1975 in Ireland

← 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1975 in Ireland → 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
See also:	1975 in Northern Ireland Other events of 1975 List of years in Ireland

Events from the year 1975 in Ireland.

Incumbents

• President: Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (Fine Gael)
• Taoiseach: Liam Cosgrave (Fine Gael)

Events

• January–June - Ireland holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first time.
• 7 January - Sinéad Bean de Valera dies in Dublin aged 96.
• 30 January - Charles Haughey is brought back onto the Fianna Fáil front bench.
• 14 March - Pierre Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, pays a brief visit to Ireland and bilateral talks are held at Dublin Castle.
• 17 April - Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, and Our Lady of Mercy College, Carysfort, become recognised colleges of the National University of Ireland.
• 18 June - Danny O'Hare is made acting director of the National Institute for Higher Education, Dublin; a day later, the governing body first meets.
• 31 July - Miami Showband killings: Three members of The Miami Showband, together with two paramilitaries, are killed in a Ulster Volunteer Force ambush in County Down as they return home to Dublin from playing at a dance in Banbridge.
• 29 August - Former revolutionary, Taoiseach, and President of Ireland, Éamon de Valera dies in Dublin aged 92. The government announces a day of mourning.
• 3 October - Dutch industrialist and Limerick factory owner Tiede Herrema is kidnapped.
• 12 October - Oliver Plunkett, the 17th-century Archbishop of Armagh, is canonised by Pope Paul VI in Rome.
• 21 October - Tiede Herrema is located with his kidnappers in Monasterevin, County Kildare.
• 18 November - The Tiede Herrema kidnap siege ends.
• 28 December - George Best plays a League of Ireland match for Cork Celtic against Drogheda.

Arts and literature

• 14 May - Cork-born writer Patrick Galvin's We Do It For Love, a satire on The Troubles, opens at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.
• 7 October - Tom Murphy's play The Sanctuary Lamp opens at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
• The Druid theatre company is founded in Galway by Garry Hynes, Mick Lally and Marie Mullen.
• Publications:
  • Eavan Boland's collection of poems The War Horse.
  • Paul Durcan's collection of poems O Westport in the Light of Asia Minor.
  • John McGahern's novel The Leavetaking.
  • John Ryan's memoir Remembering How We Stood.

Sport

Golf

• Carroll's Irish Open is won by Christy O'Connor Jnr (Ireland).

Births

• 1 January - Lorraine Pilkington, actress.
• 24 January - Marie McMahon, long-distance runner
• 12 February - Andrew Myler, soccer player.
• 1 March - Tara Blaise, singer.
• 17 April - Mark Foley, Limerick hurler.
• 19 April - Hugh O'Conor, actor.
• 25 April - Dara Ó Cinnéide, Kerry Gaelic footballer.
• 9 July - Philip Smith, Clare Gaelic footballer.
• 6 August - Willie Boland, soccer player.
• 28 August - Gareth Farrelly, soccer player.
• 15 September - Owen Butler, cricketer.
• 2 October - Girvan Dempsey, rugby player.
• 7 November - Ollie Moran, Limerick hurler.
• 16 December - Graham Lee, National Hunt jockey.
• 18 December - David O'Doherty, comedian.
• 20 December - Graham Hopkins, drummer.

Full date unknown

• Allan Cavanagh, cartoonist and caricaturist.
• David Kitt, musician.
• Adrian James Martyn, historical writer.
• Pat Mulcahy, Cork hurler.
• Paul Murray, novelist.
• Sarah O'Flaherty, television presenter.

Deaths

January to June

• 7 January - Sinéad de Valera, writer and wife of third President of Ireland, Éamon de Valera (born 1878).
• 23 February - Ernest Blythe, writer, journalist and theatre manager, member of 1st Dáil and Cabinet Minister (born 1889).
• 27 February - John Vincent Holland, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1916 at Guillemont, France (born 1889).
• 21 April - James Kempster, cricketer (born 1892).
• 23 April - Michael Carty, Fianna Fáil TD (born 1916).
• 28 April - Tom Dreaper, horse trainer.
• 29 April - Arthur Blair-White, cricketer (born 1891).
• 10 May - Michael Tierney, Cumann na nGaedheal TD, Fine Gael member of Seanad Éireann and President of University College Dublin (born 1894).
• 27 May - William Robert Fitzgerald Collis, physician and writer (born 1900).
• 24 June - Frank MacDermot, barrister, soldier, banker and politician (born 1886).

July to December

• 31 July - Dan "Sandow" O'Donovan, Irish Republican Army member during the Irish War of Independence (b. c1895).
• 9 August - Maurice Gorham, journalist and broadcasting executive (born 1902).
• 10 August - Robert Barton, Sinn Féin MP, Cabinet Minister and signatory of Anglo-Irish Treaty 1921 (born 1881).
• 29 August - Éamon de Valera, former Taoiseach and President (born 1882).
• 2 October - Seamus Murphy, sculptor (born 1907).
• 25 October - Padraig Marrinan, artist (born 1906).
• 26 October - William Teeling, author, traveller and UK politician (born 1903).
• 25 November - Moyna Macgill, stage and film actress, mother of Angela Lansbury (born 1895).
• 14 December - George Harman, cricketer and rugby player (born 1874).