1985 in Ireland

Incumbents

• President: Patrick Hillery
• Taoiseach: Garret FitzGerald
• Tánaiste: Dick Spring
• Minister for Finance: Alan Dukes
• Chief Justice:
• * Tom O'Higgins
• * Thomas Finlay
• Dáil: 24th
• Seanad: 17th

  Events

• 1 January – Cork celebrated 800 years as a chartered city.
• 26 February – former minister Desmond O'Malley was expelled from the Fianna Fáil Party.
• 28 February – 1985 Newry mortar attack: the Provisional Irish Republican Army killed nine Royal Ulster Constabulary officers in a mortar attack at their Newry station.
• 4 March – Bob Geldof was honoured for his overseas aid efforts at a civic reception in the Mansion House.
• 12 March – the allowed the sale of condoms and spermicides to adults without prescriptions.
• 28 March – Gaisce – The President's Award was created by a trust deed under the patronage of the President of Ireland.
• 30 March – the Ireland national rugby union team won the Triple Crown and Five Nations Championship at Lansdowne Road. They beat England 13–10.
• 28 April – Dennis Taylor won the Embassy World Snooker Championship.
• 16 May – the Minister for Education, Gemma Hussey, announced a new £20 million project to create the transition year in post-primary schools.
• 23 June – Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747, crashed into the sea on a flight from Montreal 190 kilometres south-west of the Irish coast as the result of a bomb thought to have been planted by the Khalistan movement, killing all 329 aboard.
• 25 June – Irish police foiled an IRA–sponsored 'mainland bombing campaign' which targeted luxury vacation resorts.
• 13 July – the Live Aid charity concert was organised by Bob Geldof in London. Ireland was the highest per-capita donor country.
• 22 July – at Ballinspittle, County Cork, two women claimed to have seen a statue of the Virgin Mary move. The grotto became a pilgrimage site. On 31 July thousands flocked there.
• 25 July – Ireland hit by a mega thunderstorm, one of the worst in the country's history.
• 2 September – Spike Island Jail in County Cork was left in ruins following a riot by prisoners.
• 10 September – the first heart transplant in Ireland was performed.
• 20 September – President Hillery presented Bob Geldof with a cheque for £7 million as the Irish contribution to the Live Aid appeal.
• 29 September – pleasure trawler Taurima, owned by Charles Haughey, was wrecked near Mizen Head lighthouse.
• 11 October – shop steward Karen Gearon, representing striking workers at Dunnes Stores, addressed the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid, on a Day of Solidarity with South African Political Prisoners.
• 25 October – the first commercial flight departed from the new Knock Airport.
• 15 November – Taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald, and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher, signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement at Hillsborough Castle, County Down.
• 27 November – Mary Harney was expelled from the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party over her support of the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
• 21 December – Desmond O'Malley founded the Progressive Democrats party.

  Arts and literature

• 18 February – Frank McGuinness's play Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme opened on the Peacock Stage of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, winning the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.
• 1 June – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played their debut Irish concert at Slane Castle in front of 100,000 people, and performed for four hours.
• 29 June – the first Croke Park concert took place, featuring U2, Squeeze, R.E.M., The Alarm and In Tua Nua.
• Maeve Binchy's novel Echoes was published.
• Shaun Davey's orchestral suite for voice and uilleann pipes Granuaile was recorded.
• Tom Murphy's Conversations on a Homecoming and Bailegangaire were produced by the Druid Theatre Company in Galway.
• Alternative rock group Toasted Heretic was founded by Julian Gough in Galway.

  Sport

Boxing

• 8 June – Barry McGuigan won the WBA world featherweight boxing championship.

  Football

• Derry City F.C. joined the League of Ireland, having been out of senior football since 1972. Monaghan United F.C. was also elected to the League this year.

  Golf

• The Irish Open was won by Seve Ballesteros.

  Rugby Union

• 30 March – the Irish rugby team won the Triple Crown and Five Nations Championship at Lansdowne Road. They beat England 13–10.

  Births

• 11 January – Mark Yeates, soccer player.
• 13 January – Pat Flynn, soccer player.
• 20 January – Neil Gallagher, soccer player.
• 31 January – James "Cha" Fitzpatrick, Kilkenny hurler.
• 6 February – John Tennyson, Kilkenny hurler.
• 7 February – Michael Lyng, Cavan Gaelic footballer.
• 20 February – Alan O'Brien, soccer player.
• 28 February – Michael Fennelly, Kilkenny hurler.
• 2 April – Barry Corr, soccer player.
• 10 April – Willo Flood, soccer player.
• 23 April – Gary Mulligan, soccer player.
• 29 April – Pamela Myers, artist.
• 4 May – Laura Whitmore, presenter.
• 6 May – David Tyrrell, soccer player.
• 13 May – David Bell, soccer player.
• 8 June – Barry Murphy, soccer player.
• 10 July – Conan Byrne, soccer player.
• 17 July – Eoin Larkin, Kilkenny hurler.
• 9 September – Tadhg Purcell, soccer player.
• 17 September – Brendan Clarke, soccer player.
• 20 September – George McMahon, actor.
• 2 October – Mark Quigley, soccer player.
• 6 October – Karl Bermingham, soccer player.
• 5 November – Ian Maher, soccer player.
• 4 December – Stephen Dawson, soccer player.
• 4 December – Richie Power, Kilkenny hurler.
• 9 December – Mark Leech, soccer player.
• 24 December – Donnacha Cody, Kilkenny hurler.
• 29 December – Patrick Kavanagh, soccer player.

  Full date unknown

• Deirdre Delaney, camogie player.

  Deaths

• 18 January – Wilfrid Brambell, actor.
• 21 February – Dermot Ryan, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin.
• 3 March – Noel Purcell, actor.
• 14 March – Kathleen Lemass, wife of Seán Lemass.
• May – Tommy Murphy, Laois Gaelic footballer.
• 16 June – Alexis FitzGerald Snr, solicitor, Fine Gael Seanad member.
• 17 June – Bernard Bergin, cricketer.
• 29 September – Timothy McAuliffe, Labour Party politician.
• 11 October – Todd Andrews, Irish revolutionary and public servant.
• 4 December – Frederick Boland, diplomat, first Irish ambassador to Britain and to the United Nations.
• 8 December – Jimmy Rudd, soccer player.
• 11 December – Kathleen Ryan, actress.
• 17 December – Leo Maguire, singer, songwriter and radio broadcaster.

  Full date unknown

• Sigerson Clifford, poet and playwright.
• Fergus Crawford, soccer player.
• Alex Stevenson, soccer player.