6 January – A priest, Michael Mernagh, completed a nine-day 272 km atonement pilgrimage from
Cobh to the
Pro-Cathedral in Dublin to repent the
Roman Catholic Church's response to clerical child sex abuse.[3]
8 January –
Post-2008 Irish economic downturn:
Dell announced the axing of almost 2,000 jobs at their factory in Limerick, with the total job loss predicted to rise to 10,000 in the region.[4]
22 January – A
County Roscommon woman was jailed for seven years after her conviction for incest, sexual abuse and neglect of her children.[9]
30 January –
Post-2008 Irish economic downturn: After an announcement that the
Waterford Crystal plant at Kilbarry was to shut down, its employees began an unofficial sit-in which led to some scuffles that damaged the main door to the visitors' centre.[10] The sit-in continued until 22 March.[11]
February
2 February –
extreme weather across the country disrupted transport services, including flights, and bus routes.[12]
4 February – unemployment reached 9.2 percent with a record 326,100 people signing onto the live register. It was the highest monthly increase in 40 years with an average 1,500 people being
laid off daily.[14][15][16]
6 March – the
Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed an appeal by Joe O'Reilly against his conviction for the murder of his wife, Rachel Callely, in October 2004.[27]
25 April – an opinion poll showed a five percent drop to 23 percent in support for the governing
Fianna Fáil party in the wake of early April's Supplementary Budget.
Fine Gael, in opposition, was ten points clear at 33 percent, an increase of two, while the
Labour Party, also in opposition, was also up two to 19 percent.[29]
28 April – tests on all four Irish people with suspected cases of swine flu proved negative.[31]
29 April – figures from the
Central Statistics Office showed a record 388,600 people on the live register; the figure had almost doubled in one year, rising by 96 percent.[32]
15 May – a 27-year-old man was shot dead and another man was wounded during a shootout with gardaí during an attempted raid on a cash-in-transit van in
Lucan in west Dublin.[37]
20 May – the
Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse report was published. The long-delayed investigation into Ireland's
Roman Catholic-run institutions said that priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades.[38]
25 May – a new stretch of motorway between
Fermoy and
Mitchelstown in north Cork opened to traffic nine months ahead of schedule.[39]
26 May – former Government press secretary
Frank Dunlop was sentenced to two years incarceration for corruption, with the final six months suspended. He pleaded guilty to five charges of corruption.[40]
29 May – Ireland's oldest brewery in
Cork since at least 1650, and home to
Beamish and Crawford since 1792, ceased operations.[41]
June
3 June – the
Leaving Certificate English Paper 2 was postponed for two days after it emerged that students in one
County Louth centre had already seen the exam paper.[42]
7 July – a 61-year-old woman was stabbed to death in
Castlebar, County Mayo.[51] Her son was charged with her murder the following day.[52]
10 July – Ronnie Dunbar was sentenced to life imprisonment for the manslaughter of Melissa Mahon.[53]
12 July – the Broadcasting Act[54] changed the spelling of the national broadcaster from Radio Telefís Éireann to
Raidió Teilifís Éireann.
