1926 in Ireland

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Decades: 1900s • 1910s • 1920s • 1930s • 1940s Centuries: 18th • 19th • 20th • 21st See also: 1926 in Northern Ireland Other events of 1926 List of years in Ireland

Events

• 1 January - Douglas Hyde officially opens the Irish Free State broadcasting service, 2RN (later RTÉ Radio 1), in Dublin.
• 4 January - The country's first Aeroplane Club is formed in Dublin.
• 19 January - The Minister for Finance, Ernest Blythe, introduces a Bill providing for the issue of silver, nickel and bronze coins for Saorstát Éireann.
• 21 January - The Northern Ireland Minister for Agriculture meets his Free State counterpart, Patrick Hogan. The meeting paves the way for co-operation in securing better animal health for livestock.
• 12 February - The minister for Justice, Kevin O'Higgins, appoints a Committee on Evil Literature.
• 11 March - Éamon de Valera resigns as President of Sinn Féin at its Árd-Fheis when one of his proposals is defeated.
• 7 April - An elderly Irishwoman, Violet Gibson, shoots the Italian Prime Minister, Benito Mussolini, in Rome.
• 29 April - Dublin city commissioners decide to remove Nelson's Pillar from O'Connell Street. However, this decision needs the approval of the Oireachtas.
• 16 May - At La Scala Theatre in Dublin a new political party is formed. Fianna Fáil - the Republican Party is launched by leading republicans including Éamon de Valera and Seán Lemass.
• 20 August - The Irish pilgrimage to the battlefields of France and Flanders leaves today. Celtic crosses are to be unveiled in memory of the members of the 16th Irish Division who died during World War I.
• 5 September - 48 people burned to death in a cinema fire at Dromcolliher, County Limerick.
• 17 November - President W. T. Cosgrave introduces the Public Safety (Emergency Powers) Bill following the killing of two unarmed gardaí.
• 25 November - Éamon de Valera addresses the first Fianna Fáil Árd-Fheis in Dublin.
• The Gaeltacht – regions with a significant percentage of Irish language speakers – is officially recognised, following the report of the first Coimisiún na Gaeltachta in the Free State.^[1]
• Irish Sugar Manufacturing Company Limited established in Carlow as a private enterprise to process sugar beet.
• The population of the Irish Free State is 2,972,000
• The population of Northern Ireland is 1,257,000.

Arts and literature

• 8 February - Seán O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars (set in 1915–16) opens at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. On 11 February, the performance is marred by ugly scenes in the audience: one man strikes an actress.
• 22 November - George Bernard Shaw, having initially refused to accept the prize money for the Nobel Prize for Literature, will now accept the money but return it to the Nobel Foundation.
• M. J. Farrell's first novel, The Knight of Cheerful Countenance, is published.
• Lennox Robinson's play The Big House is first performed.
• W. B. Yeats' Autobiographies is published as volume 6 of his Collected Edition by Macmillan in London.^[2]

Sport

Football

• 21 March The Irish Free State national football team plays Italy for the first time.

Result: Italy 3-0 Ireland

• League of Ireland

Winners: Shelbourne

• FAI Cup

Winners: Fordsons 3 - 2 Shamrock Rovers

Gaelic Games

• The All-Ireland Champions are Cork (hurling) and Kerry (football)

Births

January to June

• 15 January - Tom McEllistrim, Fianna Fáil TD (died 2000).
• 3 February - Jim Higgins, soccer player.
• 9 February - Garret FitzGerald, Taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael (died 2011).
• 10 March - Thomas Dunne, Fine Gael TD and MEP (died 1990).
• 24 March - Desmond Connell, Cardinal and former Archbishop of Dublin.
• 30 March - Ray McAnally, actor (died 1989).
• 4 April - Ronnie Masterson, actress.
• 23 April - J. P. Donleavy, writer.
• 26 April - Philomena Garvey, golfer.
• 18 May - Sylvester Barrett, former Fianna Fáil TD, Cabinet Minister and MEP (died 2002).
• 2 June - Milo O'Shea, actor (died 2013).

July to December

• 21 July - Patrick Lalor, former Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála for Laois–Offaly and Cabinet Minister, Member of the European Parliament.
• 1 August - Declan Costello, former Fine Gael TD, Attorney General and High Court judge.
• 30 August - Tom O'Donnell, former Fine Gael TD and MEP.
• 3 November - Frank Filgas, cricketer (died 2006).
• 9 November - Hugh Leonard, dramatist, writer and journalist (died 2009).
• 10 November - Brian Behan, writer and trade unionist (died 2002).
• 23 November - Peter Desmond, soccer player (died 1990).
• 10 December - Dónall Mac Amhlaigh, writer (died 1989).
• 18 December - Stanley Bergin, cricketer (died 1969).

Full date unknown

• Dan Kennedy, Kilkenny hurler (died 1976).

Deaths

• 18 April - Dolway Walkington, Irish national rugby union captain (born 1867).
• 21 April - George Carew, 4th Baron Carew (born 1863).
• 14 June - Windham Wyndham-Quin, 4th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl, peer (born 1841).
• 22 June - Norman Garstin, artist (born 1847).
• 19 November - Thomas Cusack, Democrat U.S. Representative from Illinois (born 1858).

References