2017 in Ireland


Events during the year 2017 in Ireland.

Incumbents

January

  • 2 January – The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten, suffered minor injuries and was hospitalised after being struck by a car while cycling with his wife near Roscommon.
  • 3 January – The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation noted that there had been a record 612 patients admitted for care on trolleys in hospitals around the country this morning.
  • 7 January – The second meeting of the Citizens' Assembly took place. The assembly was told how new neo-natal screenings which can detect chromosomal disorders such as Down syndrome pose ethical issues for society.
  • 11 January – Members of a cross-party delegation group of teachtaí dála described as "useful and productive" a meeting with the Egyptian president about the continuing imprisonment without trial of Irish citizen Ibrahim Halawa.
  • 19 January – The Sinn Féin party's Martin McGuinness announced his retirement from politics, citing health reasons.
  • 20 January – A Women's March took place in Dublin. The march was organised by the Abortion Rights Campaign, Amnesty International Ireland, European Network Against Racism, ROSA, and The Coalition to Repeal the 8th. Events also took place in County Galway and Castlebar, County Mayo.
  • 23 January – Three men were arrested as part of an investigation into an international illegal immigrant smuggling network through Dublin Airport. Two of those arrested were Aer Lingus employees at the airport.
  • 30 January – Taoiseach Enda Kenny and British Prime Minister Theresa May held talks at Government Buildings on the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union and the effects on Anglo-Irish relations.
  • 31 January – Around one hundred farmers participated in an Irish Farmers Association protest outside the Department of Agriculture in Dublin to highlight their anger over delays in payments to farmers for their participation in the GLAS agri-environment scheme.

    February

  • 2 February – British Brexit Secretary David Davis told the House of Commons that the UK's relationship with Ireland was one of the most important aspects of Brexit preparations.
  • 6 February – Dublin City Council passed a motion to grant the Freedom of the City to former US President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.
  • 15 February
  • * Taoiseach Enda Kenny rejected the suggestion that Ireland should leave European Union, in a major Brexit speech.
  • * The Dáil passed a Fine Gael party motion of confidence in the Government, tabled in response to Sinn Féin's motion of no confidence, announced over the handling of the response to the Sergeant Maurice McCabe affair.
  • 22 February – Following a week of speculation concerning his future as leader of the Fine Gael party, Enda Kenny told a meeting of his parliamentary party that he would deal with his future effectively and conclusively after the annual Saint Patrick's Day visit to the White House in Washington DC.
  • 23 February – Speaking in Brussels the Taoiseach said he wanted the final Brexit agreement between the European Union and Britain to allow for Irish reunification, in line with the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

    March

  • 1 March – The Taoiseach Enda Kenny announced in the Dáil the formal recognition by the State of Irish Travellers – numbering 40,000 people in Ireland and Northern Ireland – as an indigenous ethnic minority. He said, "It is a historic day for our Travellers and a proud day for Ireland." President Michael D. Higgins welcomed the event as a "momentous decision".
  • 3 March – "Significant quantities" of human remains were discovered at the site of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway. It came after the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation began test excavations at the site of the children's burial ground following allegations about the deaths of 800 babies in Tuam over a number of decades and the manner in which they were buried.
  • 14 March
  • * Two crew members of the Coast Guard were killed and two more were missing after a search and rescue helicopter crashed off the coast of County Mayo.
  • * The International Astronomical Union assigned the official Irish- and Latin-language name Mearcair Planitia to a large lava plain on the surface of the planet Mercury. The name was suggested by Paul Byrne, an Irish planetary scientist from County Kildare.
  • 15 March
  • * The British government ruled out introducing Irish border posts after leaving the European Union.
  • * Irishwoman Danielle McLaughlin was found dead in a tourist resort in Canacona, a district in the south of Goa, India.
  • 16 March – Taoiseach Enda Kenny met US President Donald Trump at the White House. The two leaders discussed the election in Northern Ireland and the potential issues concerning the Irish border due to Brexit. Trump also confirmed that he would visit Ireland during his term of office.
  • 20 March – The Irish poet Seamus Heaney was honoured by the International Astronomical Union when it assigned the official name Heaney to a 120kilometre-diameter crater on the surface of Mercury. The name was suggested by Jack Wright, a research student from Belfast. Craters on Mercury are named after dead artists, authors and poets.
  • 21 March – Former deputy first minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness died in Derry aged 66.
  • 22 March – An Irish person was among 40 people injured in a terrorist attack in Westminster in London.
  • 24 March – Bus Éireann staff begin a nationwide strike.
  • 31 March – Iarnród Éireann railway and Dublin Bus services were stopped by Bus Éireann during the morning rush hour. The wildcat strikes ended at 10am.