16 July – the report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes, also called An Bord Snip Nua, was published by
University College Dublin economist Colm McCarthy. It recommended €5.3 billion in potential savings, including 17,300
public service job cuts and a five percent drop in social welfare.[55]
23 July – the Defamation and Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bills became law, after being signed by President Mary McAleese.[56]
30 July – draft legislation to establish the
National Asset Management Agency was published. The Bill proposed to give NAMA extensive powers to take over land and development loans from banks in an effort to get them lending again and supporting economic recovery.[57]
August
5 August – a murder investigation was launched after a woman's body was discovered under a tree in
Phoenix Park.[58][59] The woman was later found to be 50-year-old Eugenia Bratis from
Timișoara in
Romania, who had been in Ireland for several months.[60][61] Her torso was stabbed several times.[62]
12 August – former President
Mary Robinson received the United States
Presidential Medal of Freedom from
Barack Obama at a ceremony in the
White House in Washington, D.C., with Obama declaring her to have "not only shown a light on human suffering, but illuminated a better future for our world".[63][64][65]
21 August – a section of the main Dublin to Belfast railway line collapsed in
Malahide in north Dublin. A 20-metre section of
viaduct on the Broadmeadow estuary, between Malahide and Donabate gave way.[66] A preliminary assessment carried out on 24 August identified significant erosion of the seabed as a possible reason for the collapse.[67] The viaduct reopened to traffic on 16 November.[68]
September
1 September – at a civic reception,
Muhammad Ali was made the first Honorary Freeman of
Ennis, the birthplace of his great-grandfather, Abe Grady, who left the town in the 1860s.[69] Ali later sends a letter of thanks to the people of Ennis.[70]
16 September – 21 people were injured, three seriously, after a collision involving a
Luas tram and a double-decker bus on
O'Connell Street in Dublin, the worst accident to date involving the Luas service.[76]
10 October – singer
Stephen Gately died in an apartment in
Majorca that he shared with his husband, Andrew Cowles.[90] Thousands of people attended the funeral in Dublin one week later, including fans from South Africa and Taiwan.[91][92]
11 October – Michael Sinnott, a priest from
Barntown,
County Wexford, was abducted in the Philippines.[93] He was held until 11 November,[94] then he arrived in Ireland on 3 December.[95]
12 October – two
Air Corps pilots were killed when their plane crashed during a training flight in
Connemara. They received military funerals.[96]
19 October – the
River Suir Bridge opened to traffic as part of the
N25Waterford Bypass. The 230-metre main span was the longest single bridge span in the country.
27 October – a tenth person was confirmed to have died from
swine influenza in Ireland.[101]
November
Continuing:
Mass floods across Ireland, the most affected areas were the south coastal counties and cities, such as Cork City, the worst hit.
13 November – John McFarlane was sentenced to at least twenty years in prison at the
Old Bailey in
London for the murder of Dublin mother Mary Griffiths at her home in
Suffolk.[108]
14 November – Scoil Mhuire Community School in
Clane,
County Kildare removes security cameras from student toilets following a two-day protest by parents and students.[112]
17 November – Brian Hennessy, a 23-year-old postal worker, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of Sharon Whelan and her two daughters, Zara and Nadia, in
Roscon,
County Kilkenny in the early hours of Christmas Day of 2008.[113]
19 November – the Football Association of Ireland made
an official complaint to
FIFA and requested a replay, after
France qualified for the
2010 FIFA World Cup the previous night with a goal resulting from a
double handball by their
striker and team captain
Thierry Henry.[114] FIFA and the
French Football Federation refused.[115] The incident attracted comment globally.[116] Fans protested outside the French embassy in Dublin.[117] The match had been watched by Ireland's highest television audience of 2009 and the highest audience for any sporting event in the country since 1995.[118]
30 November – it was announced that
Monaghan's former army barracks is to be converted into an educational campus in a €20 million project intended to accommodate a primary and secondary
Gaelscoileanna as well as a higher education institute.[125]
December
1 December –
St. James's Hospital in Dublin reported a 20% increase in newly diagnosed
HIV patients for 2009, the highest annual increase ever.[126]
2 December – more than 1,200 students at
National University of Ireland, Maynooth signed a petition to university management objecting to the appointment of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to the position of Honorary Adjunct Professor to the university's School of Business and Law. It followed a letter of protest signed by 36 members of academic staff the previous week.[127]
