1965 in Ireland

Incumbents

• President: Éamon de Valera
• Taoiseach: Seán Lemass
• Tánaiste:
• * Seán MacEntee
• * Frank Aiken
• Minister for Finance:
• * James Ryan
• * Jack Lynch
• Chief Justice: Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh
• Dáil:
• * 17th
• * 18th
• Seanad:
• * 10th
• * 11th

  Events

• 14 January – Taoiseach Seán Lemass travelled to Belfast for a historic meeting with the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Terence O'Neill.
• 21 January – Nationalist leader Eddie McAteer visited Seán Lemass in Dublin.
• 28 February – Roger Casement was honoured with a state funeral and reburial in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
• 7 March – Changes to the Liturgy of the Catholic Mass were introduced. Mass was said in the vernacular for the first time instead of in Latin.
• 18 March – The Northern Minister for Agriculture, Harry West attended a meeting with his Southern counterpart, Charles Haughey, in Dublin.
• 20 March – Ireland made its debut at the Eurovision Song Contest. Butch Moore sang Walking the Streets in the Rain and came sixth at the final in Naples.
• 7 April – 1965 Irish general election: The ruling Fianna Fáil party led by Seán Lemass gained a majority. This was the first Irish general election to be covered on television by state broadcaster RTÉ. The Clann na Talmhan party did not contest the election and was wound up. Members of the 18th Dáil assembled on 21 April.
• 18 April – The Gaelic Athletic Association Congress in Dublin decided that the ban on foreign games was to remain.
• 21 April – James Dillon resigned as leader of the Fine Gael party following his election defeat. Liam Cosgrave was the new leader.
• 24 May – The first drive-on car ferry service between Rosslare Harbour in County Wexford and Fishguard in Wales officially opened.
• 13 June – Huge crowds turned out at Drumcliff Churchyard in County Sligo to honour the poet W. B. Yeats on the centenary of his birth.
• 8 July – Taoiseach Seán Lemass was conferred with an honorary Doctorate of Law at Trinity College Dublin.
• 26 July – Craigavon was designated as a New Town under the New Towns Act.
• July–September – Newspaper strike in Dublin
• 15 August – Galway Cathedral was dedicated.

  Arts and literature

• Dominic Behan's biography My Brother Brendan was published.
• John McGahern's novel The Dark was published.
• Iris Murdoch's novel The Red and the Green, with an Easter Rising setting, was published.
• Dervla Murphy's first travel book, Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, was published.

  Science and technology

• The Young Scientist Exhibition was held for the first time.

  Births

• 18 January – Paudge Behan, actor
• 22 January – Denis Walsh, Cork Gaelic footballer and hurler.
• 22 February – Kieren Fallon, champion flat racing jockey.
• 28 February – Colum McCann, fiction writer.
• 10 March – Damien Hancock, association football referee.
• 17 March – Joe Cooney, Galway hurler.
• 24 March – John Commins, Galway hurler.
• 26 March – John McDonnell, association football player and manager.
• 30 April – Eddie McGoldrick, association football player born in England of Irish descent.
• 14 May – Eoin Colfer, author.
• 28 May – Mary Coughlan, Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil party Teachta Dála for Donegal South-West.
• 22 June – Enda McCallion, film director.
• June – Jim Cashman, Cork hurler.
• 1 July – Teddy McCarthy, Cork Gaelic footballer and hurler.
• 10 July – Dominic Hannigan, politician
• 30 July – Declan Carr, Tipperary hurler.
• 2 October – Keith Ridgway, writer.
• 8 October – Ardal O'Hanlon, comedian, actor and writer.
• 31 October – Denis Irwin, association football player.
• 10 November – Sean Hughes, comedian born in England of Irish parents.
• 20 November – Diarmuid Wilson, Fianna Fáil party senator.
• 25 November – David Kelly, association footballer born in England of Irish descent.

  Full date unknown

• Mike McCormack, novelist.
• Gary Coyle, artist.

  Deaths

• 7 January – Jimmy O'Dea, comedian.
• 6 February – Tom Jameson, cricketer.
• 10 February – Jim Hurley, veteran of the Irish War of Independence, Cork Gaelic footballer and hurler.
• 15 February
• * Bill Britton, athlete.
• * Sam Thompson, playwright.
• 13 March – Patrick Giles, Fine Gael TD.
• 10 April – James Duhig, Archbishop of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.
• 12 June – Arthur Cox, solicitor, priest, nominated to 8th Seanad by the Taoiseach in 1954.
• 22 June – Piaras Béaslaí, member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, member of Dáil Éireann, author, playwright, biographer and translator.
• 17 July – Frank Ryan, tenor.
• 28 August – Richard Wyndham-Quin, 6th Earl of Dunraven, peer.
• 11 September – Bethel Solomons, obstetrician and rugby player.
• 26 September – James Fitzmaurice, pilot, aviation pioneer.
• 12 November – Charles McCausland, cricketer.
• 16 November – W. T. Cosgrave, first President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State.
• 27 November – Francis MacManus, novelist.
• 30 December – Henry George Farmer, musicologist.