2011 in Ireland

Incumbents

• President:
• * Mary McAleese
• * Michael D. Higgins
• Taoiseach:
• * Brian Cowen
• * Enda Kenny
• Tánaiste:
• * Mary Coughlan
• * Eamon Gilmore
• Minister for Finance:
• * Brian Lenihan
• * Michael Noonan
• Chief Justice:
• * John L. Murray
• * Susan Denham
• Dáil:
• * 30th
• * 31st
• Seanad:
• * 23rd
• * 24th

  Events

January

• 1 January
• * The Civil Partnership Act came into effect allowing civil partnerships where hetero- and homosexual cohabiting couples have the same rights.
• * Met Éireann confirmed that December 2010 was the coldest on record, with a temperature of -17.5°C recorded in Straide, County Mayo, on Christmas Day.
• 5 January
• * Michael Finneran, Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government of the Fianna Fáil party, announced he would not contest the 2011 general election.
• * Minister for Defence, Fianna Fáil's Tony Killeen announced he will not contest the 2011 general election.
• 8 January – Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála for Meath East, Mary Wallace, announced she will not contest the 2011 general election.
• 18 January – A spectacular fireball that exploded in the clear Irish sky at 6pm was witnessed across the country. Astronomers calculated that it may have landed as a meteorite in County Clare.
• 22 January – The Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, resigned his position as leader of the Fianna Fáil party.
• 23 January – The Green Party withdrew from the coalition government, making an immediate general election necessary. John Gormley and Eamon Ryan resigned, leaving only seven ministers remaining in the cabinet, the constitutional minimum.
• 25 January
• * Fianna Fáil's Micheál Martin was elected party leader.
• * Fianna Fáil TD for Galway East, Noel Treacy, announced he will not contest the 2011 general election, while Fianna Fáil's Mattie McGrath, TD for Tipperary South, announced he is leaving the party to become an independent.
• 26 January – British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams has resigned from the British parliament by nominal appointment as Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.
• 28 January – Another fireball exploded in the Irish atmosphere. Astronomy Ireland appealed to the public to report sightings.

  February

• 1 February
• * Fianna Fáil TD for Limerick West, John Cregan, announced he will not contest the 2011 general election.
• * It was announced that the Sunday Tribune newspaper had gone into receivership following the decision of Independent News & Media to stop funding it.
• * The Taoiseach dissolved the Dáil and went to Áras an Uachtaráin where President McAleese signed a proclamation of dissolution. The Minister for Local Government made an order appointing 25 February as polling day. The Clerk of the Dáil issued a writ to the constituency returning officers to initiate a general election, officially allowing posters of the candidates to be displayed.
• * A Russian agent was expelled from Ireland because of his role in the forgery of Irish passports for use in the "Illegals Program" spy ring in the United States. A Garda investigation discovered that members of the Russian espionage agency, the SVR, were involved in the forgeries. Alexander Smirnov, the first secretary in the Russian embassy's consular section, was instructed to leave Ireland.
• 2 February – Russian deputy foreign minister Vladimir Titov threatened Ireland that Russia will retaliate for the Irish expulsion of a Russian forger. Ireland warned Russia that retaliation would be unjustified. An Irish government spokesman said Irish embassy staff in Moscow perform no spying activity.
• 5 February – It emerged that a large number of gun enthusiasts had mounted legal challenges against the of August 2009 which banned handguns and restricted access to other firearms.
• 7 February – The first gay civil partnership under the newly enacted civil partnership law took place in the Civil Registration Office in Dublin.
• 10 February – A small plane carrying ten passengers and two crew crashed while landing in fog at Cork Airport. Six people were killed.
• 25 February – A general election was held. There were party reverses and gains on a historic scale with support for the outgoing government parties Fianna Fáil and the Green Party collapsing. Dominic Hannigan and John Lyons were the first openly LGBT members of Dáil Éireann at the time of election.

  March

• 9 March – The members of the 31st Dáil convened for the first time and elected Enda Kenny as Taoiseach by a vote of 117–27.

  April

• 12–14 April – The Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso visited Ireland for the third time. He delivered a speech on the 13th to 2,000 people at a conference in Saggart and visited the town of Kildare. The following day, he gave an address to 3,100 people at the University of Limerick entitled "The Power of Forgiveness". He last visited Ireland in March 1991, and has also visited Northern Ireland three times.

  May

• Mission to Prey, a television programme presented by Aoife Kavanagh, was aired on RTÉ One, which defamed Fr. Kevin Reynolds. Justice and Defence Minister Alan Shatter supported the programme at the time.
• 17 May–20 May – Elizabeth II paid the first state visit by a monarch of the United Kingdom to Ireland since its Independence.
• 23 May – President Barack Obama of the United States paid an official visit to Ireland which included Dublin and his ancestral village of Moneygall. He curtailed his visit because of a looming volcanic ash cloud from the Grímsvötn volcano, and departed for London instead of staying the night in Dublin.

