13 February – The Bishop of Clonfert,
Thomas Ryan, protested against the content of The Late Late Show because an audience member, Eileen Fox, told host
Gay Byrne that she wore no nightie on her wedding night. The episode was broadly referred to thereafter in Ireland as the Bishop and the Nightie scandal.[1]: 109 [2]
A teenage riot took place in the early hours at
Dublin Airport when singer
Dickie Rock returned from his joint-fourth-place rank at the
Eurovision song contest in Luxembourg.
Gardaí linked arms and struggled to contain the surging mob of 1,000 over-excited young people, twenty of whom were taken to hospital.[1]: 134–135
The Broadcasting Authority (Amendment) Act changed the name of the national broadcasting authority from Radio Éireann to
Radio Telefís Éireann.[3]
15 April – Construction of Ireland's first high-rise flats began in
Ballymun, Dublin.
17 April – The Easter Rising was commemorated in
Belfast by large
Republican parades.
1 June – In the
1966 presidential election, Fianna Fáil party candidate and third president of Ireland
Éamon de Valera was elected to a second term in office when he beat Fine Gael party candidate
Tom O'Higgins by 10,500 votes, less than one percent of the ballot (0.97%). De Valera was inaugurated on June 25.[5][6]
7 September – At a
National Union of Journalists seminar, the new
Minister for Education,
Donogh O'Malley, announced plans for his revolutionary free secondary education scheme, along with a free school-transport scheme for rural children. These plans were implemented in September 1967.[7][8]
21 September –
Allied Irish Banks was founded by the amalgamation of the Munster and Leinster Bank, Provincial Bank of Ireland, and Royal Bank of Ireland.
21 October – An anti-
apartheid demonstration took place outside the
National Stadium during a visit by the South African Amateur Boxing Team.
8 November – Tributes were paid to Seán Lemass who announced his resignation as Taoiseach.
10 November – The new taoiseach,
Jack Lynch, and his ministers received their seals of office from President de Valera at the president's residence,
Áras an Uachtaráin.
25 November – The body of the second President of Ireland,
Seán T. O'Kelly, lay in state at St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral.
28 February – The first English-language production of
Samuel Beckett's Come and Go took place at the
Peacock Theatre, Dublin. It was first produced on 14 January in German, in Berlin; it was also first published, in French, this year.[10]
18 July – The new
Abbey Theatre in Dublin opened exactly 15 years after the original was burned down;[11] the architect was former actor
Michael Scott.
13 February – The Bishop of Clonfert,
Thomas Ryan, protested against the content of The Late Late Show because an audience member, Eileen Fox, told host
Gay Byrne that she wore no nightie on her wedding night. The episode was broadly referred to thereafter in Ireland as the Bishop and the Nightie scandal.[1]: 109 [2]
A teenage riot took place in the early hours at
Dublin Airport when singer
Dickie Rock returned from his joint-fourth-place rank at the
Eurovision song contest in Luxembourg.
Gardaí linked arms and struggled to contain the surging mob of 1,000 over-excited young people, twenty of whom were taken to hospital.[1]: 134–135
The Broadcasting Authority (Amendment) Act changed the name of the national broadcasting authority from Radio Éireann to
Radio Telefís Éireann.[3]
15 April – Construction of Ireland's first high-rise flats began in
Ballymun, Dublin.
17 April – The Easter Rising was commemorated in
Belfast by large
Republican parades.
1 June – In the
1966 presidential election, Fianna Fáil party candidate and third president of Ireland
Éamon de Valera was elected to a second term in office when he beat Fine Gael party candidate
Tom O'Higgins by 10,500 votes, less than one percent of the ballot (0.97%). De Valera was inaugurated on June 25.[5][6]
7 September – At a
National Union of Journalists seminar, the new
Minister for Education,
Donogh O'Malley, announced plans for his revolutionary free secondary education scheme, along with a free school-transport scheme for rural children. These plans were implemented in September 1967.[7][8]
21 September –
Allied Irish Banks was founded by the amalgamation of the Munster and Leinster Bank, Provincial Bank of Ireland, and Royal Bank of Ireland.
21 October – An anti-
apartheid demonstration took place outside the
National Stadium during a visit by the South African Amateur Boxing Team.
8 November – Tributes were paid to Seán Lemass who announced his resignation as Taoiseach.
10 November – The new taoiseach,
Jack Lynch, and his ministers received their seals of office from President de Valera at the president's residence,
Áras an Uachtaráin.
25 November – The body of the second President of Ireland,
Seán T. O'Kelly, lay in state at St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral.
28 February – The first English-language production of
Samuel Beckett's Come and Go took place at the
Peacock Theatre, Dublin. It was first produced on 14 January in German, in Berlin; it was also first published, in French, this year.[10]
18 July – The new
Abbey Theatre in Dublin opened exactly 15 years after the original was burned down;[11] the architect was former actor
Michael Scott.