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:
“By many a legendary tale of violence and wrong, as well as by events which have passed before their eyes, these people have been taught to look upon white men with abhorrence.... I can sympathize with the spirit which prompts the Typee warrior to guard all the passes to his valley with the point of his levelled spear, and, standing upon the beach, with his back turned upon his green home, to hold at bay the intruding European.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“As I look at the human story I see two stories. They run parallel and never meet. One is of people who live, as they can or must, the events that arrive; the other is of people who live, as they intend, the events they create.”
—Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)
“One of the extraordinary things about human events is that the unthinkable becomes thinkable.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1948)