See also: 1950 in Ireland, other events of 1951, 1952 in Ireland and the list of 'years in Ireland'.

Events

• February 2 - Eamon de Valera visits Newry for the first time since his arrest there in 1924.
• April 11 - Minister for Health Dr. Noel Browne resigns and his Mother and Child Scheme is overturned.
• April 19 - The Northern Ireland Attorney-General, Ed Warnock, referring to the Noel Browne's resignation, says that Ireland is really ruled by Maynooth.
• May 24 - Gardaí exchange shots with two men after they throw a bomb at the British Embassy in Dublin.
• June 8 - Jack Doyle defeats America's 'Beer Baron' Two-Ton Tony Gelanto at Tolka Park .
• June 10 - Justice George Gavan Duffy , one of the signatories of the Treaty in 1921, dies in Dublin.
• June 13 - Eamon de Valera becomes Taoiseach with one of the smallest majorities on record 74-69.
• July 1 - An Taoiseach Eamon de Valera pays his first visit to Derry in 25 years.
• July 18 - The Abbey Theatre in Dublin is burnt to the ground.
• November 15 - The Nobel Prize for Physics is awarded jointly to Professor Ernest Walton of Trinity College Dublin and Sir John Cockcroft.

Arts and literature

Sports

Births

• April 24 - Enda Kenny, current leader of Fine Gael.
• June 27 - Mary McAleese, eighth President of Ireland.
• August 30 - Dana Rosemary Scallon, Eurovision Song Contest winner and former MEP.
• September 12 - Bertie Ahern, current Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil.
• October 5 - Bob Geldof, singer, songwriter and humanitarian.

Deaths