1957 in Ireland

← 1956 1955 1954 1953 1952 1957 in Ireland → 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s
See also:	1957 in Northern Ireland Other events of 1957 List of years in Ireland

Events from the year 1957 in Ireland.

Incumbents

• President: Sean T. O'Kelly (Fianna Fáil)
• Taoiseach: John A. Costello (Fine Gael) (until 20 March), Éamon de Valera (Fianna Fáil) (starting 20 March)
• Prime Minister of Northern Ireland: Basil Brooke

Events

• January 1 - Border Campaign: Seán South and Fergal O'Hanlon are killed in an Irish Republican Army attack on a Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks in Brookeborough, County Fermanagh.^[1] Following this, the Government of Ireland uses the current Offences Against the State Act to arrest most of the IRA’s leadership, including its Chief of Staff, Seán Cronin.
• January 12 - Over 100 republicans are arrested under the Special Powers Act in Northern Ireland.^[2]
• January 24 - Sir Alfred Chester Beatty becomes the first person granted honorary citizenship of the Republic of Ireland.
• February 4 - St. Mary's Church of Ireland Cathedral at Elphin, County Roscommon, is severely damaged in a violent storm, leading to its abandonment.^[3]
• March 3 - Éamon de Valera tells a crowd in Cork that a United Ireland can be achieved with time and the support of the people.
• March 5 - Irish general election, 1957: Fianna Fáil under Éamon de Valera returns to power, winning 78 seats. Members of the 16th Dáil assemble on March 20.
• March 11 - Prize Bonds are introduced; the Bank of Ireland operates the scheme on behalf of the Minister for Finance.
• May–September - Fethard-on-Sea boycott: a Roman Catholic priest and some of his parishioners organise a boycott of Protestant-owned local businesses.^[4]
• July 4 - Following the killing of a Royal Ulster Constabulary officer, the new Government of Ireland introduces wholesale internment without trial in the Republic for IRA suspects.
• July 4 - Dáil debates the Fethard-on-Sea Ne Temere boycott.
• July 22 - The Gough Monument in the Phoenix Park is wrecked by an explosion so violent that it is heard all over Dublin.
• August 7 - A 20-foot high war memorial in Limerick is blown up. It was erected to commemorate British soldiers from Limerick who died in World War I.
• September 30 - Last day of operation of 97 miles (155 km) of railway in Northern Ireland (Great Northern Railway (Ireland) branches and the entire Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway) following government instructions. County Fermanagh loses all its lines. The GNR closes a further 84 miles (134 km) of connecting lines in the Republic on October 12.
• October 2 - The Minister for Health, Seán MacEntee, launches the Voluntary Health Insurance Board.
• October 7 - President Seán T. O'Kelly's country residence, Roundwood House, County Wicklow, is destroyed by fire.
• October 10 - The Windscale fire begins with a fire in a graphite core of a reactor at the Windscale Nuclear Power station and reprocessing centre on the Cumberland coast of North West England. Years later there are claims that the radiation caused cancers and birth defects in County Louth.
• October 27 - The foundation stone of Galway Cathedral is blessed.
• November 1 - The Soviet satellite Sputnik is visible over Dublin for the second time in a month.
• November - Border Campaign: The premature explosion of a bomb at a farmhouse in County Louth kills four IRA men and a householder.^[1]
• undated - Cyril Lord opens a new factory for the production of tufted carpets at Donaghadee, County Down.^[5]

Arts and literature

• May 12 - The Pike Theatre in Dublin stages the Tennessee Williams play The Rose Tattoo. During its short run the theatre is invaded by Gardai and director Alan Simpson arrested for producing "a lewd entertainment" for a mime of dropping a condom onto the floor.^[6]
• Publication of Tomás de Bhaldraithe's English-Irish Dictionary.
• Publication of Heinrich Böll's Irisches Tagebuch (Irish Journal).

Sport

Football

• 19 May - Republic of Ireland 1 - 1 England (at Dalymount Park), after England grab a last minute equaliser to silence the 50,000 strong home support.

Golf

• 27 June - Philomena Garvey wins British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship at Gleneagles.

Births

January to June

• 17 January - Colm Burke, former Fine Gael Lord Mayor of Cork, MEP.
• 22 January - Ray Flynn, Irish-American runner
• 7 February - Regina Joyce, long-distance runner.
• 15 February - Dave Langan, soccer player.
• 15 February - David Stanton, Fine Gael TD for Cork East.
• 19 April - Arkle, winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup on three consecutive occasions (died 1970).
• 13 March - Patricia McKenna, Green Party politician.
• 7 March - Seán Crowe, Sinn Féin politician and former TD for Dublin South–West.
• 21 March - Pat Breen, Fine Gael TD for Clare.
• 20 May - Dermot Gallagher, soccer referee.
• 17 June - Phil Chevron, singer, songwriter and guitarist.

July to December

• 17 July - Terry Eviston, soccer player.
• 2 August - Ashley Grimes, soccer player and coach.
• 26 September - Finbar Wright, singer.
• 8 October - Martha Kearney, radio journalist.
• 6 November - Siobhán McCarthy, actress.
• 24 November - John Minihan, former soldier, Progressive Democrats Seanad Éireann member.
• 17 December - Robbie Gaffney, soccer player.
• 25 December - Shane MacGowan, singer and songwriter.

Undated

• Kieran Brennan, Kilkenny hurler.
• Tom Cashman, Cork hurler.
• Desmond Dinan, academic and author.
• Angela Downey, Kilkenny camogie player.
• John Henderson, Kilkenny hurler.
• Jon Kenny, comedian.
• Eoin Liston, Kerry Gaelic footballer.
• Dermot Mac Curtain, Cork hurler.
• Glenn Meade, author.
• Shani Mootoo, fiction writer and visual artist.
• Charlie Nelligan, Kerry Gaelic footballer.
• Dick O'Hara, Kilkenny hurler.
• Jack O'Shea, Kerry Gaelic footballer.
• Richie Power, Kilkenny hurler.
• Tommy Quaid, Limerick hurler (died 1998).
• Richie Reid, Kilkenny hurler.

Deaths

• 1 January - Fergal O'Hanlon, Irish Republican Army member killed with Seán South attacking the Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks in Brookeborough (born 1936).
• 1 January - Seán South, IRA leader fatally wounded during an attack on a Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks in Brookeborough (born 1929).
• 11 January - Anthony Mulvey, editor and Nationalist Party MP (born 1882).
• 16 February - John Sealy Townsend, mathematical physicist (died 1868).
• 25 March - Ernie O'Malley, prominent officer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and on anti-Treaty side in the Irish Civil War and a writer (born 1897).
• 28 March - Jack B. Yeats, artist (born 1871).
• 29 March - John J. O'Kelly, politician, author and publisher, president of the Gaelic League and Sinn Féin (born 1872).
• 11 April - Freeman Wills Crofts, novelist (born 1879).
• 23 May - William Meldon, cricketer (born 1879).
• 1 August - Cathal O'Byrne, singer, poet and writer (born 1867).
• 22 September - Oliver St. John Gogarty, physician, poet and writer (born 1878).
• 25 October - Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany, writer and dramatist (born 1878).
• 9 November - Peter O'Connor, athlete (born 1872).
• 16 November - Seán Moylan, member Irish Volunteers, Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil TD, Cabinet Minister and Seanad Éireann member (born 1888).
• 6 December - Michael James O'Rourke, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1917 at Hill 70 near Lens, France (born 1878).

Undated

• Thomas Sadleir, genealogist (born 1882).
• George Townshend, writer, former clergyman and Bahá'í (born 1876).

References