  June

• 30 June–3 July – the Tall Ships' Races began in Waterford. Half a million people were expected to attend the festival.

  July

• 1 July – The value added tax rate was lowered from 13.5% to 9% for a range of services connected to the hospitality and tourism sectors.
• 7 July – Politician Avril Doyle withdrew from the race to be the Fine Gael party's presidential candidate.
• 13 July – The Cloyne Report was published, an investigation into how the Cloyne Diocese mishandled child sexual abuse allegations. The investigating commission stated that the greatest failure by the diocese was the failure to report all abuse cases to the Gardaí.
• 20 July – The taoiseach, Enda Kenny, delivered a speech in Dáil Éireann, in response to the Cloyne Report, strongly attacking the Vatican and the Catholic Church.
• 28 July – The Irish writer Jonathan Swift was honoured by the International Astronomical Union when it named two geological features on the Martian moon Phobos after geographical entities from Swift's novel, Gulliver's Travels. The Lagado Planitia on Phobos was named after the fictional city Lagado, while Laputa Regio was named after the fictional flying island, Laputa.

  August

• 2 August – David Norris withdrew from his presidential election campaign, following controversy.
• 6 August – It was reported that surveys had suggested that a shipwreck found off Rutland Island, County Donegal was from the Spanish Armada.

  September

• 7 September – Telecommunication company TalkTalk announced the loss of 575 jobs with the closure of its call centre in Waterford.
• 13 September – Homeowner Teresa Treacy was jailed for contempt of court in County Offaly. Government contractors cut down 12,000 of her trees to make way for electricity pylons while she was detained.
• 22 September – The first Irish case of death by spontaneous combustion was recorded in Galway.

  October

• 8 October – Occupy Dame Street began this afternoon.
• 11 October
• * Ireland's association football team reached the play-offs of the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifiers.
• * 11 October – Two crosses were stolen in a masked raid on Holy Cross Abbey.
• 24 October – Ireland was struck by flash floods including heavy torrential rain in Dublin with up to 90mm of rain falling during six hours in the evening. One off-duty Garda, Ciarán Jones, was swept off a bridge and killed while helping motorists in Wicklow.
• 27 October – A presidential election and two constitutional referendums were held.

  November

• 3 November – The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced the closure of Ireland's embassies in Iran and the Vatican, and its representative office in East Timor, as a cost-cutting measure during the serious Irish financial crisis.
• 11 November – Michael D. Higgins was inaugurated as President of Ireland at a ceremony in Dublin Castle.
• 15 November
• * The Irish association football team qualified for UEFA Euro 2012 in Poland/Ukraine.
• * Willie Penrose resigned as Minister of State for Housing and Planning due to his opposition to the Government's decision to close the army barracks in Mullingar.
• 16 November – Thousands of students and their families from around Ireland marched on Government Buildings in Dublin to protest against the re-introduction of third-level education fees. A small group also engage in a sit-down protest outside the Fine Gael office on Upper Mount Street.
• 22 November – Fine Gael's Darren Scully resigned as Mayor of Naas after commenting on live radio about the alleged "aggressive attitude" of "black Africans".
• 23 November – The Prime Time Investigates television programme was cancelled as Director-General of RTÉ Noel Curran described the broadcasting of "Mission to Prey" as "one of the gravest editorial mistakes ever made" at RTÉ.
• 26 November – Thousands of people marched against austerity in Dublin.
• 29 November – Three student union presidents under the leadership of Union of Students in Ireland President Gary Redmond, and in possession of a chemical toilet and supplies of food that could have lasted them weeks, occupied a room at the Department of Social Protection on Store Street in Dublin as part of a continued effort to have the Labour Party clarify its position on tuition fees. Ten student union presidents also attempted to occupy a room at the Department of Enterprise on Kildare Street.
• 30 November
• * Nine Free Education for Everyone students seeking clarification of the government's view on third-level education fees participated in a sit-down protest by occupying the constituency office of Fine Gael TD and former mayor Brian Walsh in Bohermore, Galway. They unfurled a banner on the roof with the message, "Free Education Nothing Less".
• * Audits of child protection practices conducted by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church were published by six dioceses, with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raphoe, overseen by Philip Boyce, coming in for most criticism.
• * A settlement was reached between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh and a man sworn to secrecy by Seán Brady over abuse by Brendan Smyth as a teenager.