance.^[2]
• 21 July – President de Valera sent U.S. President Richard Nixon a telegram of congratulations and admiration following the first manned moon landing by Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
• 1 August
  • A huge protest rally over events in Northern Ireland was held outside the General Post Office, Dublin. The crowd demanded that the Irish Army cross the border.
  • The farthing and halfpenny coins were withdrawn from circulation as Ireland moved towards decimalisation.
• 3 August – Taoiseach Jack Lynch made a state visit to the Lebanon.
• 5 August – Belfast experienced the worst sectarian rioting since 1935.
• 12 August – Rioting broke out in Derry in the Battle of the Bogside, the first major confrontation of The Troubles.
• 13–17 August – Sectarian rioting took place in Northern Ireland.
• 13 August – As the Battle of the Bogside continued, Taoiseach Jack Lynch made a speech on television, saying that the Irish government "can no longer stand by" and demanded a United Nations peace-keeping force for Northern Ireland.^[3]
• 14 August – British troops were deployed for the first time in Northern Ireland to restore law and order. Their presence was welcomed at first by many in the Catholic population of Derry.^[4]
• 15 August – A night of shooting and burning took place in Belfast. In Dublin, a Sinn Féin protest meeting called for the boycott of British goods, Irish government protection of the people of Northern Ireland, and United Nations intervention.
• 16 August – British soldiers were deployed in particularly violent areas of Belfast.
• 17 August – Members of the Garda Síochána clashed with protesters on O'Connell Street, Dublin, as a march against the Northern Ireland situation headed for the British embassy.
• 27 August – The B-Specials began to hand in their guns following a call by Lieutenant-General Ian Freeland to disband them.^[5] British Home Secretary, James Callaghan, visited Belfast.
• 30 August – Jack Lynch ordered the Irish Army Chief of Staff, General Seán Mac Eoin, to prepare a plan, called Exercise Armageddon, for possible incursions into Northern Ireland in defence of Catholic communities there.^[6]
• August – Andrew Boyd's historical work Holy War in Belfast was published in Tralee, going through 6 impressions in 3 years.
• 10 October – The Hunt Committee Report recommended an unarmed civil police force in Northern Ireland and abolition of the Ulster Special Constabulary.
• 1 December – Fianna Fáil paid tribute to Seán Lemass as his forty-five years of public life came to an end.
• December – The Irish Republican Army split into Official and Provisional wings.^[7]
• 31 December – The half crown coin was permanently withdrawn from circulation.
• Undated – The last permanent residents left Inis Cathaigh.

Arts and literature

• 5 October – Samuel Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• December – Rock band Thin Lizzy was formed in Dublin.
• Donagh MacDonagh's poems A Warning to Conquerors are published in Dublin.

Sports

Football Finals: Kerry 0–10 Offaly 0–7

Hurling Finals: Kilkenny 2–15 Cork 2–9

Births

January to June

• 6 January – Jonathan Philbin Bowman, journalist and radio presenter (died 2000).
• 19 January – Steve Staunton, former international soccer player, former manager of the Republic of Ireland national football team.
• 8 February – Earl McCarthy, freestyle swimmer
• 15 March – Pat Fenlon, soccer player and manager.
• 31 March – Lawrence Patrick Parsons, Lord Oxmantown.
• 2 April – Ann Leonard, former Fianna Fáil politician.
• 1 May – Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin MEP for Dublin.
• 10 June – Breandán de Gallaí, Irish dancer.
• 13 June – Abe Elkinson, businessman.

July to December

• 1 July – Séamus Egan, musician.
• 10 August – Arthur Edward Rory Guinness, 4th Earl of Iveagh, Farmleigh.
• 23 August – Brian Hayes, Fine Gael TD for Dublin South–West.
• 7 September – Barry Ferguson, soccer player.
• 17 September – Ken Doherty, snooker player.
• 22 October – Owen Casey, tennis player.
• 24 October – Emma Donoghue, playwright, literary historian, and novelist.
• 29 October – Anthony Daly, Clare hurler and manager.
• 28 November – Sonia O'Sullivan, runner, World and European Championship Gold medallist.
• 30 November – Catherina McKiernan, athlete.
• 16 December – Michelle Smith, swimmer and triple Olympic gold medallist.

Full date unknown

• Liz Allen, journalist and writer.
• Kevin Barry, fiction writer.
• Billy Dooley, Offaly hurler.
• Ciarán Farrell, composer.

Deaths

• 24 January – Patrick Hogan, Labour Party, TD, Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann (born 1886).
• 30 March – James Foley, cricketer (born 1898).
• 1 April – Francis de Groot, upstaged New South Wales Premier Jack Lang at the 1932 official opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (born 1888).
• 8 April – James Duffy, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1917 at Kereina Peak, Palestine (born 1889).
• 22 June – Thomas J. O'Connell, trade unionist, Labour Party leader, TD and Senator (born 1882).
• 4 August – Stanley Bergin, cricketer (born 1926).
• 8 August – Bulmer Hobson, nationalist, an early leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (born 1883).
• September – Cecilia Thackaberry, Presentation Sisters nun, killed in Nigeria performing relief work (born 1909).
• 4 October – Cathal O'Shannon, politician, trade unionist and journalist (born 1893).
• 8 August – Bulmer Hobson, member of Irish Volunteers, socialist and writer (born 1882).
• 18 October – John "Pondoro" Taylor, hunter and writer (born 1904).
• 18 November – Bridget Dowling, Adolf Hitler's sister-in-law by her marriage to Alois Hitler, Jr. (born 1891).

Full date unknown

• Séamus Ó Grianna, writer (born 1889).

References

1. "1969: Civil rights protesters defiant". BBC News. 10 January 1969. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-11.
2. Tom O'Dea (22 July 1969). "ITV stole the show". The Irish Press (Dublin). pp. 1, 3.
3. "Jack Lynch On The Situation In North". YouTube. 13 August 1969. Retrieved 2011-09-01.
4. "1969: British troops sent into Northern Ireland". BBC News. 14 August 1969. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
5. "Sir Ian Freeland — Testing time in Ulster". The Times (60482) (London). 23 November 1979. p. IV (Obituaries).
6. Clonan, Tom (31 August 2009). "Operation Armageddon' would have been doomsday - for Irish aggressors". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2009-09-03.
7. Edwards, Aaron (2011). The Northern Ireland Troubles. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84908-525-0.