2009 in Ireland

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2009 in Ireland has seen the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank, the loss of thousands of jobs at the Dell plant in Limerick and the Waterford Crystal plant in Waterford as unemployment breaks state records and extreme weather conditions disrupt schools, air and road traffic but not students who protested on the streets of Dublin in numbers of around 15,000 or workers who followed them in numbers of 120,000.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen described 2009 as his most challenging of his career in politics.^[1]

Contents 1 Incumbents 2 Events 2.1 January 2.2 February 2.3 March 2.4 April 2.5 May 2.6 June 2.7 July 2.8 August 2.9 September 2.10 October 2.11 November 2.12 December 3 Literature 4 Sport 4.1 Boxing 4.2 GAA 4.3 Golf 4.4 Sailing 4.5 Soccer 4.6 Rallying 4.7 Rugby union 5 Deaths 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Incumbents

• President - Mary McAleese
• Taoiseach - Brian Cowen
• Tánaiste - Mary Coughlan
• First Minister - Peter Robinson
• Deputy First Minister - Martin McGuinness

[edit] Events

[edit] January

• 1 January - Phase-out of incandescent light bulbs commences in Ireland.^[2]
• 6 January - Father Michael Mernagh completes his nine-day 272 km atonement pilgrimage from Cobh to Dublin's Pro-Cathedral in repentance of the Roman Catholic Church's response to clerical child sex abuse.^[3]
• 8 January - Dell announces the axing of almost 2,000 jobs at their Limerick manufacturing facility, with the total job loss predicted to rise to 10,000 in the region.^[4]
• 9 January - Confidential documents from Letterkenny General Hospital are revealed to have been discovered in a public area of Derry.^[5]
• 11 January - A woman dies in childbirth at Kerry General Hospital in Tralee, County Kerry.^[6]
• 17 January - A County Down woman is killed in extreme weather conditions when her car is struck by a tree.^[7]
• 21 January - Anglo Irish Bank is nationalised when the President, Mary McAleese signs the Anglo Irish Bank Corporation Bill 2009.^[8]
• 22 January - A County Roscommon woman is jailed for seven years after being convicted of incest, sexual abuse and neglect of her children.^[9]
• 23 January - A suspicious fire in Moate, County Westmeath leads to the evacuation of an elderly man and his son when the roof of their adjacent house catches fire.^[10]
• 30 January - After an announcement that the Waterford Crystal plant in Kilbarry is to shut down, its employees begin an unofficial sit-in which leads to some scuffles that damage the main door to the visitors' centre.^[11] The sit-in continues until 22 March.^[12]

[edit] February

• 2 February - Extreme weather conditions across the country causes disruption to transport services, including Aer Lingus and Ryanair flights and Bus Éireann routes.^[13]
• 2 February - Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is blockaded and jostled out of NUI Galway by angry students protesting over the reintroduction of fees as he attempts to lecture the Literary and Debating Society.^[14]
• 4 February - Unemployment reaches 9.2% with record figures of 326,100 signing onto the live register. It is the highest monthly increase in 40 years with an average 1,500 people being laid off daily.^[15][16][17]
• 4 February - An estimated 15,000 students protest in Dublin at the threatened reintroduction of university fees, blockading government buildings for a time in the process.^[18]
• 12 February - A man is arrested after threatening to set fire to himself outside Government Buildings in Dublin.^[19]
• 17 February - Irish Nationwide Chairman Michael Walsh resigns over his involvement in the Anglo Irish Bank hidden loans controversy.^[20]
• 21 February - Up to 120,000 people march in Dublin in protest at how the Government is handling the economic crisis.^[21]
• 24 February - Gardaí raid the headquarters of Anglo Irish Bank in St Stephen's Green, Dublin.^[22][23]
• 25 February - 2,000 members of the Garda Síochána march through the streets of Dublin.^[24]
• 25 February - The Irish Times suspends supply of its newspapers to the retailer Dunnes.^[25]
• 27 February - Bank of Ireland robbery

