1996 in Ireland

Events from the year 1996 in Ireland.

Incumbents

24 January – The international body proposed six principles of democracy and non-violence as conditions for entry to all-party talks in Northern Ireland.
January – The Israeli embassy to Ireland opened.

5 February – The Football Association of Ireland appointed Mick McCarthy as manager of the Irish football team.
9 February – A large Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb exploded in the London Docklands area, near Canary Wharf, injuring around forty, and marking the end of a 17-month IRA ceasefire.

7 June – Detective Garda Jerry McCabe was shot dead by the PIRA in Adare, County Limerick.
17 June – The Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland was signed into law, repealing the absolute constitutional prohibition of divorce.
26 June – Crime reporter Veronica Guerin was shot dead in her car in Dublin.

4 August – The Proceeds of Crime Act, 1996 was signed into law providing for the seizure of the suspected proceeds of organised criminal activity.

11 September – A new £100 note depicting Charles Stewart Parnell was issued, with a red-and-brown front and a green-and-yellow back, to replace the 68-year-old £100 note.
25 September – The last Magdalene asylum closed, in Waterford.

11 October – The Criminal Assets Bureau Act, 1996 was signed into law providing for the creation of the Criminal Assets Bureau.
31 October – The new Irish language television station TnaG was launched.

29 November – It was revealed that Dunnes Stores paid £208,000 for an extension to Minister Michael Lowry's house.

13 December – On the opening day of a Dublin summit, EU leaders achieved a breakthrough in the argument over preparations for a single European currency.
23 December – French film-maker Sophie Toscan du Plantier was murdered outside her holiday home in Schull, County Cork.
Undated
* Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud was the first in Dublin to be awarded two Michelin stars.

1 February – Martin McDonagh's black comedy The Beauty Queen of Leenane was premiered by the Druid Theatre Company in Galway.
11 February – The television drama series Ballykissangel first aired. It was made by BBC Northern Ireland and set in a rural Irish community.
18 May – Ireland won the Eurovision Song Contest for the seventh time with The Voice, sung by Eimear Quinn and composed by Brendan Graham.
7 August – Marie Jones' play Stones in His Pockets was premiered in Belfast.
26 September – Enda Walsh's play Disco Pigs was premiered by the Corcadorca Theatre Company at the Triskel Arts Centre in Cork.
31 October – Ireland's first Irish language television station, Teilifís na Gaeilge (TnaG), was launched. On 3 November the soap opera Ros na Rún was first aired on the channel.
6 November – The film Michael Collins was shown in Cork and Dublin.
The following novels were published:
* Evening Class by Maeve Binchy.
* Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane.
* Headbanger by Hugo Hamilton.
* Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married by Marian Keyes.
* The Story of the Night by Colm Tóibín.

Meath beat Mayo in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final, after a replay, to win their first title since 1988.

Wexford beat Limerick in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final. It was their first senior All-Ireland since 1968.

Swimmer Michelle Smith won three gold medals and one bronze in the Atlanta Olympics.

8 January – Joyce McCartan, community activist.
12 February – James Camlin Beckett, historian.
18 February – Cathal Ó Sándair, writer.
9 March – Ollie Walsh, Kilkenny hurler.
5 April – Gerry L'Estrange, member of the Seanad, Fine Gael TD.
22 April – Molly Keane, novelist and playwright.
24 April – Tomás de Bhaldraithe, Irish language scholar and lexicographer.
9 June – Patrick Flynn, Liberal Party of Canada MP.
10 June – Peter Raftery, diplomat.
26 June – Veronica Guerin, journalist, murdered by drug dealers.
9 July – Christopher Casson, actor.
16 July – Joe Dunn, Jacob's Award-winning documentarian for the Radharc television programme, broadcasting educator, publisher, author.
6 August – Havelock Nelson, composer and pianist.
18 August – Charles Mitchel, actor and television newsreader, read the first Telefís Éireann news bulletin in 1961.
25 August – Erskine Barton Childers, diplomat writer and broadcaster, son of President Childers.
August – Kathleen Mills, camogie player.
11 November – Liam Naughten, Fine Gael politician, Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann from 1995 until his death..
24 November – Michael O'Hehir, sports commentator and journalist.