1957 in Ireland

Events from the year 1957 in Ireland.

Incumbents

Events

1 January – Border Campaign: Seán South and Fergal O'Hanlon were killed in an Irish Republican Army attack on a Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks in Brookeborough, County Fermanagh. The Government of Ireland used the current Offences Against the State Act to arrest most of the IRA's leadership, including its chief of staff, Seán Cronin.
12 January – Over a hundred republicans were arrested under the Special Powers Act in Northern Ireland.
24 January – Sir Alfred Chester Beatty became the first person granted honorary citizenship of Ireland.
4 February – St. Mary's Church of Ireland Cathedral at Elphin, County Roscommon, was severely damaged in a violent storm, leading to its abandonment.
3 March – Éamon de Valera told a crowd in Cork that a United Ireland could be achieved with time and the support of the people.
5 March – 1957 Irish general election: The Fianna Fáil party under Éamon de Valera returned to power, winning 78 seats. Members of the 16th Dáil assembled on 20 March.
7 March – A Percival Provost aircraft crashed on the lower eastern slope of Table Mountain, County Wicklow with the loss of one life.
11 March – Prize Bonds were introduced; the Bank of Ireland operated the scheme on behalf of the Minister for Finance.
May–September – Fethard-on-Sea Ne Temere boycott: a Roman Catholic priest and some of his parishioners organised a boycott of Protestant-owned local businesses.
4 July – Following the killing of a Royal Ulster Constabulary officer, the new Government of Ireland introduced wholesale internment without trial for IRA suspects.
4 July – The Dáil debated the Fethard-on-Sea Ne Temere boycott.
22 July – The Gough Monument in the Phoenix Park in Dublin was wrecked by an explosion so violent that it was heard all over the city.
7 August – A 20-foot high war memorial in Limerick was blown up. It was erected to commemorate British soldiers from Limerick who died in World War I.
30 September – Last day of operation of 97 miles of railway in Northern Ireland following government instructions. County Fermanagh lost all its lines. The GNR closed a further 84 miles of connecting lines in the Republic on October 12.
2 October – The Minister for Health, Seán MacEntee, launched the Voluntary Health Insurance Board.
7 October – President Seán T. O'Kelly's country residence, Roundwood House, County Wicklow, was destroyed by fire.
10 October – The Windscale fire began with a fire in a graphite core of a reactor at the Windscale Nuclear Power station and reprocessing centre on the Cumberland coast of North West England. Years later there were claims that the radiation caused cancers and birth defects in County Louth.
27 October – The foundation stone of Galway Cathedral was blessed.
1 November – The Soviet satellite Sputnik was visible over Dublin for the second time in a month.
November – Border Campaign: The premature explosion of a bomb at a farmhouse in County Louth killed four IRA men and a householder.Undated – Cyril Lord opened a new factory for the production of tufted carpets at Donaghadee, County Down.

Arts and literature

13 January – Samuel Beckett's All That Fall was first broadcast, with J. G. Devlin in a leading role.
12 May – The Pike Theatre in Dublin staged the Tennessee Williams play The Rose Tattoo. During its short run the theatre was invaded by Gardaí and director Alan Simpson was arrested for producing "a lewd entertainment" for a mime of dropping a condom onto the floor.
The Bachelors musical group formed as The Harmonichords in Dublin.
Publication of Tomás de Bhaldraithe's English-Irish Dictionary.
Publication of Heinrich Böll's Irish journal.

Sport

Association football

19 May – Ireland 1–1 England.

Golf

27 June – Philomena Garvey won the British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship at Gleneagles.

Births

17 January – Colm Burke, Fine Gael Lord Mayor of Cork, MEP.
22 January – Ray Flynn, Irish-American runner
7 February – Regina Joyce, long-distance runner.
15 February
* Dave Langan, association football player.
* David Stanton, Fine Gael TD for Cork East.
26 February – Charlie Nelligan, Kerry Gaelic footballer.
6 April – Dermot Mac Curtain, Cork hurler.
8 April – Richie Power, Kilkenny hurler.
23 April – Tommy Quaid, Limerick hurler.
13 March – Patricia McKenna, Green Party politician.
7 March – Seán Crowe, Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South-West.
21 March – Pat Breen, Fine Gael TD for Clare.
20 May – Dermot Gallagher, association football referee.
23 May – Jimmy McShane, singer
28 May – Dick O'Hara, Kilkenny hurler.
17 June – Philip Chevron, born Philip Ryan, Celtic punk singer-songwriter and guitarist.
20 June – Kieran Brennan, Kilkenny hurler and Irish Army general.
17 July – Terry Eviston, association football player.
July – Catherine Connolly, politician.
2 August – Ashley Grimes, association football player and coach.
7 August – Daire Brehan, actress, broadcaster and barrister.
28 August – Tom Cashman, Cork hurler.
26 September – Finbar Wright, singer.
8 October – Martha Kearney, radio journalist.
14 October – John Henderson, Kilkenny hurler.
16 October – Eoin Liston, Kerry Gaelic footballer.
6 November – Siobhán McCarthy, actress.
19 November – Jack O'Shea, Kerry Gaelic footballer.
24 November – John Minihan, soldier, Progressive Democrats Seanad Éireann member.
12 December – Jon Kenny, comedian.
17 December – Robbie Gaffney, association football player.
25 December – Shane MacGowan, English-born Celtic punk singer-songwriter.

;Undated

Deaths

1 January – Fergal O'Hanlon, Irish Republican Army member killed with Seán South attacking the Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks in Brookeborough.
1 January – Seán South, IRA leader fatally wounded during an attack on a Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks in Brookeborough.
11 January – Anthony Mulvey, editor and Nationalist Party MP.
16 February – John Sealy Townsend, mathematical physicist.
25 March
* Ernie O'Malley, prominent officer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and on anti-Treaty side in the Irish Civil War and a writer.
* George Townshend, writer, clergyman who converted to the Baháʼí Faith.
28 March – Jack B. Yeats, artist.
29 March – John J. O'Kelly, politician, author and publisher, president of the Gaelic League and Sinn Féin.
11 April – Freeman Wills Crofts, novelist.
23 May – William Meldon, cricketer.
26 May – Edward Hutchinson Synge, theoretical physicist
26 June – Colm Gallagher, Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin North-Central and boxing referee.
1 August – Cathal O'Byrne, singer, poet and writer.
22 September – Oliver St. John Gogarty, physician, poet and writer.
25 October – Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany, writer and dramatist.
9 November – Peter O'Connor, athlete.
16 November – Seán Moylan, member Irish Volunteers, Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil TD, Cabinet Minister and Seanad Éireann member.
6 December – Michael James O'Rourke, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1917 at Hill 70 near Lens, France.
21 December – Thomas Sadleir, genealogist.