[edit] March

• 2 March - Martin Cullen, a politician, is involved in an incident with an aircraft.^[26]
• 5 March - A number of items belonging to the Michael Jackson go on view in County Kildare.^[27]
• 6 March - The Court of Criminal Appeal dismisses an appeal by Joe O'Reilly against his conviction for the murder of his wife, Rachel Callely, in October 2004.^[28]
• 7 March - Two gunmen open fire on soldiers in County Antrim. Two are killed and two injured while two civilian pizza delivery men, one Polish, are seriously injured.^{[citation needed]} The Real IRA later claim responsibility.^{[citation needed]}
• 13 March - Five people are hospitalised after a freak gas explosion destroys a house and closes Saint Anne's Square in the Temple Road area of Dublin.^[29]

[edit] April

• 8 April - The Supplementary Budget is announced by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan.^[30]
• 25 April - The Red C opinion poll shows a big drop in support for the governing Fianna Fáil in the wake of early April's Supplementary Budget. Support for the party is down five points to 23%. Fine Gael, in Opposition, is ten points clear at 33%, an increase of two while Labour, also in Opposition, is also up two to 19%.^[31]
• 27 April - Four people are tested after swine flu breaks out from Mexico.^[32]
• 28 April - Tests on all four Irish people with suspected cases of swine flu at this time prove negative.^[33]
• 29 April - Figures from the Central Statistics Office show a record 388,600 people on the Live Register; the figure has almost doubled in one year rising by 96%.^[34]
• 30 April - The Department of Health and Children's Chief Medical Officer Doctor Tony Holohan confirms the first probable case of swine flu at a news briefing in Dublin.^[35]

[edit] May

• 4 May - A UCD meteorology professor incorrectly predicts that the 2009 Irish summer would be "not only better than last year, but even better than the average Irish summer".^[36]
• 6 May - RTÉ's chief economics editor George Lee is named as the Fine Gael nomination for the Dublin South by-election.^[37]
• 11 May - Ryan Tubridy is named as the new presenter of The Late Late Show, replacing Pat Kenny. His first show as presenter was in September 2009.^[38]
• 14 May - Ireland fail to progress to the final of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. Sinéad Mulvey and Black Daisy's song "Et Cetera" was not one of the 10 selected from the second semi-final in Moscow.^[39]
• 15 May - A 27-year-old man is shot dead and another man was wounded during an exchange of fire with gardaí during an attempted raid on a cash-in-transit van in Lucan in west Dublin.^[40]
• 20 May - The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse report is published, the long-delayed investigation into Ireland's Roman Catholic-run institutions says priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades.^[41]
• 25 May - A new stretch of motorway between Fermoy and Mitchelstown in north Cork opens to traffic nine months ahead of schedule.^[42]
• 26 May - Former Government press secretary Frank Dunlop is sentenced to two years incarceration for corruption, with the final six months suspended. He pleads guilty to five charges of corruption.^[43]
• 29 May - Ireland's oldest brewery on South Main Street in Cork since at least 1650 and home to Beamish and Crawford since 1792, ceases operations.^[44]

[edit] June

• 3 June - 2009's Leaving Certificate English Paper 2 is postponed for two days after it emerges that students in one County Louth centre had already seen the paper.^[45]
• 5 June - The local elections take place along with the European Parliament elections.^[46]
• 15 June - Mayoral elections are held in several towns and cities across Ireland.^[47][48]

[edit] July

• 1 July - A woman dies after falling 20 miles off Mweelrea in County Mayo.^[49]
• 3 July - GOAL aid workers Sharon Commins and Hilda Kawuki are abducted from their compound in Darfur.^[50][51]
• 3 July - A child in Roxboro National School, County Roscommon is found to have a case of swine influenza.^[52]
• 5 July - A man drowns after falling into the sea at Rosmoney, County Mayo.^[53]
• 6 July - The Lisbon Treaty Bill is published.^[54]
• 7 July - A 61-year-old woman is stabbed to death in Castlebar, County Mayo.^[55] Her son is charged with her murder the following day.^[56]
• 10 July - Ronnie Dunbar is sentenced to life imprisonment for the manslaughter of Melissa Mahon.^[57]
• 10 July - An Irishman dies on a building site in New York, USA.^[58]
• 16 July - The report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes, also called An Bord Snip Nua, is published by UCD economist Colm McCarthy. It recommends €5.3 billion in potential savings, including 17,300 public service job cuts and a 5% drop in social welfare.^[59]
• 23 July - The Defamation and Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bills become law, after being signed by President Mary McAleese.^[60]
• 30 July - Draft legislation to establish the National Asset Management Agency is published. The Bill proposes 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.^[61]

