1997 in Ireland

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Decades: 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s • 2010s Centuries: 18th • 19th • 20th • 21st See also: 1997 in Northern Ireland Other events of 1997 List of years in Ireland

Events

• January 8 - Russia seeks to widen its ban on the importation of Irish beef due to BSE.
• February 27 - The law providing for divorce comes into effect today.
• March 6 - Michael Lowry resigns as a member of the Fine Gael Party.
• March 7 - President Mary Robinson meets Pope John Paul II in the Vatican.
• March 17 - The new national independent radio station, Radio Ireland, goes on the air.
• April 8 - Author Frank McCourt is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book Angela's Ashes.
• June 12 - President Mary Robinson is appointed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
• June 16 - National University of Ireland, Maynooth comes into existence with the commencement of the Universities Act, 1997.
• July 3 - Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, meets Prime Minister Tony Blair for the first time.
• July 6 - There is violence in nationalist areas after an Orange Order parade is allowed down the Garvaghy Road by the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Portadown.
• July 9 - Counsel for Charles Haughey admits that the former Taoiseach accepted £1.3 million from businessman Ben Dunne.
• July 20 - The Irish Republican Army (IRA) institutes a second ceasefire.
• September 12 - Mary Robinson resigns as President of Ireland to take up a United Nations post.
• September 18 - Collins Barracks (Dublin) opens as converted to house the National Museum of Ireland's Decorative Arts and History collections.
• October 7 - Substantial all-party talks begin in Northern Ireland.
• November 1 - The Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal Act, 1997, takes effect.
• November 7 - Dick Spring confirms that he is resigning as leader of the Labour Party.
• November 11 - Mary McAleese is inaugurated as the eighth President of Ireland, the first time in the world that one woman has succeeded another as elected head of state.
• November 13 - Ruairi Quinn wins the leadership of the Labour Party.
• December 27 - The Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright is shot dead in the Maze prison by members of the Irish National Liberation Army.

Arts and literature

• November 24 - First episode of A Scare at Bedtime airs.

Sport

Gaelic games

• Kerry win the National Football League, beating Cork 3-7 to 1-8 in the final.
• Kerry go on to win the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship winners for the first time since 1986, following a 0-13 to 1-7 victory over Mayo in the final.
• Limerick beat Galway 1-12 to 1-9 in the National Hurling League final.
• Clare beat Tipperary by 0-20 to 2-13 in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final. It is their second title in three years.

Golf

• Murphy's Irish Open is won by Colin Montgomerie (Scotland).

Snooker

• Ken Doherty becomes World Snooker champions following an 18 frames to 12 victory over Stephen Hendry at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield.

Soccer

• Shelbourne win the FAI Cup for the fifth time.
• The first ever League of Ireland match to be broadcast live on television is from Tolka Park between Shelbourne and Derry City on Network 2.

Deaths

January to June

• 31 January - John Joseph Scanlan, second Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu (b.1906).
• 2 February - Seán Ó Síocháin, former Gaelic Athletic Association president.
• February - Reg Ryan, soccer player (b.1925).
• 17 April - Chaim Herzog, sixth President of Israel (1983–1993) (b.1918).
• 12 March - William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel, peer and Labour politician (b.1906).
• 2 May - Robin Kinahan, Unionist politician and businessman (b.1916).
• 9 May - Thomas FitzGerald, Earl of Offaly (b.1974).
• 23 May - Noel Browne, politician and former Cabinet Minister (b.1915).
• 24 May - Edward Mulhare, actor (b.1923).
• 16 June - Michael O'Herlihy, television director (b.1929).
• 18 June - Julia Clifford, fiddle player and traditional musician (b.1914).

July to December

• 25 September - Jim Kemmy, Irish Labour Party and Democratic Socialist Party TD (b.1936).
• 20 December - Jim Gibbons, former Fianna Fáil TD, Member of the European Parliament and Cabinet Minister (b.1924).
• 29 December - John Graham, Irish Republican Army activist in the 1940s (b.1915).

Full date unknown

• Mervyn Wall, novelist and dramatist (b.1908).