3 December – the
Sisters of Mercy announced that they would contribute property and money worth €128 million following the publication of the
Ryan Report in May.[130]
7 December – former prison officer Dillon O'Brien was imprisoned for four years on charges of smuggling alcohol, drugs, and mobile phones into
Mountjoy Prison, with Judge Katherine Delahunt saying his crime was "at the very high end of the scale".[133]
10 December – in what was described as a landmark case, the
Supreme Court of Ireland ruled that a
gay man who donated his sperm to a lesbian couple would have access to the resulting child, overturning the original
High Court decision.[138] The
Gay and Lesbian Equality Network expressed concern at the Supreme Court's rejection of the lesbian couple as a "de facto family".[139]
13 December – two gardaí were injured in a traffic collision in
County Donegal. Garda Gary McLoughlin died the following day.[141] Taoiseach Brian Cowen paid tribute and politicians attended his funeral in
County Leitrim on 16 December.[142][143]
15 December – the
Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of Mary Roche who sought to have three frozen embryos belonging to her estranged husband, Thomas, released to her for implantation in her womb, a case which highlighted the lack of legislation concerning
in vitro fertilisation.[144][145] The court also ruled that embryos are not recognised or protected as "unborn" under the
Constitution.[146]
18 December – Seán Sheehy, a priest in
Castlegregory, withdrew from work in his parish after shaking the hand of a convicted sex offender in a court in
Listowel days earlier.[151]Bishop of KerryWilliam Murphy disassociated himself from Sheehy and his actions.[152]
18 December – Ireland's first motorway to link two cities was opened several months ahead of schedule between Dublin and
Galway.[153]
23 December –
Jim Moriarty, the
Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, resigned, the second bishop to do so following the publication of the
Murphy Report.[154] He was followed within 36 hours by the two remaining serving auxiliary bishops in Dublin, Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field.[155]
8 September – Ireland 1–0
South Africa (Thomond Park, Limerick)[171]
First ever Irish-based senior international matches to be played in the Mid-West and the first to be played outside Dublin in twenty-four years. Training in
County Tipperary.[172]
World Cup 2010 Qualifiers
11 February – Ireland 2–1 Georgia
28 March – Ireland 1–1 Bulgaria
1 April – Italy 1–1 Ireland
6 June – Bulgaria 1–1 Ireland
5 September – Cyprus 1–2 Ireland
10 October – Ireland 2–2 Italy
14 October – Ireland 0–0 Montenegro
14 November – Ireland 0–1 France
18 November – France 1–1 Ireland
Rallying
30 January – 1 February
Rally Ireland was held.[173] The rally was won by Sébastien Loeb.[174]
^Ronan McGreevey (19 September 2009).
"Ali thanks people of Ennis for warm reception". The Irish Times. Retrieved 19 September 2009. The letter is written by Ali's friend John Ramsey, who is involved with the Alltech Muhammad Ali Centre Global Education and Charitable Fund based in Louisville, Kentucky. It was also sent to Alltech's founder and president Dr Pearse Lyons who organised Ali's visit to Ireland, and was one of the guests yesterday at the economic forum of the global Irish in Farmleigh House. Irish-owned Alltech is based in Ali's home state of Kentucky.
^"Archived copy"(PDF). www.irisoifigiuil.ie. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2022.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link)
6 January – A priest, Michael Mernagh, completed a nine-day 272 km atonement pilgrimage from
Cobh to the
Pro-Cathedral in Dublin to repent the
Roman Catholic Church's response to clerical child sex abuse.[3]
8 January –
Post-2008 Irish economic downturn:
Dell announced the axing of almost 2,000 jobs at their factory in Limerick, with the total job loss predicted to rise to 10,000 in the region.[4]
22 January – A
County Roscommon woman was jailed for seven years after her conviction for incest, sexual abuse and neglect of her children.[9]
30 January –
Post-2008 Irish economic downturn: After an announcement that the
Waterford Crystal plant at Kilbarry was to shut down, its employees began an unofficial sit-in which led to some scuffles that damaged the main door to the visitors' centre.[10] The sit-in continued until 22 March.[11]
February
2 February –
extreme weather across the country disrupted transport services, including flights, and bus routes.[12]
4 February – unemployment reached 9.2 percent with a record 326,100 people signing onto the live register. It was the highest monthly increase in 40 years with an average 1,500 people being
laid off daily.[14][15][16]
6 March – the
Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed an appeal by Joe O'Reilly against his conviction for the murder of his wife, Rachel Callely, in October 2004.[27]
25 April – an opinion poll showed a five percent drop to 23 percent in support for the governing
Fianna Fáil party in the wake of early April's Supplementary Budget.
