1950 in Ireland
Events from the year 1950 in Ireland.
Incumbents
- President: Seán T. O'Kelly
- Taoiseach: John A. Costello
- Tánaiste: William Norton
- Minister for Finance: Patrick McGilligan
- Chief Justice: Conor Maguire
- Dáil: 13th
- Seanad: 6th
Events
- March – The Electricity Supply Board's turf-fired power station at Portarlington officially opened.
- 12 March – Llandow air disaster: 83 people died when a plane carrying Welsh rugby fans home from Belfast crashed in South Wales.
- 12 May – Nationalist senators and members of parliament in Northern Ireland asked the Government of Ireland to give Northern-elected representatives seats in Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann.
- 1 July – Sir Gilbert Laithwaite, hitherto British Representative to Ireland, became the first British Ambassador to Ireland.
- August – Future first lady of the United States Jacqueline Bouvier paid her first visit to Ireland with her step-brother, Hugh D. Auchincloss, following her studies at the Sorbonne. She attended the Dublin Horse Show, visited the Abbey Theatre, and met the Taoiseach, John A. Costello. She and her brother also visited County Cork, as well as Galway, Kildare, Killarney, and Tipperary. Bouvier returned in 1955 as the wife of Senator John F. Kennedy, and returned once again in 1967.
- 11 August – At a meeting of the European Consultative Assembly in Strasbourg Irish representatives voted against British Leader of the Opposition Winston Churchill's plan for a European army.
Arts and literature
- 13 January – Siobhán McKenna starred in San Siobhán, her own translation of George Bernard Shaw's play Saint Joan into Irish.
- 2 November – George Bernard Shaw, playwright and critic, died aged 94 in England.
- American-born artist Helen Hooker staged her first solo show, of sculpture at St Stephen's Green Gallery in Dublin.
- Canadian-born painter James Le Jeune settled in Ireland.
- The Chester Beatty Library was established in Dublin.
Sport
Association football
;League of Ireland;FAI Cup
Gaelic Games
- Mayo were All Ireland Gaelic Football Champions.
Golf
- Irish Open was won by Ossie Pickworth.
Births
- 30 January – Paddy Keenan, uilleann pipes player.
- 25 February – Neil Jordan, film director/producer and fiction writer.
- 5 March – Patrick Cockburn, journalist.
- 12 March – Willie Duggan, rugby union player.
- 18 March
- *Pat McDonnell, Cork hurler.
- *Bobby Miller, Gaelic footballer and manager.
- 29 March – Miah Dennehy, soccer player.
- 21 April – Pádraig Horan, Offaly hurler.
- 12 May – Gabriel Byrne, actor.
- 17 May – Michael P. Kitt, Fianna Fáil TD for Galway East.
- 21 May – Marian Finucane, broadcast presenter.
- 22 May – Bill Whelan, composer of Riverdance.
- 25 May – John Horgan, Cork hurler.
- 1 June – Gemma Craven, actress.
- 23 June – Éamon Ó Cuív, Fianna Fáil TD for Galway West, Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
- 24 June – Bob Carlos Clarke, photographer.
- 29 June – Vere Wynne-Jones, journalist, sports broadcaster.
- 17 July – Michael Colgan, director, Gate Theatre.
- 1 August
- * Martin Coleman, Cork hurler.
- * Cyril Farrell, Galway hurling manager.
- * Frances Fitzgerald, 24th Tánaiste of Ireland
- 3 August – Mick Flavin, country music singer.
- 12 August
- *John Carty, Fianna Fáil TD and senator.
- *Patrick Parfrey, nephrologist and clinical epidemiologist in Canada.
- 14 August – Dermot Desmond, businessman and entrepreneur.
- 23 August – David Molony, lawyer, Fine Gael TD and senator.
- 26 August – Don Baker, singer songwriter.
- 29 August – Dick Spring, Tánaiste, leader of the Labour Party and Cabinet Minister.
- 5 September
- * Brendan Cummins, Cork hurler.
- * Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, member European Court of Auditors, Fianna Fáil TD and Cabinet Minister.
- 5 October – Michael Gaughan, Provisional Irish Republican Army hunger striker.
- 6 December – Jan O'Sullivan, Labour Party TD for Limerick East.
- 10 December
- * Desmond Hogan, writer.
- * Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, musician.
- 16 December – Dolours Price, political activist and Provisional Irish Republican Army member.
- 25 December – Noël Treanor, Roman Catholic archbishop.
- ;Full date unknown
Deaths
- 24 March – Robert Johnston, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1899 at the Battle of Elandslaagte, South Africa.
- 22 April – John T. McNicholas, Archbishop of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati and founder of the Catholic Legion of Decency.
- 26 April – R. A. Stewart Macalister, archaeologist.
- 10 May – Art O'Connor, Sinn Féin MP, member of 1st Dáil, Cabinet Minister, lawyer and judge.
- 11 June – Stephen Gwynn, journalist, writer, poet and Nationalist politician.
- 25 June – Muiris Ó Súilleabháin, writer.
- 2 July – George Edward Pugin Meldon, cricketer.
- 20 July – Herbert Dixon, 1st Baron Glentoran, Unionist politician.
- 13 September – Sara Allgood, actress.
- 13 October – Hugh Godley, 2nd Baron Kilbracken, barrister.
- 2 November – George Bernard Shaw, playwright and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature .
- 9 November – Diarmuid Lynch, member of 1st Dáil representing Cork South-East.
- 1 December – E. J. Moeran, composer.
- 26 December – James Stephens, novelist and poet.
- ;Full date unknown