[edit] August

• 5 August - A murder investigation is launched after a woman's body is discovered under a tree in Phoenix Park.^[62][63][64] The woman is later found to be 50-year-old Eugenia Bratis from Timişoara in Romania, who had been in Ireland for several months.^[65][66] Her torso is stabbed several times.^[67] Photos of her corpse are released to the media in order that she may be identified.^[64]
• 12 August - Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson is one of sixteen recipients of the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama at a ceremony in the White House, 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".^[68][69][70]
• 21 August - A section of the main Dublin to Belfast railway line collapses in Malahide in north Dublin. A 20 metre section of viaduct on the Broadmeadow estuary, between Malahide and Donabate gave way.^[71] A preliminary assessment carried out on 24 August identifies significant erosion of the seabed as a possible reason for the collapse.^[72] The viaduct reopens to traffic on 16 November 2009.^[73]

[edit] September

• 1 September - At a civic reception Muhammad Ali is made the first Honorary Freeman of Ennis. Ali visits the birthplace of his great grandfather, Abe Grady, who left the town in the 1860s.^[74] Ali later sends a letter of thanks to the people of Ennis.^[75]
• 5 September - Apprentice jockey Jamie Kyne from Claregalway, County Galway is killed in a fire at his flat in Yorkshire, UK.^[76][77]
• 6 September - Derry businessman Paul Houston is beaten to death whilst on holiday in Alvor, Portugal.^[78]
• 9 September - The body of Shane O'Halloran, a 24-year-old Irishman who went missing after falling off a cruise ship in Australia, is recovered from the Brisbane River.^[79]
• 13 September - The Dublin Bikes Scheme is launched.^[80]
• 14 September - Ireland's 2008 Olympic bronze medalist boxer Darren Sutherland is found dead in London at the age of 27.^[81] Hundreds of people attend his funeral one week later in Navan, County Meath.^[82]
• 16 September - 21 people are injured, three seriously, after a collision involving a Luas tram and a double-decker bus on Dublin's O'Connell Street, the worst accident to date involving the Luas service.^{[83][84][85][86]}
• 17 September - A fisherman dies after falling overboard whilst fishing for crabs and lobsters and becoming entangled in some ropes off Wexford.^[87]
• 18 September - A man's corpse is found in a waste recycling facility near Listowel, County Kerry.^[88]
• 18–20 September - The three-day Global Irish Economic Forum is held in Farmleigh House.^[89]
• 20 September - The Government announces that a national postal code is to be introduced in 2011.^[90][91]
• 20 September - A female tourist dies with serious head injuries after falling off Skellig Michael.^[92][93]
• 21 September - Lisa Cummins and 16-year-old Owen O'Keefe set new records for swimming the English Channel.^[94]
• 22 September - President Mary McAleese opens the National Ploughing Championships in Athy, County Kildare.^[95]
• 27 September - The presence of swine influenza in Irish pigs is confirmed for the first time.^[96]
• 30 September - Thousands of people protest in Dublin in relation to Colm McCarthy's An Bord Snip Nua proposals.^[97]

[edit] October

• 1 October - A herd of llamas and two goats escape from a circus and disrupt traffic at the Red Cow interchange on the M50 motorway.^[98] The animals are later stolen from a compound in Summerhill, County Meath.^[99]

• 1 October - FÁS Chairman Peter McLoone reigns.^[100]

• 2 October - The second referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon takes place.^[101] The treaty is passed with a 67% Yes vote.^[102] Donegal votes No.^{[103][104][105]}

• 10 October - Singer Stephen Gately dies in the Majorca apartment he shared with husband Andrew Cowles.^[106] Thousands of people attend the funeral in Dublin one week later, including fans from South Africa and Taiwan.^{[107][108][109]} His death attracts many tributes and much comment in the media.^{[110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121]}

