1998 in Ireland

Incumbents

• President: Mary McAleese
• Taoiseach: Bertie Ahern
• Tánaiste: Mary Harney
• Minister for Finance: Charlie McCreevy
• Chief Justice: Liam Hamilton
• Dáil: 28th
• Seanad: 21st

  Events

• 1 January – the Vocational Education Committees of the towns of Bray, Drogheda, Sligo, Tralee and Wexford are abolished.
• 14 January – the Planning Tribunal opens in Dublin Castle.
• 27 February – Republic of Ireland qualifies for entry into the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union.
• 15 March – former Fine Gael Minister Hugh Coveney dies in a fall from a cliff in County Cork.
• 10 April – The British and Irish governments and all the political parties in Northern Ireland sign the Belfast Agreement.
• 22 May – the Good Friday Agreement is endorsed in a referendum by people north and south of the border.
• 1 July – the new Northern Ireland Assembly first meets, in "shadow" form; Reg Empey and Seamus Mallon are elected First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively.
• 15 August – Omagh bombing: 29 people die in a car bomb explosion near the centre of Omagh, County Tyrone, accused by the Real Irish Republican Army.
• 4 September – Bill Clinton, President of the United States, begins his second official visit to the island of Ireland.
• 26 November – Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Oireachtas.
• 30 November – unemployment falls by 20% with the number of people in work rising by 100,000.
• 12 December – members of the Labour Party and Democratic Left agree to merge.
• 26 December – great Boxing Day Storm : Severe gale-force winds hit north west Ireland causing henry disruption to services.
• 31 December – the Punt is traded for the last time as the Euro currency is launched.

  Arts and literature

• 28 February – actor and comedian Dermot Morgan dies suddenly in London.
• 25 May – Patrick McCabe's novel Breakfast on Pluto is published.
• 3 July – the boyband Westlife are formed.
• 28 August – Maeve Binchy's novel Tara Road is published.
• 20 September – TV3 goes on the air.
• 7 October – Marina Carr's drama By the Bog of Cats opens at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
• 24 December – Gay Byrne broadcasts his final radio show, from St Stephen's Green, Dublin.
• John Montague becomes the first occupant of the Ireland Chair of Poetry.
• Garry Hynes becomes the first woman to win a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play on Broadway.
• Brendan Graham's Great Famine novel The Whitest Flower is published.
• Terence Dolan's A Dictionary of Hiberno-English: The Irish Use of English is published.

  Sport

[Gaelic football]

• Galway GAA win the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, beating Kildare GAA in the final.

  Golf

• Murphy's Irish Open is won by David Carter.

  Hurling

• Offaly GAA win the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship for the second time in five years.

  Olympics

• 6 August – Olympic gold medalist Michelle Smith is banned from competition for four years for tampering with a drug test.

  Soccer

• St Patrick's Athletic won the League of Ireland
• Cork City FC won the FAI Cup
• Shelbourne's home UEFA Cup tie against Rangers is moved to England due to fears of sectarian trouble. Despite taking a 3–0 lead, Shels lose 3–5.
• 7 May – The Irish under-16 team wins the European Championship.

  Births

• 17 March – Nathan O'Toole, actor
• 30 March – Galileo, racehorse

  Deaths

• 26 January – Ernest Gébler, writer.
• 28 February – Dermot Morgan, actor and comedian.
• 15 March – Hugh Coveney, Fine Gael TD and Cabinet Minister, yachtsman.
• 17 April – Robin Lawler, soccer player.
• 6 May – Sybil Connolly, fashion designer.
• 22 May – Jim Power, Galway hurler.
• 26 May – Kate Cruise O'Brien, writer.
• 23 June
• *Paul O'Dwyer, lawyer and politician in the United States.
• *Maureen O'Sullivan, actress.
• 26 July – Seán Ó hEinirí, fisherman, seanchaí and last known monolingual speaker of the Irish language.
• 13 August – Liam de Paor, historian and archaeologist.
• 20 September – Robert Malachy Burke, Christian Socialist and philanthropist.
• 10 October – Tommy Quaid, Limerick hurler.
• 11 November – Paddy Clancy, folk singer.
• 13 November – Valerie Hobson, actress.
• 21 November – John David Gwynn, cricketer.
• 26 December – Cathal Goulding, Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and the Official IRA.
• Full date unknown – Patrick Hickey, visual artist.