    April

  • 2 April – Authorities at Rosslare Europort discovered 14 people hidden in the back of a refrigerated truck that arrived from France.
  • 9 April – The government announced that it would not oppose a bill put forward by a group of independent senators that proposed an end to the 90-year-old restriction on the sale of alcohol on Good Friday.
  • 13 April – Dublin Bus workers voted to strike in solidarity with picketing Bus Éireann staff, a move which came as the Bus Éireann strike was called off temporarily as the Labour Court issued its recommendations.
  • 20 April – Enda Kenny became Fine Gael's longest serving Taoiseach, having surpassed the record of John A. Costello by completing his 2,234th day in office.
  • 23 April – The Citizens' Assembly voted to recommend an extensive liberalisation of the grounds on which abortion was available in Ireland. The Assembly voted to recommend that terminations of pregnancy should be available in Ireland with "no restriction as to reasons" by a margin of 64 percent to 36 percent.
  • 27 April
  • * Enda Kenny told the Fine Gael party and the media that he would deal with his future as Taoiseach before the end of May.
  • * Dr. Peter Boylan resigned from the board of the National Maternity Hospital over a row that nuns would be running the new hospital.
  • 28 April – Professor Chris Fitzpatrick resigned from the board of the National Maternity Hospital in support of Dr. Peter Boylan who also resigned from the board over a row that nuns would the running the new maternity hospital.
  • 29 April – At a special European Union Brexit conference, there was a formal acknowledgement by EU leaders of the possibility of Northern Ireland rejoining the EU as part of a united Ireland post-Brexit.

    May

  • 10 May – Prince Charles of the United Kingdom and the Duchess of Cornwall began a three-day trip to Ireland. They visited counties Antrim, Down, Kilkenny, Wicklow, Kildare, and Glasnevin Cemetery.
  • 11 May – The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier addressed a joint sitting of the Dáil and the Seanad.
  • 17 May – Taoiseach Enda Kenny announced that he would retire as Fine Gael party leader at midnight. He would remain Taoiseach until a new party leader was elected on 2 June.
  • 23 May – The former chairman and chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank, Seán FitzPatrick, was acquitted of 27 charges against him for misleading the bank's auditors and furnishing false information about multi-million euro loans to him and to people connected to him between 2002 and 2007.

    June

  • 2 June – Leo Varadkar was elected Leader of Fine Gael, becoming the youngest leader of the party. He was the first openly gay leader of Fine Gael and the first leader of Fine Gael educated at Trinity College Dublin.
  • 13 June – Enda Kenny tendered his resignation as Taoiseach to President Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin.
  • 14 June – Leo Varadkar was elected Taoiseach by Dáil Éireann and was later appointed by President Higgins.
  • 29 June – Six men, including Socialist Party TD Paul Murphy, who were on trial for the false imprisonment of former Tánaiste Joan Burton and her adviser, were found not guilty by a jury at the Circuit Criminal Court.

    July

  • 9 July – Two men drowned off the coast of Donegal while on a fishing trip.
  • 26 July – Frank Clarke was named as the new Chief Justice by the government.
  • 27 July – The Birr Castle#Modern radio astronomy| radio telescope first light opening ceremony took place at Birr Castle Desmesne in County Offaly.

    August

  • 4 August – Taoiseach Leo Varadkar made a 'bridges not borders' speech in Belfast.
  • 16 August – The UK published its Brexit plan regarding Northern Ireland and the plan stated they did not wish to go back to border posts.
  • 17 August – Two Irish people were injured in a terrorist attack in Barcelona.
  • 22–23 August – A major storm caused serious damage in Donegal.