1926 in Ireland - Definition

See also: 1925 in Ireland, other events of 1926, 1927 in Ireland and the list of 'years in Ireland'.

Events

• January 1 - Dr. Douglas Hyde officially opens the Irish Free State broadcasting service in Dublin.
• January 4 - The country's first Aeroplane Club is formed in Dublin.
• January 19 - The Minister for Finance, Ernest Blythe, introduces a Bill providing for the issue of silver, nickel and bronze coins for Saorstát Éireann.
• January 21 - The Northern Ireland Minister for Agriculture meets his Southern counterpart, Patrick Hogan. The meeting paves the way for co-operation in securing better animal health for livestock.
• February 11 - The recently opened play by Seán O'Casey, The Plough and the Stars, is marred by ugly scenes in the crowd. One man from the audience strikes one of the actresses.
• March 11 - Eamon de Valera resigns as President of Sinn Féin at its Árd-Fheis when one of his proposals was defeated.
• April 7 - An elderly Irishwoman, Violet Gibson, shoots the Italian Prime Minister, Benito Mussolini, in Rome.
• April 29 - Dublin city commissioners decide to remove Nelson's Pillar on O'Connell Street. However, this decision needs the approval of the Oireachtas.
• May 16 - At La Scala Theatre in Dublin a new political party is formed. Fianna Fáil - the Republican Party is launched by leading republicans including Eamon de Valera and Sean Lemass.
• August 20 - The Irish pilgrimage to the battlefields of France and Flanders leaves today. Celtic crosses are to be unveiled in memory of the members of the 16th Irish Division who died during World War I.
• November 17 - President W.T. Cosgrave introduces the Public Safety (Emergency Powers) Bill following the killing of two unarmed gardaí.
• November 22 - George Bernard Shaw, having initially refused to accept the prize money for the Nobel Prize for Literature, will now accept the money but return it to the Nobel Trust.
• November 25 - Eamon de Valera addresses the first Fianna Fáil Árd-Fheis in Dublin.
• The 2RN, later RTÉ Radio 1, radio station is set up in Dublin.
• The population of the Irish Free State is 2,972,000
• The population of Northern Ireland is 1,257,000.

Arts and literature

Sports

• The All-Ireland Champions are Cork (hurling) and Kerry (football)

Births

• February 9 - Garret FitzGerald, former Taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael.
• March 24 - Cardinal Desmond Connell, former Archbishop of Dublin.
• April 6 - Ian Paisley, current leader of the Democratic Unionist Party.
• April 9 - Gerry Fitt, first leader of the Social Democratic & Labour Party.

Deaths