Fine Gael, in opposition, was ten points clear at 33 percent, an increase of two, while the
Labour Party, also in opposition, was also up two to 19 percent.[29]
28 April – tests on all four Irish people with suspected cases of swine flu proved negative.[31]
29 April – figures from the
Central Statistics Office showed a record 388,600 people on the live register; the figure had almost doubled in one year, rising by 96 percent.[32]
15 May – a 27-year-old man was shot dead and another man was wounded during a shootout with gardaí during an attempted raid on a cash-in-transit van in
Lucan in west Dublin.[37]
20 May – the
Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse report was published. The long-delayed investigation into Ireland's
Roman Catholic-run institutions said that priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades.[38]
25 May – a new stretch of motorway between
Fermoy and
Mitchelstown in north Cork opened to traffic nine months ahead of schedule.[39]
26 May – former Government press secretary
Frank Dunlop was sentenced to two years incarceration for corruption, with the final six months suspended. He pleaded guilty to five charges of corruption.[40]
29 May – Ireland's oldest brewery in
Cork since at least 1650, and home to
Beamish and Crawford since 1792, ceased operations.[41]
June
3 June – the
Leaving Certificate English Paper 2 was postponed for two days after it emerged that students in one
County Louth centre had already seen the exam paper.[42]
7 July – a 61-year-old woman was stabbed to death in
Castlebar, County Mayo.[51] Her son was charged with her murder the following day.[52]
10 July – Ronnie Dunbar was sentenced to life imprisonment for the manslaughter of Melissa Mahon.[53]
12 July – the Broadcasting Act[54] changed the spelling of the national broadcaster from Radio Telefís Éireann to
Raidió Teilifís Éireann.
16 July – the report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes, also called An Bord Snip Nua, was published by
University College Dublin economist Colm McCarthy. It recommended €5.3 billion in potential savings, including 17,300
public service job cuts and a five percent drop in social welfare.[55]
23 July – the Defamation and Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bills became law, after being signed by President Mary McAleese.[56]
30 July – draft legislation to establish the
National Asset Management Agency was published. The Bill proposed to give NAMA extensive powers to take over land and development loans from banks in an effort to get them lending again and supporting economic recovery.[57]
August
5 August – a murder investigation was launched after a woman's body was discovered under a tree in
Phoenix Park.[58][59] The woman was later found to be 50-year-old Eugenia Bratis from
Timișoara in
Romania, who had been in Ireland for several months.[60][61] Her torso was stabbed several times.[62]
12 August – former President
Mary Robinson received the United States
Presidential Medal of Freedom from
Barack Obama at a ceremony in the
White House in Washington, D.C., with Obama declaring her to have "not only shown a light on human suffering, but illuminated a better future for our world".[63][64][65]
21 August – a section of the main Dublin to Belfast railway line collapsed in
Malahide in north Dublin. A 20-metre section of
viaduct on the Broadmeadow estuary, between Malahide and Donabate gave way.[66] A preliminary assessment carried out on 24 August identified significant erosion of the seabed as a possible reason for the collapse.[67] The viaduct reopened to traffic on 16 November.[68]
September
1 September – at a civic reception,
Muhammad Ali was made the first Honorary Freeman of
Ennis, the birthplace of his great-grandfather, Abe Grady, who left the town in the 1860s.[69] Ali later sends a letter of thanks to the people of Ennis.[70]
16 September – 21 people were injured, three seriously, after a collision involving a
Luas tram and a double-decker bus on
O'Connell Street in Dublin, the worst accident to date involving the Luas service.[76]
10 October – singer
Stephen Gately died in an apartment in
Majorca that he shared with his husband, Andrew Cowles.[90] Thousands of people attended the funeral in Dublin one week later, including fans from South Africa and Taiwan.[91][92]
11 October – Michael Sinnott, a priest from
Barntown,
County Wexford, was abducted in the Philippines.[93] He was held until 11 November,[94] then he arrived in Ireland on 3 December.[95]
12 October – two
Air Corps pilots were killed when their plane crashed during a training flight in
Connemara. They received military funerals.[96]
19 October – the
River Suir Bridge opened to traffic as part of the
N25Waterford Bypass. The 230-metre main span was the longest single bridge span in the country.
27 October – a tenth person was confirmed to have died from
swine influenza in Ireland.[101]
November
Continuing:
Mass floods across Ireland, the most affected areas were the south coastal counties and cities, such as Cork City, the worst hit.
