2013 in Ireland


Events during the year 2013 in Ireland.

Incumbents

January

  • 14 January – A couple, including a former nurse, were found huddled together on the bedroom floor of a flat owned by Dublin City Council, having been dead for days. They died from hypothermia.
  • 14 January – Music retailer HMV went out of business and thousands of people lost their jobs, including 300 in Ireland.
  • 15 January – A Dublin grandfather challenged HMV's administrators by leaving the Henry Street branch of the shop with three computer games when staff refused to accept a €40 HMV gift voucher he bought his grandson for Christmas.
  • 15 January – The Food Safety Authority of Ireland confirmed the presence of horse DNA in beef burger products on sale in supermarkets. At least ten million burgers were withdrawn from sale.
  • 16 January – Former Fianna Fáil politician Pat Melia was fined €500 after pleading guilty to the false claiming of expenses in April 2012.
  • 28 January – Protesters against the household tax occupied a public gallery in Cork; Cork City Council abandoned a meeting.
  • 28 January – Flash flooding occurred in central Galway. Elsewhere in the country, flooding occurred in Killarney and between Letterkenny and Stranorlar.
  • 29 January – Two people were killed by the collapse of an internal wall at a garden centre in Longford.
  • 31 January – The High Court ruled that businessman David Hall did not have the legal standing to challenge the State's use of promissory notes to bail out Anglo Irish Bank and other financial institutions, though the ruling allowed for the case to be brought by a member of the Dáil.

    February

  • 5 February – A report into Ireland's Magdalene asylums found "significant" state collusion in the admission of thousands of "fallen women" into the institutions where they were abused and worked for nothing in conditions of slavery before they were shut down nearly two decades ago.
  • 6–7 February – The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation was dramatically liquidated after the Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition passed emergency overnight legislation through the Oireachtas. The Taoiseach Enda Kenny described it as "a good day for the country and its people". He told the Dáil that there would be a €20 billion reduction in the borrowing requirement of the National Treasury Management Agency in the coming years as a result of the changes, but also cautioned that the agreement was not a "silver bullet".
  • 9 February – Tens of thousands people marched against the bank debt burden in nationwide demonstrations in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Sligo.
  • 11 February – A house was burnt to the ground in County Donegal three weeks after political criticism over a plan assigning it to a family of 13 Travellers. Fianna Fáil councillor Sean McEniff denied racism and bigotry as a result of comments he made in favour of the segregation of Travellers, while Fine Gael councillor and former Ballyshannon mayor Eugene Dolan proposed that Travellers should be sent to Spike Island.
  • 11 February – Protesters against the household tax demonstrated at meetings of South Dublin County Council in Tallaght and Fingal County Council in Swords.
  • 14 February – The High Court ruled in favour of Denis O'Brien against the Irish Daily Mail, marking the first time the defence of honest opinion was used in a defamation case in Ireland after its introduction as part of the . O'Brien received €150,000.
  • 15 February – Traditional Irish musicians, The Chieftains, during a visit to Houston, Texas performed a long-distance musical duet with astronaut Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station by playing "Moondance" by Irish musician Van Morrison.
  • 18 February – Chris Hadfield transmitted the first message in the Irish language from outer space when he tweeted "Tá Éire fíorálainn!* Land of green hills and dark beer. With capital Dublin glowing in the Irish night." The message was accompanied by an orbital photograph by Hadfield of Dublin at night.
  • 19 February – Taoiseach Enda Kenny delivered an emotional apology in Dáil Éireann on behalf of the State to the Magdalene Laundry survivors. The estimated 800 to 1,000 surviving Magdalene women were told that a compensation scheme would be set up for them.

