1958 in Ireland

Events from the year 1958 in Ireland.

Incumbents

Events

6 February – Association football player, 22-year-old Billy Whelan, who played four times for the Irish national team, was among 21 people killed in the Munich air disaster involving English football team Manchester United.
18 March – Taoiseach Éamon de Valera said he would be willing to have talks with the government of Northern Ireland on wider economic co-operation.
20 March – Work began on the £80,000 restoration of the State Rooms at Dublin Castle.
10 May – The Independent Teachta Dála, Jack Murphy, resigned in protest at the indifference of the main political parties to the plight of the unemployed.
12 May – The Ardmore Film Studios were opened by the Tánaiste, Seán Lemass.
22 May – The Minister for Education, Jack Lynch, told the Dáil that the ruling requiring women teachers to retire upon marriage was to be revoked.
25 July – £100 damages were awarded to a nine-year-old boy who was beaten by his teacher in a national school.
28 July – The Carlisle Monument, an eight-foot bronze statue in the Phoenix Park in Dublin, was blown up by an Irish republican bomb in the early hours.
8 August – The Embassy of [the United States, Dublin|United States Embassy] in Merrion Square, Dublin displayed plans for a new embassy.
8 September – Pan Am's Boeing 707 became the first jetliner to touch down on European soil at Shannon Airport.
1 October – Assets and management of the Great [Northern Railway (Ireland)|Great Northern Railway] were divided between CIÉ and the Ulster Transport Authority.
29 October – The Government announced that the question of ending the proportional representation method of voting was to be put to the people in a referendum.
4 November – In the Vatican, Taoiseach Éamon de Valera attended the four-hour coronation of Pope John XXIII.
31 December – The Harcourt Street railway line in Dublin closed, having served Ranelagh, Milltown, Dundrum, Stillorgan, Foxrock, Carrickmines, Shankill and Bray.

Arts and literature

21 February – Desmond Guinness established the Irish Georgian Society for the promotion of Georgian architecture.
16 June – Brendan Behan's one-act Irish language play An Giall was first performed at the Damer Theatre in Dublin.
14 October – The English adaptation of An Giall,, was first performed by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, London.
28 October – Samuel Beckett's monologue Krapp's Last Tape was first performed by Patrick Magee at the Royal Court Theatre, London.
Samuel Beckett's novel The Unnamable was published in English.
Brendan Behan's autobiographical Borstal Boy was published in London. On 12 November it was banned in Ireland by the Censorship of Publications Board.
Thomas Kinsella's poetry Another September was published in Dublin.
Patrick MacDonogh's poetry One Landscape Still was published.
John Montague's poetry Forms of Exile was published.
The Oxford Book of Irish Verse, XVIIth century-XXth century, edited by Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, was published.

Sports

Association football

Football World Cup

Northern Ireland:

* Group stage
** Northern Ireland 1–1 Czechoslovakia
** Northern Ireland 1–1 Argentina
** Northern Ireland 1–1 West Germany
*** Northern Ireland entered group playoff stage
** Northern Ireland 2–1 Czechoslovakia AET
*** Northern Ireland qualified for the quarterfinal stage
** Northern Ireland 0–4 France
*** Northern Ireland were knocked out at the quarterfinal stage

Births

1 January – Liam Fennelly, Kilkenny hurler
27 January – Synan Braddish, association football player
1 February – Seán Fleming, Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála for Laois–Offaly
2 February – Paddy Prendergast, Kilkenny hurler
16 February – Fintan O'Toole, journalist and drama critic
1 April – Stephen O'Rahilly, Irish-British physician and academic
19 April – Denis O'Brien, entrepreneur
30 April – James Hewitt, soldier and lover of Diana, Princess of Wales
6 May
* Tommy Byrne, motor racing driver
* Ivor Callely, Fianna Fáil politician, member of the 23rd Seanad, TD and Minister of State
8 May – Roddy Doyle, novelist, dramatist and screenwriter
11 May – Conor Hayes, Galway hurler and manager
2 June – John Buckley, Cork hurler
7 June – Aidan Fogarty, Offaly hurler
8 June
* Louise Richardson, political scientist and university vice-chancellor
* Niall Williams, writer
5 July – Veronica Guerin, journalist
10 July – Fiona Shaw, actress
11 July – Martin Doherty, member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
16 July – Michael Flatley, American dancer
10 September – Siobhan Fahey, musician
16 September – Maura O'Connell, singer
18 September – John Aldridge, Irish international association football player, in England of Irish descent
11 November – John Devine, association football player
21 November – Eddie O'Sullivan, head coach of the Ireland national rugby union team

;Full date unknown

Deaths

1 January – Richard Hayes, doctor and Sinn Féin Member of Parliament
17 January – Michael Donohoe, Irish-born American politician, Democratic U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania
24 March – Seamus O'Sullivan, poet and editor
29 March – Jimmy Archer, Major League baseball player
24 April – Mabel McConnell Fitzgerald, republican, suffragette and socialist
28 July – Dick Walsh, Kilkenny hurler
13 August – James Lennon, member of 1st Dáil representing the County Carlow constituency
24 August – Paul Henry, artist
9 September – Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh, actress and Republican activist
15 October – Lennox Robinson, dramatist, poet and theatre director and producer
2 December – Alan McKibbin, businessman and Ulster Unionist Party MP
8 December – Peig Sayers, seanachaí
19 December – Arthur Gore, 6th Earl of Arran, Anglo-Irish peer and soldier
23 December – Dorothy Macardle, author and historian
24 December – Martin O'Brien, hurler