2003 in Ireland

Incumbents

• President: Mary McAleese
• Taoiseach: Bertie Ahern
• Tánaiste: Mary Harney
• Minister for Finance: Charlie McCreevy
• Chief Justice: Ronan Keane
• Dáil: 29th
• Seanad: 22nd

  Events

• 21 January – The Spire of Dublin on O'Connell Street was completed.
• 16 February – One hundred thousand people in Dublin, and 30,000 in Belfast marched to express their opposition to the imminent invasion of Iraq.
• 7 April – President George W. Bush of the United States arrived in Northern Ireland for discussions with UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair. He also met Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, and the leaders of the pro-agreement parties.
• 21 June – The 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games were opened by the former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, in Croke Park, Dublin.
• 31 August – The remains of Belfast mother Jean McConville were found 31 years after she was abducted and murdered by the Provisional IRA, who accused her of being a British Army agent.
• 15 September – For the first time, the All-Ireland Football Final was contested by two teams from the same province. Tyrone were victorious over Armagh in the first All-Ulster Final.
• 31 October – The 2003 Derrybrien landslide occurred on the side of Cashlaundrumlahan, a hill near Derrybrien in County Galway. It was focused around turbine 68 in the Derrybrien wind farm, and disrupted further construction.
• 27 November – The people of Northern Ireland went to the polls. The Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin made massive gains at the expense of more moderate unionist and nationalist parties.

  Arts and literature

• May – Claire Kilroy's debut novel All Summer was published.
• 20 May – Mark O'Rowe's play Crestfall premièred at the Gate Theatre, Dublin.
• 25 November – The contents of Lissadell House in County Sligo were auctioned.
• December – The tree-planting amaptocare public art project in Ballymun was launched.
• Hugo Hamilton's memoir The Speckled People was published.
• Paul Murray's comic novel An Evening of Long Goodbyes was published.
• My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk won the International Dublin Literary Award.

  Music

Sport

Association football

• The League of Ireland moved from a predominantly winter season to a Scandinavian-style summer season. Bohemians won the transitional 2002/03 season and Shelbourne won the 2003 championship.

  Gaelic games

• All-Ireland Hurling Final – Kilkenny 1–14, Cork 1–11.
• All-Ireland Football Final – Tyrone 0–12, Armagh 0–9.

  Golf

• Nissan Irish Open was won by Michael Campbell.

  Rugby union

• Rugby World Cup – Ireland reached the quarter-finals of the competition before being beaten by France.
• 2003 Six Nations Championship: Ireland lost only to England, who won the tournament with a grand slam.
• 2002–03 Heineken Cup: Munster and Leinster advanced from the pool stage and both were defeated in the semi-finals. The final was played in Lansdowne Road.

  Births

• 14 March – Sean Roughan, footballer
• 16 May – Louise Little, cricketer
• 6 June – Johnny Kenny, footballer
• 7 November – Lara McDonnell, actress

  Deaths