See also: 1956 in Ireland, other events of 1957, 1958 in Ireland and the list of 'years in Ireland'.

Events

• January 1 - Seán South and Fergal O'Hanlon are killed in an IRA attack on an RUC barracks in County Fermanagh. The two men become part of republican folklore.
• January 24 - Sir Alfred Chester Beatty becomes the first honorary Irish citizen.
• March 3 - Eamon de Valera tells a crowd in Cork that a United Ireland can be achieved with time and the support of the people.
• March 7 - Fianna Fáil returns to power winning 78 seats in the Sixteenth Dáil.
• March 28 - Artist Jack B. Yeats dies in Dublin.
• July 22 - The Gough Monument in the Phoenix Park is wrecked by an explosion. The explosion is so violent it is heard all over Dublin.
• August 7 - A 20-foot high war memorial in Limerick is blown up. It was erected to commemorate Limerick men who who died in World War I.
• October 2 - The Minister for Health, Seán MacEntee, launches the Voluntary Health Insurance Board.
• October 7 - President Seán T. O'Kelly's country residence, Roundwood House, County Wicklow, is destroyed by fire.
• November 1 - The Soviet satellite Sputnik is visible over Dublin for the second time in a month.

Arts and literature

Sports

Births

• December 25 - Shane MacGowan, singer and songwriter.

Deaths

• September 22 - Oliver St. John Gogarty, physician, surgeon, poet and writer.