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 6 - In the Irish general elections, Fianna Fáil win a plurality of seats, and form a coalition government with the Progressive Democrats. Bertie Ahern replaces John Bruton as Taoiseach, and Mary Harney of the Progressive Democrats becomes Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment.
- 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.
Read more about this topic: 1997 In Ireland
Famous quotes containing the word events:
“Just as a mirror may be used to reflect images, so ancient events may be used to understand the present.”
—Chinese proverb.
“When the world was half a thousand years younger all events had much sharper outlines than now. The distance between sadness and joy, between good and bad fortune, seemed to be much greater than for us; every experience had that degree of directness and absoluteness which joy and sadness still have in the mind of a child”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“The return of the asymmetrical Saturday was one of those small events that were interior, local, almost civic and which, in tranquil lives and closed societies, create a sort of national bond and become the favorite theme of conversation, of jokes and of stories exaggerated with pleasure: it would have been a ready- made seed for a legendary cycle, had any of us leanings toward the epic.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)