1941 in Ireland

Incumbents

• President: Douglas Hyde
• Taoiseach: Éamon de Valera
• Tánaiste: Seán T. O'Kelly
• Minister for Finance: Seán T. O'Kelly
• Chief Justice: Timothy Sullivan
• Dáil: 10th
• Seanad: 3rd

  Events

January

• 2 January – Three Carlow women were killed in a night of German bombing in parts of Leinster.
• 3 January – Further German bombing of Dublin.
• 13 January – The novelist and poet James Joyce died in Zürich.
• 24 January – Part of the old State Chambers in Dublin Castle were destroyed by fire.

  February

• 20 February – The emergency Scientific Research Bureau was set up to seek alternatives to raw materials in short supply.
• 21 February – The first flight by a British Royal Air Force flying boat took place through the "Donegal Corridor", Irish airspace between its base in Northern Ireland and the Atlantic Ocean, a concession secretly agreed by Éamon de Valera.

  March

• 6 March – 3,800 animals were slaughtered after the 50th case of foot-and-mouth disease was announced.
• 20 March – Bread rationing was introduced.
• 21 March – The Glencullen and Glencree were machine-gunned by the Luftwaffe in the Bristol Channel.
• 22 March: 16:00 hours – The collier St. Fintan was attacked by two Luftwaffe bombers off the coast of Pembrokeshire in Wales and sank with all hands – nine dead.
• 26 March – The Edenvale was bombed and machine-gunned by the Luftwaffe in the Bristol Channel.
• 27 March – The Lady Belle was bombed and machine-gunned by the Luftwaffe in the Irish Sea.

  April

• 2 April – The Edenvale was bombed and machine-gunned by the Luftwaffe in the Bristol Channel.
• 15 April – Belfast Blitz: A thousand people were killed in bombing raids on Belfast. Seventy-one firemen with 13 fire tenders from Dundalk, Drogheda, Dublin and Dún Laoghaire crossed the Irish border to assist their Belfast colleagues.
• 18 April – An RAF Handley Page Hampden aircraft got lost in bad weather and crashed on Black Hill above the village of Lacken, County Wicklow killing its entire crew of four.

  May

• 5 May – Belfast suffered its third bombing raid during World War II. The Dublin government authorised its emergency services to assist.
• 7 May – Wages Standstill Order.
• 12 May – The Menapia was bombed and machine-gunned by the Luftwaffe off the Welsh coast: Two were wounded.
• 14 May – Five further outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease were reported.
• 17 May – The Glenageary was bombed and machine-gunned by the Luftwaffe in the Irish Sea.
• 19 May – The City of Waterford was bombed and machine-gunned by the Luftwaffe off the Welsh coast: one person was wounded.
• 26 May – A special sitting of Dáil Éireann unanimously condemned the introduction of conscription in Northern Ireland.
• 27 May – Speaking in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Winston Churchill ruled out the introduction of conscription in Northern Ireland.
• 30 May – The Kyleclare was bombed off the Waterford coast.
• 31 May – Bombing of Dublin in World War II: Thirty-four people were killed when the Luftwaffe bombed part of Dublin.
• Summer – 16,000 men and boys were employed on county council turf-cutting schemes.

  June

• 2 June – Arklow was bombed by the Luftwaffe, with no casualties.

  July

• 24 July – Dundalk was bombed by the Luftwaffe, with no casualties.

  August

• 22 August – The S.S. Clonlara was torpedoed and sunk by in the North Atlantic while in Convoy OG 71 : 13 survivors and 11 dead.

  September

• 16 September – Sixteen soldiers were killed and 20 were injured – 10 of them terribly – in the Glen of Imaal military training area in County Wicklow when an anti-tank mine exploded while they were receiving instruction in its use. It was the worst loss of life in the Irish Army during peacetime.

  October

• 12 October – Charles Stewart Parnell, "the uncrowned King of Ireland," was honoured in a huge pageant in Dublin.

  November

• November – Brendan Behan was released from Borstal in England and deported to Ireland.

  December

• 8 December – The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Winston Churchill cabled the Taoiseach inviting him to join the Allies of World War II.

  Arts and literature

• Myles na gCopaleen's parodic novel An Béal Bocht was published.
• Donagh MacDonagh's Veterans, and other poems was published.
• Louis MacNeice's poetry Plant and Phantom and study The Poetry of W. B. Yeats were published.
• Kate O'Brien's novel The Land of Spices was published; it was prohibited in Ireland by the Censorship of Publications Board.
• English poet John Betjeman became the British press attaché in Dublin, living in Clondalkin.
• Opening of the new Dublin Airport passenger terminal, designed by Desmond FitzGerald, the first significant International Style building in Ireland.

  Sport

Association football

Golf

• The Irish Open was not played due to The Emergency.

  Births

• 3 January – Derrick O'Connor, actor.
• 10 March – Pat Donnellan, Galway Gaelic footballer.
• 31 March – Jim O'Keeffe, Fine Gael party Teachta Dála for Cork South-West.
• 18 April – Michael D. Higgins, Labour Party TD, Cabinet Minister, and ninth President of Ireland.
• 22 May – Caitlín Maude, poet, actress and traditional singer.
• 24 June – Gerard Clifford, Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Armagh.
• 24 July – Tony Dunne, association football player.
• 27 August – Paddy Barry, Cork hurler.
• 15 September – Tommy Carberry, National Hunt jockey and trainer.
• 18 September – Michael Hartnett, poet.
• 2 October – Donal Moynihan, Fianna Fáil party TD.
• 5 October – Phil Larkin, Kilkenny hurler.
• 13 October – Mick Doyle, rugby player and coach.
• 20 October – Mike Murphy, television and radio broadcaster.
• 11 November – Eddie Keher, Kilkenny hurler.
• 23 November – Derek Mahon, poet.
• 1 December – Fiachra Trench, musician and composer.
• 2 December – William Lee, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore.
• 10 December – Fionnula Flanagan, actress.
• ;Full date unknown
• :* Jonathan Bardon, historian and author.
• :* James Coleman, installation and video artist.
• :* Cyril Dunne, Galway Gaelic footballer.
• :* Paddy Flanagan, cyclist.
• :* Eamon Grennan, poet.
• :* Sean Matgamna, Trotskyist theorist.

  Deaths

• 6 January – F. R. Higgins, poet and theatre director.
• 10 January – John Lavery, artist.
• 13 January – James Joyce, novelist and poet.
• 15 February – Andrew Jameson, public servant, businessman and Seanad member.
• 19 February – Hamilton Harty, conductor and composer.
• 13 March – Finlay Jackson, cricketer and rugby player.
• 1 April – Jennie Wyse Power, member of the Seanad from 1922 to 1936.
• 19 May – Lola Ridge, anarchist poet and editor.
• 4 July – William John English, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1901 at Vlakfontein, South Africa.
• 19 August – John T. Browne, Mayor of Houston, Texas.
• 9 September – William Gerard Barry, painter.
• 11 September – John MacLoughlin, elected for nine years to Seanad from 1922 as an independent.
• 11 October – Mildred Anne Butler, painter.
• 26 November – James Jackman, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1941 at Tobruk, Libya; killed in action the next day.
• ;Full date unknown
• :* Sidney Royse Lysaght, writer.