1953 in Ireland

Incumbents

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

  Events

• 18 January – Sinn Féin decides to contest all 12 constituencies in the next Westminster elections in Northern Ireland.
• 15 March – up to 10,000 civil servants march down O'Connell Street in Dublin demanding a just wage.
• 16 March – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. asks the American Congress to support a United Ireland.
• 27 April – Maud Gonne MacBride dies at her home in Dublin aged 88.
• 1 May – the BBC brings into service the first television transmitter in Ireland, at Glencairn.
• 3 June – 500 unemployed men march at Kildare Street demanding employment not dole.
• 6 July – 1,000 unemployed people sit on O'Connell Bridge for 15 minutes in protest.
• 2 August – Murlough Bay in the Antrim Glens is chosen as the future grave of Roger Casement. Taoiseach Éamon de Valera calls for the return of his remains.
• 29 August – Kilmainham Gaol is to be preserved as a national monument.
• 30 August – new synagogue dedicated at Terenure in Dublin.
• 1 September – Great Northern Railway sold to governments of the Republic and Northern Ireland and managed by a joint board.
• 21 September – the Irish Ploughing Team leaves Dublin for the World Ploughing Championships in Canada.
• 20 October – opening of Busáras in Dublin, CIÉ's country bus station and the first significant international style building in Ireland.
• 28 October – three of Dáil Éireann's Independent TDs become members of Fianna Fáil.
• 30 October – Standish Vereker, 7th Viscount Gort, purchases Bunratty Castle to restore it.
• 17 November – Great Blasket Island is depopulated.
• 18 December – the Censorship Board bans almost 100 publications on the grounds that they are indecent or obscene.

  Arts and literature

• 5 January – Samuel Beckett's play Waiting For Godot has its first public stage première in French as En attendant Godot in Paris. His novel The Unnamable is also published in French this year.
• 5-26 April – first An Tóstal festivals of national culture held.
• 8 August – Chester Beatty Library in Dublin opens to the public.
• Writer Brian O'Nolan is obliged to retire from his senior post in the Civil Service.

  Sport

Football

Golf

• Irish Open is won by Eric Brown.

  Births

• 1 January – Maureen Beattie, Scottish actress.
• 6 January – Noel Dempsey, Fianna Fáil TD for Meath West and Minister for Transport.
• 27 January – Ger Loughnane, Clare hurler, manager of Galway hurling team.
• 4 February – James Stirling, Irish physicist and academic.
• 12 February – Des Smyth, golfer.
• 24 February – Eoin Ryan, Fianna Fáil TD, MEP for Dublin.
• 5 March – Brian Kerr, soccer manager, Republic of Ireland national side manager.
• 6 March – James Bannon, Senator, Fine Gael TD for Longford–Westmeath.
• 11 March – Derek Daly, motor racing driver.
• 11 March – Mary Harney, Tánaiste and leader of the Progressive Democrats.
• 15 March – Richard Bruton, Deputy Leader of Fine Gael, TD for Dublin North-Central.
• 31 March – Breeda Moynihan-Cronin, Labour Party TD.
• 28 April – Paul Darragh, showjumper.
• 16 May – Pierce Brosnan, actor.
• 17 May – Mary Flaherty, Fine Gael TD and junior minister.
• 30 May – Colm Meaney, actor.
• 31 May – Jerry Kiernan, long-distance runner
• 7 June – Kathleen Lynch, Labour Party TD for Cork North-Central.
• 12 June – John Moloney, Fianna Fáil TD for Laois–Offaly.
• 18 June – Neil O'Donoghue, American football placekicker.
• 7 July – Jim Glennon, Fianna Fáil politician and TD.
• 29 July – Frank McGuinness, playwright, translator and poet.
• 19 August – Tom Parlon, President of the IFA, Progressive Democrat TD representing Laois–Offaly.
• 1 September – Catherine Murphy, Independent TD.
• 18 September – Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, bank official, Sinn Féin TD representing Cavan–Monaghan.
• 20 September – Joe Waters, soccer player.
• 23 September
• *Paudge Connolly, independent TD.
• *Dessie Ellis, Sinn Féin councillor in Dublin City Council, IRA prisoner, first person extradited to the United Kingdom under the 1987 Extradition Act.
• 26 September – Dolores Keane, singer and musician.
• 11 November – Jimmy Holmes, soccer player.
• 26 November – Marian Harkin, Member of the European Parliament representing North-West, Independent Teachta Dála representing Sligo–Leitrim.
• 3 December – Nickey Brennan, Kilkenny hurler, President of the Gaelic Athletic Association.
• ;Full date unknown

  Deaths

• 11 February – Valentine McEntee, 1st Baron McEntee, Labour MP in the United Kingdom.
• 22 February – John Caffrey, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1915 near La Brique, France.
• 13 April – Alice Milligan, nationalist poet and author.
• 15 April – John Dignan, Roman Catholic Bishop of Clonfert.
• 17 April – Tom Sharkey, boxer.
• 3 June – Philip Graves, journalist and writer.
• 14 July – Frank Fahy, Sinn Féin MP and later Fianna Fáil TD, member of 1st Dáil, Ceann Comhairle.
• 23 July – Maude Delap, marine biologist.
• 12 September – James Hamilton, 3rd Duke of Abercorn, Unionist politician and first Governor of Northern Ireland.
• 17 October – Jack Rochford, Kilkenny hurler.
• 30 October – John Counihan, farmer and salesmaster, Independent member of 1922 Seanad.
• 1 November – Thomas F. O'Higgins, Fine Gael TD and Cabinet Minister.
• 25 December – Patsy Donovan, Major League Baseball player and manager.
• ;Full date unknown