• 11 October - Father Michael Sinnott from Barntown, County Wexford is abducted in the Philippines.^[122] He is held until November 11.^[123] He arrives in Ireland to spend Christmas in County Wexford on 3 December.^[124]

• 12 October - Two Air Corps pilots, 32-year-old Captain Derek Furniss from Rathfarnham, Dublin and 22-year-old Cadet David Jevens from Glynn, County Wexford, are killed when their plane crashes during a training flight in Connemara. Both are given military funerals.^{[125][126][127][128]} A report locates no technical defects to blame for the incident.^[129]

• 12 October - Aisling Symes, the daughter of an Irishman, disappears in New Zealand, prompting a week of searching until her body is found in a drain.^{[130][131][132][133][134][135]}

• 13 October - Séamus Kirk is elected Ceann Comhairle following the resignation of John O'Donoghue over an expenses controversy.^{[136][137][138][139]}

• 18 October - GOAL aid workers Sharon Commins and Hilda Kawuki are released after more than one hundred days in captivity in Darfur.^{[140][141][142][143][144][145][146][147]}

• 22 October - Brazilian woman Joselita Silva is stabbed to death at her apartment in Tullamore, County Offaly.^[148]

• 27 October - A tenth person is confirmed to have died from swine influenza in Ireland.^[149]

• 29 October - Irishman Gearóid Walsh dies after an incident in Sydney, Australia.^{[150][151][152]}

• 30 October - ahead of Halloween, youths attack drivers on the M50 by throwing bottles, rocks, shoes and more at cars in order to rob tires of the cars for a Halloween bonfire.

[edit] November

• Ongoing: Mass Floods across Ireland, the most affected are the south coastal counties and cities such as Cork City, the worst hit, this flooding is still ongoing.
• 1 November - The Gaelic Athletic Association celebrates its 125th anniversary.^[153]
• 6 November - Tens of thousands of people march across eight Irish cities in protest at government cutbacks.^[154][155]
• 7 November - A street in Belfast disappears into a large hole.^[156]
• 7 November - A body is found belonging to Michael O'Brien from Templeogue in Dublin, who disappeared on November 3 whilst surfing around Ko Pha Ngan island in Thailand.^[157]
• 9 November - Sligo is heavily flooded.^[158]
• 10 November - A boy, aged three, is injured and killed at the port in Drogheda.^[159]
• 12 November - Passage West in County Cork is heavily flooded.^[160]
• 13 November - John McFarlane is sentenced to at least twenty years in prison at the Old Bailey in London for the murder of Dublin mother Mary Griffiths at her Suffolk home.^[161]
• 14 November - The Papal ban on discussion of the ordination of women priests is challenged by Willie Walsh, Bishop of Killaloe, during his address to the Association of European Journalists in Dublin.^{[162][163][164]}
• 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.^[165]
• 17 November - Brian Hennessy, a 23-year-old postal worker, is 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.^[166]
• 19 November - The FAI makes an official complaint to FIFA and requests a replay, after France qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa the previous night with a goal resulting from a double handball by their striker and team captain Thierry Henry.^[167] FIFA and the French Football Federation refuse.^[168] The incident attracts comment globally.^[169] Fans protest outside the French embassy in Dublin.^[170] 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.^[171]
• 20 November - The Progressive Democrats political party is officially dissolved.^[172]
• 25 November - Budget Travel, Ireland's largest tour operator, ceases trading.^[173]
• 25 November - Shopkeeper John Deasy is stabbed to death during a robbery in Arklow.^[174][175]
• 26 November - The Murphy Report of the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin is published.^[176]
• 26 November - An outbreak of measles occurs in Galway.^[177]
• 27 November - It is announced that Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has been allocated Research and Innovation in the European Commission.^[178]
• 30 November - The Health Service Executive begins an expected two-month swine influenza vaccination programme in the nation's primary and secondary schools designed to combat the 2009 flu pandemic.^[179]
• 30 November - It is 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.^[180]