    March

  • 6 March – Thomas Crosbie Holdings, publisher of the Irish Examiner, went into receivership.
  • 7 March – The Sunday Business Post went into examinership.
  • 14 March – The Lowry Tapes, containing a telephone conversation between corrupt politician Michael Lowry and land agent Kevin Phelan, were broadcast in full on Tonight with Vincent Browne.
  • 17 March – Saint Patrick's Day.
  • * The government went on a round-the-world "Promote Ireland" programme. The Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, went to Washington, New York, Seattle and Silicon Valley, while Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore went to Atlanta, New Orleans and Washington. Alan Shatter went to the Middle East, Leo Varadkar to Japan, Ruairi Quinn to China, Phil Hogan to Boston, Pat Rabbitte to New York, Joan Burton to Chicago, and Frances Fitzgerald to India. Other destinations included Brussels, Rome, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
  • * Astronaut Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station celebrated Saint Patrick's Day by photographing Ireland from orbit and wearing a green shirt as well as a green dicky bow sent to him by his wife on a cargo resupply spacecraft especially for the holiday. Hadfield posted a number of Irish-themed tweets during the day, including some in Irish, and posted a recording online of himself singing "Danny Boy".
  • 18 March – President Higgins departed from Baldonnel Aerodrome for a three-day visit to Rome, accompanied by his wife Sabina and Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, to attend the inauguration of Jorge Bergoglio as Pope Francis.
  • 19 March
  • * President Higgins and his wife were greeted by the newly inaugurated Pope in the Vatican.
  • * The Taoiseach, Enda Kenny presented a bowl of shamrock to U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington D.C.
  • * Former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson was appointed by the United Nations as Special Envoy to the African Great Lakes region. Her mission was to implement an agreement to end violence in central Africa.
  • 20 March – President Higgins held a bilateral meeting in Rome with the President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, who invited him to visit Mexico in October.
  • 22 March – Shops and homes were damaged by floods in Blackpool, Cork.
  • 27 March – Meath East by-election: Helen McEntee of Fine Gael was elected to Dáil Éireann.
  • 31 March – Easter Sunday. Irish Standard Time began.

    April

  • 11 April – The Central Bank expressed regret over a James Joyce misquote on a new commemorative €10 coin. The bank tried to manage its mistake by claiming it was "artistic." Joyce's grandson, Stephen Joyce, criticised the coin and the manner of its release.
  • 12 April – European Union finance ministers and central bank governors met at Dublin Castle for two days of talks on austerity and the creation of a federal bank.
  • 13 April – Amid pouring rain, thousands of people from across Ireland marched in Dublin from O'Connell Street to Dublin Castle where they registered their protest against home and water taxes.
  • 17 April – President Higgins addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg in a speech entitled, Towards a European Union of the Citizens.
  • 19 April – Former Fianna Fáil politician Ivor Callely was arrested and charged with fraudulently claiming mobile phone expenses over a three-year period.
  • 19 April – The inquest into the death of Savita Halappanavar returned a verdict of "medical misadventure." The pregnant Halappanavar died of infection following hospital staff failure to recognise the seriousness of her condition and after her requests for an abortion were denied owing to legal restrictions.

    May

  • 1 May – Gardaí arrested five members of the Campaign Against Home and Water Taxes, including Cork City Councillors Ted Tynan and Mick Barry, during a midday protest inside the Patrick Street branch of the Bank of Ireland in the city. People gathered on the street. Councillor Tynan said he felt a need to stand up against austerity.
  • 2 May – President Higgins criticised austerity politics in a Financial Times interview.
  • 8 May – The births were confirmed of the first white-tailed eaglets born in Ireland in more than 100 years. The births, two at Mountshannon on Lough Derg in County Clare and one at Killarney National Park, had taken place in the previous week.
  • 12 May – Bus Éireann workers went on strike over cuts.
  • 12 May – Credit card details acquired by Abtran, the company which won the contract to operate the home tax helpline, were reported to have been misused.
  • 15 May – Minister for Justice Alan Shatter criticised whistle blowers alleging widespread corruption in the Garda Síochána regarding the cancellation of driving penalty points. An investigation by the Garda Síochána into its own affairs dismissed the allegations of corruption.
  • 15 May – During an appearance on the television programme, Prime Time, Minister Alan Shatter revealed personal information about political opponent Mick Wallace.
  • 18 May – Cross-party calls increased for the resignation of Alan Shatter over his attempt to smear a political opponent on television.
  • 21 May – Ireland was declared a tax haven at a high-profile senate hearing in the United States.
  • 23 May – It emerged that the Minister for Justice Alan Shatter had been breathalysed by Gardaí. The minister later admitted no Garda report had been made into the incident.
  • 24 May – Abtran, the company which won the contract to operate the home tax helpline, was announced to have also won the contract to operate the Irish Water water tax helpline.
  • 28 May – Ireland's latest crèche scandal featured revelations of children being strapped into chairs, shouted at, manhandled and force-fed. A psychologist was deployed to counsel traumatised parents affected by the revelations concerning one crèche.
  • 30 May – National Fish and Chip Day was celebrated. This is an annual marketing event begun in 2010 by an Italian–Irish business organisation, called the Irish Traditional Italian Chipper Association, to promote their wares and to distinguish what they describe as authentic Italian chippers from imitators.
  • 31 May – Ireland was again declared a tax haven by the United States, a response provoked by a diplomatic letter claiming it was not. U.S. senators Carl Levin and John McCain concluded: "Most reasonable people would agree that negotiating special tax arrangements that allow companies to pay little or no income tax meets a common-sense definition of a tax haven."