1951 in Ireland

Events from the year 1951 in Ireland.

Incumbents

Events

2 February – Éamon de Valera visited Newry for the first time since his arrest there in 1924.
11 April – Minister for Health Noel Browne resigned and his Mother and Child Scheme was overturned.
19 April – The Attorney General for Northern Ireland, Ed Warnock, referring to Noel Browne's resignation, said that Ireland is really ruled by Maynooth.
24 May – Gardaí exchanged shots with two men after they threw a bomb at the British Embassy in Dublin.
30 May – 1951 Irish general election: Fianna Fáil won most seats but lacked an overall majority.
13 June – Members of the 14th Dáil assembled. Éamon de Valera became Taoiseach with one of the smallest majorities on record, forming a Fianna Fáil government with the support of independents.
1 July – Taoiseach Éamon de Valera paid his first visit to Derry in 25 years.
July – The last boat to use the Royal Canal commercially, owned by Willie Leech, ceased trading.
15 November – The Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded jointly to Professor Ernest Walton of Trinity College Dublin and Sir John Cockcroft.

Arts and literature

18 July – The Abbey Theatre in Dublin was burnt to the ground.
30 July-22 September – The now-homeless Abbey Theatre company performed a season at the Rupert Guinness Hall in the Guinness Brewery before moving to the Queen's Theatre, Dublin.
15 August – Donagh MacDonagh's ballad opera God's Gentry opened at the Belfast Arts Theatre, transferring to the Gate Theatre, Dublin on 26 December.
21 October-4 November – The first Wexford "Festival of Music and the Arts", predecessor of Wexford Festival Opera.
The first national festival of the folk music of Ireland was held in Mullingar.
Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann was established in Mullingar by a group of uilleann pipers to promote the folk music and language of Ireland.
Samuel Beckett's novel Molloy was published in French.
Sinéad de Valera's collection for children The Emerald Ring and Other Irish Fairy Stories was published.
The Dolmen Press was established in Dublin by Liam and Josephine Miller to publish Irish literature.
Louis le Brocquy painted A Family.
Daniel O'Neill painted Knockalla Hills, Donegal and Western Landscape.

Sport

Association football

;League of Ireland
;FAI Cup

Boxing

8 June – Jack Doyle defeated America's 'Beer Baron' Two-Ton Tony Gelanto at Tolka Park.

GAA

Mayo successfully defended All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final by defeating Meath 2–8 to 0–9.

Golf

Irish Open – no tournament held.

Births

4 January – Paddy Roche, soccer player.
25 January – M. J. Nolan, Fianna Fáil TD for Carlow–Kilkenny and Senator.
27 January – Brian Downey, drummer.
4 February – Patrick Bergin, actor.
6 February – Margo, singer.
14 February – Alan Shatter, Fine Gael TD for Dublin South.
1 March – J. P. McManus, businessman and racehorse owner.
16 March – John Egan, Dublin GAA County Chairman.
25 March – Gerard Murphy, Fine Gael TD representing Cork North-West.
4 April – Alan Hughes, cricketer.
24 April – Enda Kenny, leader of Fine Gael, TD for Mayo.
1 May – Michael McDowell, founding member of Progressive Democrats, TD, Cabinet Minister and Attorney-General.
10 May – Ger Canning, Gaelic Athletic Association hurling and football commentator.
21 May
* Adrian Hardiman, justice of the Supreme Court of Ireland.
* Ray O'Brien, soccer player.
23 May – Viscount Slane, later The Marquess Conyngham, pop concert promoter.
26 May – Madeleine Taylor-Quinn, Fine Gael TD, councillor.
6 June – Frank Fahey, Fianna Fáil TD for Galway West.
10 June – Joe McKenna, Limerick hurler and manager.
12 June – Nóirín Ní Riain, singer, musician, writer and theologian.
27 June – Mary McAleese, eighth President of Ireland.
July – Anne Colley, Progressive Democrats politician.
August – Peter Mathews, TD representing Dublin South and economic commentator.
30 August – Dana Rosemary Scallon, singer, Eurovision Song Contest winner and Member of the European Parliament.
1 September – Geraldine Kennedy, journalist, politician and first female editor of The Irish Times.
12 September – Bertie Ahern, Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil.
5 October – Bob Geldof, singer, songwriter and humanitarian.
18 December – Noel Treacy, Fianna Fáil TD for Galway East.
30 December – Gay Mitchell, TD representing Dublin South-Central, Member of the European Parliament for Dublin.
;Full date unknown

Deaths

9 January – John Aston, cricketer.
17 January – Alexander Haslett, independent TD.
18 January – Amy Carmichael, Christian missionary and writer.
26 January – Thomas Houghton, Anglican clergyman and editor of the Gospel Magazine.
18 March – Thomas Foran, trade union official, member of the Seanad from 1922 to 1948.
27 March – James Geoghegan, Fianna Fáil TD, Minister for Justice, Attorney General of Ireland and judge of the Supreme Court.
29 March – Ambrose Upton Gledstanes Bury, politician in Alberta, Canada.
10 April – Nora Barnacle, wife of author James Joyce.
12 April – Henry De Vere Stacpoole, ship's doctor and author.
19 May – Frederick Barton Maurice, soldier, military correspondent, writer and academic, founded the British Legion in 1920.
10 June – Justice George Gavan Duffy, barrister, Sinn Féin Member of Parliament and a signatory of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921.
21 June – Eugene O'Mahoney, museum curator and entomologist.
24 July – Paddy Moore, soccer player.
16 August – Gus Kelly, cricketer.
17 August – Joseph Warwick Bigger, professor, member of the Dublin University constituency in the Seanad from 1944 to 1951.
25 August – John J. McGrath, Democratic U.S. Representative from California.
27 November – George Meldon, cricketer.
;Full date unknown