[edit] December

• 1 December - St. James's Hospital in Dublin reports a 20% increase in newly-diagnosed HIV patients for 2009, the highest annual increase ever.^[181]
• 1 December - A woman's body is recovered from the sea off the coast of County Wexford, having fallen overboard from a Stena Line ferry the previous night.^[182]
• 2 December - Whitechurch, County Cork's Father Tadhg O'Donovan apologises for branding the Office of the Revenue Commissioners "the biggest shower of bastards on the planet" in an article published in Irish Daily Star.^[183] The remarks earn him a meeting with his archbishop.^[184] He is ordered to cease all commercial activity and embark on "a period of prayer and personal reflection".^[185]
• 2 December - More than 1,200 students at NUI Maynooth sign 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 follows a letter of protest signed by 36 members of academic staff the previous week.^[186]
• 2 December - Sinn Féin Vice President Mary Lou McDonald is "a bit taken aback" to find her Nissan Micra has been set on fire in Seville Place, Dublin city.^[187]
• 3 December - A speech by Paul McCartney in Brussels attracts the ire of Irish Farmers' Association President Padraig Walshe, who accuses the ex-Beatle of "leading a flawed campaign against meat that is contradictory on climate change".^[188] MEP for the East constituency Mairead McGuinness had earlier described the event as "a media circus without the animals".^[189]
• 3 December - The Sisters of Mercy announce they are to contribute property and money worth €128 million following the publication of the Ryan Report in May.^[190]
• 6 December - The body of 31-year-old Noel Gill from County Mayo is recovered from a river in Rotterdam, Netherlands, having last been seen returning home from watching the France vs Republic of Ireland 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualification Play-Off.^[191]
• 6 December - The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food confirms the slaughter at an undisclosed location of approximately 25–30 horses, some of whom are healthy, despite attempts by Irish Horse Welfare Trust to save as many as possible. The horses had been taken from a County Kilkenny farm.^[192]
• 7 December - Bishop Dermot O'Mahony resigns as patron of The Irish Pilgrimage Trust after his response to child sexual abuse was described as "worse than that of any other living auxiliary bishop of Dublin".^[193]
• 7 December - Former prison officer Dillon O'Brien is 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".^[194]
• 7 December - The funeral of Liam Clancy, the last of Ireland's first pop stars, at St Mary's Church in Dungarvan is attended by hundreds of mourners, including both aides-de-camp of the Taoiseach and President of Ireland, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Martin Cullen and various musicians and artists.^[195]
• 8 December - Four new Luas stations are opened in Dublin by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey as the Red Line is expanded to Dublin Docklands.^[196]
• 9 December - Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan delivers the nation's Budget for 2010.^{[197][198][199][200]}
• 9 December - The Irish Bishops Conference apologises for the sexual abuse suffered by its children after spending the first day of its winter conference in Maynooth examining the Murphy Report.^[201]
• 10 December - In what is described as a landmark case, the Supreme Court of Ireland rules that a gay man, identified as "A", who donated his sperm to a lesbian couple shall have access to the resulting boy child, overturning the original High Court decision.^{[202][203][204]} GLEN expresses concern at the Supreme Court's rejection of the lesbian couple as a "de facto family".^[205]
• 11 December - Kenyan police launch a murder investigation after 68-year-old Limerick priest Jeremiah Roche is killed during an overnight attack in Kericho.^{[206][207][208]}
• 11 December - Backbench Green Party TD Paul Gogarty is condemned and forced to apologise for his use of unparliamentary language after he yells "Fuck you, Deputy Stagg, fuck you" at veteran Labour Party TD Emmet Stagg during the Budget 2010 debate on the Social Welfare Bill.^{[209][210][211][212][213][214]}
• 13 December - Two gardaí are injured in a traffic collision in County Donegal.^[215] 24-year-old Garda Gary McLoughlin dies the following day.^[216] Taoiseach Brian Cowen pays tribute and politicians attend his funeral in County Leitrim on 16 December.^{[217][218][219]}
• 15 December - The Supreme Court of Ireland dismisses the appeal of 43-year-old mother of two Mary Roche seeking to have three frozen embryos belonging to her estranged husband Thomas Roche released to her for implantation in her womb, a case which highlights the lack of legislation concerning in vitro fertilisation.^[220][221] The court also rules that embryos are not recognised or protected as "unborn" under the Constitution of Ireland.^[222]
• 15 December - The funeral of renowned broadcaster and music collector Ciarán Mac Mathúna is attended by hundreds of mourners, including both aides-de-camp of the Taoiseach and President of Ireland, RTÉ Director General Cathal Goan, poet Séamus Heaney and various musicians and colleagues.^[223]
• 16 December - 78-year-old priest Thomas Naughton is given a three-year prison sentence for his sexual abuse of an altar boy while he served in Blessington, County Wicklow.^[224]
• 17 December - Pope Benedict XVI accepts the resignation of Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray who was criticised by the Murphy Report for his behaviour concerning child sexual abuse.^{[225][226][227][228]}
• 18 December - Father Seán Sheehy withdraws from work in his parish of Castlegregory after shaking the hand of a convicted sex offender in a Listowel court days earlier.^[229] Bishop of Kerry William Murphy disassociates himself from Sheehy and his actions.^[230]
• 18 December - Ireland's first motorway to link two cities is opened several months ahead of schedule between Dublin in the east and Galway in the west.^[231][232]
• 23 December - Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Jim Moriarty resigns, the second bishop to do so following the publication of the Murphy Report.^{[233][234][235]} He is followed within 36 hours by Dublin's two remaining serving auxiliary bishops, Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field.^[236]
• 25 December - St Mel's Cathedral, Longford is destroyed when a fire sweeps through the building.^[237]

