1950 in Ireland

Incumbents

• President: Seán T. O'Kelly
• Taoiseach: John A. Costello

  Events

• March – ESB's turf-fired power station at Portarlington officially opened.
• 12 March – Llandow air disaster: 83 people died when a plane carrying Welsh rugby fans home from Belfast crashed in South Wales.
• 12 May – Nationalist Senators and Members of Parliament in Northern Ireland asked the government of Ireland to give Northern-elected representatives seats in Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann.
• 1 July – Sir Gilbert Laithwaite, hitherto British Representative to Ireland, became the first British Ambassador to Ireland.
• August – Jacqueline Bouvier paid her first visit to Ireland with her step-brother Hugh D. Auchincloss following her studies at the Sorbonne. She attended the Dublin Horse Show, visited the Abbey Theatre, and met the Taoiseach, John A Costello. She and her brother also visited County Cork, where they kissed the Blarney Stone, as well as Galway, Kildare, Killarney, and Tipperary. Bouvier returned in 1955 as the wife of Senator John F. Kennedy, and once again in 1967.
• 11 August – At a meeting of the European Consultative Assembly in Strasbourg Irish representatives voted against Winston Churchill's plan for a European army.

  Arts and literature

• 13 January – Siobhán McKenna starred in San Siobhán, her own translation of George Bernard Shaw's play Saint Joan into Irish.
• 2 November – George Bernard Shaw, playwright and critic, died aged 94 in England.
• Canadian-born painter James Le Jeune settled in Ireland.
• The Chester Beatty Library was established in Dublin.

  Sport

Football

Gaelic Games

• Mayo were All Ireland Gaelic Football Champions.

  Golf

• Irish Open was won by Ossie Pickworth.

  Births

• 30 January – Paddy Keenan, uilleann pipes player.
• 25 February – Neil Jordan, director, writer and producer.
• 5 March – Patrick Cockburn, journalist.
• 12 March – Willie Duggan, rugby union player.
• 18 March
• *Pat McDonnell, Cork hurler.
• *Bobby Miller, Gaelic footballer and manager.
• 29 March – Miah Dennehy, soccer player.
• 21 April – Pádraig Horan, Offaly hurler.
• 12 May – Gabriel Byrne, actor.
• 17 May – Michael P. Kitt, Fianna Fáil TD for Galway East.
• 19 May – Joseph O'Callaghan, Chairperson, Production Manager and Consultant
• 21 May – Marian Finucane, broadcast presenter.
• 22 May – Bill Whelan, composer of Riverdance.
• 25 May – John Horgan, Cork hurler.
• May – Barbara McMahon, television presenter.
• 1 June – Gemma Craven, actress.
• 23 June – Éamon Ó Cuív, Fianna Fáil TD for Galway West and Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
• 24 June – Bob Carlos Clarke, photographer.
• 29 June – Vere Wynne-Jones, journalist, sports broadcaster.
• 17 July – Michael Colgan, director, Gate Theatre.
• 1 August
• * Martin Coleman, Cork hurler.
• * Cyril Farrell, Galway hurling manager.
• 3 August – Mick Flavin, country music singer.
• 12 August
• *John Carty, Fianna Fáil TD and senator.
• *Patrick Parfrey, nephrologist and clinical epidemiologist in Canada.
• 14 August – Dermot Desmond, businessman and entrepreneur.
• 23 August – David Molony, lawyer, Fine Gael TD and senator.
• 26 August – Don Baker, singer songwriter.
• 29 August – Dick Spring, Tánaiste, leader of the Labour Party and Cabinet Minister.
• 5 September
• * Brendan Cummins, Cork hurler.
• * Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, member European Court of Auditors, Fianna Fáil TD and Cabinet Minister.
• 5 October – Michael Gaughan, Provisional Irish Republican Army hunger striker.
• 6 December – Jan O'Sullivan, Labour Party TD for Limerick East.
• 10 December – Desmond Hogan, writer.
• December – Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, musician.
• ;Full date unknown

  Deaths

• 24 March – Robert Johnston, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1899 at the Battle of Elandslaagte, South Africa.
• 22 April – John T. McNicholas, Archbishop of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati and founder of the Catholic Legion of Decency.
• 26 April – R. A. Stewart Macalister, archaeologist.
• 10 May – Art O'Connor, Sinn Féin MP, member of 1st Dáil, Cabinet Minister, lawyer and judge.
• 11 June – Stephen Gwynn, journalist, writer, poet and Nationalist politician.
• 25 June – Muiris Ó Súilleabháin, writer.
• 2 July – George Edward Pugin Meldon, cricketer.
• 20 July – Herbert Dixon, 1st Baron Glentoran, Unionist politician.
• 13 September – Sara Allgood, actress.
• 13 October – Hugh Godley, 2nd Baron Kilbracken, barrister.
• 2 November – George Bernard Shaw, playwright and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature .
• 9 November – Diarmuid Lynch, member of 1st Dáil representing Cork South-East.
• 1 December – E. J. Moeran, composer.
• 26 December – James Stephens, novelist and poet.
• ;Full date unknown