1958 in Ireland

← 1957 1956 1955 1954 1953 1958 in Ireland → 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s
See also:	1958 in Northern Ireland Other events of 1958 List of years in Ireland

Events from the year 1958 in Ireland.

Incumbents

• President: Seán T. O'Kelly
• Taoiseach: Éamon de Valera (FF)

Events

• 6 February - Billy Whelan, 22-year-old forward who has played four times for the Irish national team, is among the 21 people killed in the Munich air disaster involving English league champions Manchester United. He had played nearly 100 times for United in the space of three years, scoring 52 goals and winning two league titles.^[1]
• 18 March - Taoiseach Éamon de Valera says he would be willing to have talks with the government of Northern Ireland on wider economic co-operation.
• 20 March - Work begins on the £80,000 restoration of the State rooms at Dublin Castle.
• 10 May - The Independent TD, Jack Murphy, resigns in protest at the indifference of the main political parties to the plight of the unemployed.
• 12 May - Ardmore Studios opened by Seán Lemass.
• 22 May - The Minister for Education, Jack Lynch, tells the Dáil that the ruling requiring women teachers to retire on marriage is to be revoked.
• 25 July - £100 damages are awarded to a nine-year-old who was beaten by his teacher in a national school.
• 28 July - The Carlisle Monument, an eight-foot bronze statue in the Phoenix Park, is blown up in the early hours.
• 6 August - Australian athlete Herb Elliott shatters the world record for the mile at Santry Stadium, recording a time of 3 minutes 54.5 seconds.
• 8 August - The US Embassy in Merrion Square displays plans for a new embassy in Dublin.
• 8 September - Pan Am's Boeing 707 becomes the first jetliner to touch down on European soil at Shannon Airport.
• 1 October - Assets and management of the Great Northern Railway are divided between Córas Iompair Éireann and the Ulster Transport Authority.
• 29 October - The government announces that the ending of the proportional representation method of voting is to be put to the people in a referendum.
• 4 November - In the Vatican, Taoiseach Éamon de Valera attends the four-hour coronation of Pope John XXIII.
• 31 December - The Harcourt Street railway line, serving Ranelagh, Milltown, Dundrum, Stillorgan, Foxrock, Carrickmines, Shankill and Bray, closes.

Arts and literature

• Samuel Beckett's monologue Krapp's Last Tape is first performed by Patrick Magee at the Royal Court Theatre, London (28 October).
• Beckett's novel The Unnamable published in English.
• Brendan Behan's one-act Irish language play An Giall is first performed at the Damer Theatre in Dublin (16 June).^[2] The English adaptation, The Hostage, is first performed by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, London (14 October).
• Behan's autobiographical Borstal Boy published in London.^[3] On 12 November it is banned in Ireland by the Censorship of Publications Board.
• Desmond Guinness establishes the Irish Georgian Society for the promotion of Georgian architecture (21 February).
• Thomas Kinsella's poetry Another September published in Dublin.^[4]
• Patrick MacDonogh's poetry One Landscape Still published.
• John Montague's poetry Forms of Exile published.
• The Oxford Book of Irish Verse, XVIIth century-XXth century, edited by Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, is published.

Sports

• Football World Cup
  • Group stage
    • Northern Ireland 1-1 Czechoslovakia
    • Northern Ireland 1-1 Argentina
    • Northern Ireland 1-1 West Germany
      • Northern Ireland enter group play off stage the World Cup
    • Northern Ireland 2-1 Czechoslovakia AET
      • Northern Ireland qualify for the quarter final stage of the World Cup
    • Northern Ireland 0-4 France
      • Northern Ireland are knocked out at the quarter final stage of the World Cup
• The Republic of Ireland did not qualify for the 1958 world cup

Births

January to June

• 1 January - Liam Fennelly, former Kilkenny hurler
• 27 January - Synan Braddish, soccer player
• 1 February - Seán Fleming, Fianna Fáil TD for Laois–Offaly
• 16 February - Fintan O'Toole, journalist and drama critic
• 19 April - Denis O'Brien, entrepreneur
• 30 April - James Hewitt, soldier and lover of Diana, Princess of Wales
• 6 May
  • Tommy Byrne, former motor racing driver
  • Ivor Callely, Fianna Fáil politician, member of the 23rd Seanad Éireann, former TD and Minister of State
• 8 May - Roddy Doyle, novelist, dramatist and screenwriter
• 11 May - Conor Hayes, Galway hurler and manager
• 2 June - John Buckley, former Cork hurler
• 7 June - Aidan Fogarty, Offaly hurler
• 8 June - Louise Richardson, political scientist and university vice-chancellor

July to December

• 5 July - Veronica Guerin, journalist, murdered by drug dealers (died 1996)
• 10 July - Fiona Shaw, actress
• 11 July - Martin Doherty, member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
• 16 July - Michael Flatley, American dancer
• 10 September - Siobhan Fahey, musician
• 16 September - Maura O'Connell, singer
• 18 September - John Aldridge, former Irish international soccer player, in England of Irish descent
• 11 November - John Devine, soccer player
• 21 November - Eddie O'Sullivan, head coach of the Ireland national rugby union team

Full date unknown

• Noel Hill, concertina player
• Paddy Prendergast, Kilkenny hurler
• Niall Williams, writer
• Paul Woodfull, writer, actor, comedian and musician

Deaths

• 1 January - Richard Hayes, doctor and Sinn Féin MP (born 1878)
• 17 January - Michael Donohoe, Irish-born American politician, Democratic U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania (born 1864)
• 24 March - Seamus O'Sullivan, poet and editor (born 1879)
• 29 March - Jimmy Archer, Major League baseball player (born 1883)
• 24 April - Mabel McConnell Fitzgerald, republican, suffragette and socialist (born 1884)
• 6 July - John Esmonde, soldier, Fine Gael TD (born 1893)
• 28 July - Dick Walsh, Kilkenny hurler (born 1878)
• 13 August - James Lennon, member of 1st Dáil representing the County Carlow constituency
• 24 August - Paul Henry, artist (born 1876)
• 15 October - Lennox Robinson, dramatist, poet and theatre director and producer (born 1886)
• 2 December - Alan McKibbin, businessman and Ulster Unionist Party MP (born 1892)
• 8 December - Peig Sayers (Máiréad Ó Gaoithín), seanachaí (traditional storyteller) (born 1873)
• 19 December - Arthur Gore, 6th Earl of Arran, Anglo-Irish peer and soldier (born 1868)
• 23 December - Dorothy Macardle, author and historian (born 1889)

References