[edit] Literature

• 19 March - The poet Seamus Heaney is awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature, honouring him for his lifetime's work.^[238]
• 11 June - Man Gone Down, the debut novel of American Michael Thomas, wins the 2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.^{[239][240][241][242]}
• 24 November - Colm Tóibín (Brooklyn) and Peter Murphy (John the Revelator) are included on the shortlist for the Costa Book Awards.^[243][244]

[edit] Sport

[edit] Boxing

• Bernard Dunne
  • On 21 March, Bernard Dunne became the WBA Super Bantamweight World Champion at the O₂ in Dublin.^[245]
  • On 26 September, he lost to Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym in the same venue after two minutes and 57 seconds of the third round.^[246]

[edit] GAA

• 2009 All-Ireland Hurling season
  • Semi-finals:
    • Kilkenny 2-23 Waterford 3-15
    • Tipperary 6-19 Limerick 2-7
  • Final:
    • Kilkenny 2-22 Tipperary 0-23, Croke Park, 6 September 2009, 3:30 pm GMT^[247]
• 2009 All-Ireland Football season
  • Semi-finals:
    • Cork 1-13 Tyrone 0-11
    • Meath 1-7 Kerry 2-8
  • Final:
    • Cork 1-09 versus File:Kerry colours.PNG Kerry 0-19, Croke Park, Sunday 20 September 2009, 3:30 pm GMT ^[248]

[edit] Golf

• 17 May - Offaly man Shane Lowry became just the third amateur to win a European Tour event by clinching the Irish Open in a playoff.^[249]
• 28 November - Ireland finish second to Italy in the 2009 Omega Mission Hills World Cup.^[250]

[edit] Sailing

• 24 May, Leg 7 of the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race finishes in Galway Bay.^[251]

[edit] Soccer

• Hosting

29 January - UEFA announces that the new Lansdowne Road would host the 2011 Europa League Final, the new title for the UEFA Cup.^[252]

• League of Ireland

Premier Division Winner; Bohemians

First Division Winner; UCD

A Division Winner; Salthill Devon

Promoted to Premier Division; Sporting Fingal

Relegated to First Division; Bray Wanderers, Derry City^

FAI Ford Cup; Sporting Fingal

FAI EA Sports Cup: Bohemians

^Derry where removed on November 7th for braking FAI rules and regulations, they're future in even the first division is yet to be decided, recently promoted sporting fingal are in danger too.