13 November – John McFarlane was sentenced to at least twenty years in prison at the
Old Bailey in
London for the murder of Dublin mother Mary Griffiths at her home in
Suffolk.[108]
14 November – Scoil Mhuire Community School in
Clane,
County Kildare removes security cameras from student toilets following a two-day protest by parents and students.[112]
17 November – Brian Hennessy, a 23-year-old postal worker, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of Sharon Whelan and her two daughters, Zara and Nadia, in
Roscon,
County Kilkenny in the early hours of Christmas Day of 2008.[113]
19 November – the Football Association of Ireland made
an official complaint to
FIFA and requested a replay, after
France qualified for the
2010 FIFA World Cup the previous night with a goal resulting from a
double handball by their
striker and team captain
Thierry Henry.[114] FIFA and the
French Football Federation refused.[115] The incident attracted comment globally.[116] Fans protested outside the French embassy in Dublin.[117] The match had been watched by Ireland's highest television audience of 2009 and the highest audience for any sporting event in the country since 1995.[118]
30 November – it was announced that
Monaghan's former army barracks is to be converted into an educational campus in a €20 million project intended to accommodate a primary and secondary
Gaelscoileanna as well as a higher education institute.[125]
December
1 December –
St. James's Hospital in Dublin reported a 20% increase in newly diagnosed
HIV patients for 2009, the highest annual increase ever.[126]
2 December – more than 1,200 students at
National University of Ireland, Maynooth signed a petition to university management objecting to the appointment of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to the position of Honorary Adjunct Professor to the university's School of Business and Law. It followed a letter of protest signed by 36 members of academic staff the previous week.[127]
3 December – the
Sisters of Mercy announced that they would contribute property and money worth €128 million following the publication of the
Ryan Report in May.[130]
7 December – former prison officer Dillon O'Brien was imprisoned for four years on charges of smuggling alcohol, drugs, and mobile phones into
Mountjoy Prison, with Judge Katherine Delahunt saying his crime was "at the very high end of the scale".[133]
10 December – in what was described as a landmark case, the
Supreme Court of Ireland ruled that a
gay man who donated his sperm to a lesbian couple would have access to the resulting child, overturning the original
High Court decision.[138] The
Gay and Lesbian Equality Network expressed concern at the Supreme Court's rejection of the lesbian couple as a "de facto family".[139]
13 December – two gardaí were injured in a traffic collision in
County Donegal. Garda Gary McLoughlin died the following day.[141] Taoiseach Brian Cowen paid tribute and politicians attended his funeral in
County Leitrim on 16 December.[142][143]
15 December – the
Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of Mary Roche who sought to have three frozen embryos belonging to her estranged husband, Thomas, released to her for implantation in her womb, a case which highlighted the lack of legislation concerning
in vitro fertilisation.[144][145] The court also ruled that embryos are not recognised or protected as "unborn" under the
Constitution.[146]
18 December – Seán Sheehy, a priest in
Castlegregory, withdrew from work in his parish after shaking the hand of a convicted sex offender in a court in
Listowel days earlier.[151]Bishop of KerryWilliam Murphy disassociated himself from Sheehy and his actions.[152]
18 December – Ireland's first motorway to link two cities was opened several months ahead of schedule between Dublin and
Galway.[153]
23 December –
Jim Moriarty, the
Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, resigned, the second bishop to do so following the publication of the
Murphy Report.[154] He was followed within 36 hours by the two remaining serving auxiliary bishops in Dublin, Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field.[155]
8 September – Ireland 1–0
South Africa (Thomond Park, Limerick)[171]
First ever Irish-based senior international matches to be played in the Mid-West and the first to be played outside Dublin in twenty-four years. Training in
County Tipperary.[172]
World Cup 2010 Qualifiers
11 February – Ireland 2–1 Georgia
28 March – Ireland 1–1 Bulgaria
1 April – Italy 1–1 Ireland
6 June – Bulgaria 1–1 Ireland
5 September – Cyprus 1–2 Ireland
10 October – Ireland 2–2 Italy
14 October – Ireland 0–0 Montenegro
14 November – Ireland 0–1 France
18 November – France 1–1 Ireland
Rallying
30 January – 1 February
Rally Ireland was held.[173] The rally was won by Sébastien Loeb.[174]
^Ronan McGreevey (19 September 2009).
"Ali thanks people of Ennis for warm reception". The Irish Times. Retrieved 19 September 2009. The letter is written by Ali's friend John Ramsey, who is involved with the Alltech Muhammad Ali Centre Global Education and Charitable Fund based in Louisville, Kentucky. It was also sent to Alltech's founder and president Dr Pearse Lyons who organised Ali's visit to Ireland, and was one of the guests yesterday at the economic forum of the global Irish in Farmleigh House. Irish-owned Alltech is based in Ali's home state of Kentucky.
^"Archived copy"(PDF). www.irisoifigiuil.ie. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2022.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link)