• Internationals

29 May – Republic of Ireland 1-1 Nigeria (London, UK)

06 June – Republic of Ireland 1-1 Bulgaria (Sofia, Bulgaria)

12 August – Republic of Ireland 0-3 Australia (Thomond Park, Limerick)^[253]

8 September – Republic of Ireland 1-0 South Africa (Thomond Park, Limerick)^[254]

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.^[255] Training in County Tipperary.^[255]

• • World Cup 2010 Qualifiers

11 February 2009 19:45 UTC+0	Republic of Ireland	2 – 1	Georgia	Croke Park, Dublin Attendance: 45,000 Referee: Jouni Hyytia (Finland)
	Keane  73' (pen.), 78'		Iashvili  1'

28 March 2009 19:45 UTC+0	Republic of Ireland	1 – 1	Bulgaria	Croke Park, Dublin Attendance: 60,002 Referee: Ivan Bebek (Croatia)
	Dunne  1'		Kilbane  74' (o.g.)

1 April 2009 20:50 UTC+2	Italy	1 – 1	Republic of Ireland	Stadio San Nicola, Bari Attendance: 48,000 Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany)
	Iaquinta  10'		Keane  87'

6 June 2009 20:30 UTC+3	Bulgaria	1 – 1	Republic of Ireland	Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia Attendance: 38,000 Referee: Claus Bo Larsen (Denmark)
	Telkiyski  29'		Dunne  24'

5 September 2009 21:30 UTC+3	Cyprus	1 – 2	Republic of Ireland	GSP Stadium, Nicosia Attendance: 5,191 Referee: Thomas Einwaller (Austria)
	Elia  30'		Doyle  5' Keane  83'

10 October 2009 20:00 UTC+1	Republic of Ireland	2 – 2	Italy	Croke Park, Dublin Attendance: 70,670 Referee: Terje Hauge (Norway)
	Whelan  8' St Ledger  87'		Camoranesi  26' Gilardino  90'

14 October 2009 19:00 UTC+1	Republic of Ireland	0 – 0	Montenegro	Croke Park, Dublin Attendance: 36,442 Referee: Vladimír Hriňák (Slovakia)

14 November 2009 20:00 UTC±0	Republic of Ireland	0 – 1	France	Croke Park, Dublin Attendance: 74,103 Referee: Felix Brych (Germany)
			Anelka  72'

18 November 2009 20:00 UTC±0	Republic of Ireland	1 – 1	France	Stade de France, Paris Attendance: 80,000 Referee: Martin Hansen (Sweden)
	Keane  32'		Gallas  103' ^

^ Football Association of Ireland made an official complaint claiming it was a handball, which it clearly was.

[edit] Rallying

• 30 January - 1 February, Rally Ireland was held .^[256] The rally was won by Sébastien Loeb.^[257]

[edit] Rugby union

• 2009 Six Nations Championship^[258]

7 February - Ireland 30 - 21 France

15 February - Italy 9 - 38 Ireland

28 February - Ireland 14-13 England

14 March - Scotland 15 - 22 Ireland

21 March - Wales 15-17 Ireland

• 21 March - Ireland win the 2009 Six Nations Championship and Triple Crown as well as the Grand Slam for first time in 61 years.^[259]
• 21 April - Paul O'Connell named as the captain of the British and Irish Lions squad to tour South Africa this summer along with 13 other Irish players.^[260]
• 28 November - Declan Kidney is named IRB International Coach of the Year, the first Irishman to achieve this, and Ireland are named IRB International Team of the Year on the same day they defeat World and Tri Nations champions South Africa at Croke Park to end the year undefeated.^[261]
• 9 December - Declan Kidney is awarded Phillips Manager of the Year for the third time in four years, beating Brian Cody, John Oxx and Giovanni Trapattoni to the title.^[262]

• 2008-09 Heineken Cup

12 April - Muster and Leinster reach the semi finals.^[263][264]

2 May - Leinster beat Munster 25-6 in the Heineken Cup semi-final at Croke Park in front of a world-record 82,208 attendance for a club match.^[265]

23 May - Leinster beat Leicster in the Heinken cup final, the 4th time an Irish province has done so.

• 2009-10 Heineken Cup

10 October - Munster and Leinster begin their Heineken Cup season, with Leinster defending a tittle and Munster looking to win back the crown.

[edit] Deaths

• 2 January - Tony Gregory, 61, Independent TD sitting in Dáil Éireann.^[266]
• 27 January - Connie Buckley, 93, former Cork hurler and oldest surviving All-Ireland-winning captain.^[267]
• 7 February - Joe Haverty, 72, former Irish soccer player.^[268]
• 12 February - Hugh Leonard, 82, playwright.^[269]
• 15 February - John Rackard, 80, member of the famous Rackard hurling brothers from Wexford.^[270]
• 18 February - Nell McCarthy, retired camogie player, manager and former president of the Camogie Association of Ireland.^[271]
• 27 February - Joe Bruton, 99, prominent farmers' rights campaigner, journalist and father of Fine Gael politicians John and Richard Bruton.^[272]
• 8 March - Anna Manahan, 84, Tony Award-winning actress of stage and screen.^[273]
• 9 March - Frank Stockwell, 80, former Galway Gaelic footballer.^[274]
• 23 March - Billy Rackard, 79, former Wexford hurler.^[275]
• 7 April - Paddy O'Hanlon, barrister and SDLP politician (b.1944)
• 17 April - Kevin McConnell, 84, former Meath Gaelic footballer.^[276]
• 19 April - Tony Kett, 57, Fianna Fáil Senator.^[277]
• 27 April - Karl Mullen, 82, former Rugby Union player and Grand Slam-winning captain of 1948.^[278]
• 28 April - Pearse Wyse, 81, Former Progressive Democrat founding member and former Lord Mayor of Cork.^[279]
• 5 May - Philomena Garvey, 83, former golfer.^[280]
• 9 May - David Marcus, 85, literary editor.^[281]
• 12 May - Roger Ryan, former Tipperary hurler.^[282]
• 20 May - Alan Kelly, Sr., 72, former Ireland international goalkeeper.^[283]
• 27 May - E. D. "Ned" Doyle, 90, military figure and analyst.^[284]
• 31 May - Danny La Rue, 81, entertainer known for his singing and drag impersonations.^[285]
• 1 June - Vincent O'Brien, 92, race horse trainer.^[286]
• 13 June - Michael Collins, former Wexford hurler.^[287]
• 28 June - Rita Keane, 86, traditional singer.^[288]
• 29 June - Sheila Cloney, 83, leader of the Ne Temere decree incident or "Fethard Boycott".^[289]
• 11 August - Nuala Fennell, 73, Fine Gael politician.^[290]
• 16 August - Paul Healion, 31, cyclist.^[291]
• 5 September - Jamie Kyne, 18, jockey.^[76]
• 8 September - Stephen White, Louth Gaelic footballer included in the Team of the Century in 1984.^[292]
• 14 September - Darren Sutherland, 27, boxer, 2008 Olympic bronze medalist.^[293][294]
• 17 September - Frank Deasy, 49, Emmy Award-winning screenwriter.^[295][296]
• 22 September - Edward Delaney, 79, sculptor—Thomas Davis and Wolfe Tone memorials in Dublin.^[297]
• 6 October - Aengus Finucane, 77, priest, Chief Executive of Concern Worldwide (1981–1997).^[298]
• 10 October - Stephen Gately, 33, Boyzone singer.^[299]
• 11 October - Peter Callanan, 74, politician, member of the Seanad (since 1997).^[300]
• 27 October - Frank Brady, Jr., association footballer.^[301]
• 1 November - Seán Mac Fionnghaile, 57, actor, cancer.^[302]
• 2 November - Beverley O'Sullivan, 28, singer and actress.^[303][304]
• 17 November - Paul "Skinny" Kelly, 43, musician—Paranoid Visions.^[305]
• 23 November - Pat Quinn, 74, founder of Quinnsworth and the first person to bring The Rolling Stones to North America.^{[306][307][308]}
• 4 December - Liam Clancy, 74, folk singer.^[309][310]
• 6 December - Pat Carolan, former Meath Gaelic footballer.^[311]
• 11 December - Ciarán Mac Mathúna, broadcaster and music collector.^[312]

[edit] See also

• 2009 in Irish music

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• "The Month In Pictures: January 2009" - Irish sport