# 1958 in Ireland

"none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive
Events from the year 1958 in Ireland.

## Incumbents

* President: Seán T. O'Kelly
* Taoiseach: Éamon de Valera (FF)
* Tánaiste: Seán Lemass (FF)
* Minister for Finance: James Ryan (FF)
* Chief Justice: Conor Maguire
* Dáil: 16th
* Seanad: 9th

## Events

* 6 February – Association football player, 22-year-old Billy Whelan, who played four times for the Irish national team, was among 21 people killed in the Munich air disaster involving English football team Manchester United.
* 18 March – Taoiseach Éamon de Valera said he would be willing to have talks with the government of Northern Ireland on wider economic co-operation.
* 20 March – Work began on the £80,000 restoration of the State Rooms at Dublin Castle.
* 10 May – The Independent Teachta Dála (TD), Jack Murphy, resigned in protest at the indifference of the main political parties to the plight of the unemployed.
* 12 May – The Ardmore Film Studios were opened by the Tánaiste, Seán Lemass.
* 22 May – The Minister for Education, Jack Lynch, told the Dáil that the ruling requiring women teachers to retire upon marriage was to be revoked.
* 25 July – £100 damages were awarded to a nine-year-old boy who was beaten by his teacher in a national school.
* 28 July – The Carlisle Monument, an eight-foot bronze statue in the Phoenix Park in Dublin, was blown up by an Irish republican bomb in the early hours.
* 8 August – The United States Embassy in Merrion Square, Dublin displayed plans for a new embassy.
* 8 September – Pan Am's Boeing 707 became the first jetliner to touch down on European soil at Shannon Airport.
* 1 October – Assets and management of the Great Northern Railway were divided between Córas Iompair Éireann and the Ulster Transport Authority.
* 29 October – The Government announced that the question of ending the proportional representation method of voting was to be put to the people in a referendum.
* 4 November – In the Vatican, Taoiseach Éamon de Valera attended the four-hour coronation of Pope John XXIII.
* 31 December – The Harcourt Street railway line in Dublin closed, having served Ranelagh, Milltown, Dundrum, Stillorgan, Foxrock, Carrickmines, Shankill and Bray.

## Arts and literature

* 21 February – Desmond Guinness established the Irish Georgian Society for the promotion of Georgian architecture.
* 16 June – Brendan Behan's one-act Irish language play An Giall was first performed at the Damer Theatre in Dublin.
* 14 October – The English adaptation of An Giall, (The Hostage), was first performed by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, London.
* 28 October – Samuel Beckett's monologue Krapp's Last Tape was first performed by Patrick Magee at the Royal Court Theatre, London.
* Samuel Beckett's novel The Unnamable was published in English.
* Brendan Behan's autobiographical Borstal Boy was published in London. On 12 November it was banned in Ireland by the Censorship of Publications Board.
* Thomas Kinsella's poetry Another September was published in Dublin.
* Patrick MacDonogh's poetry One Landscape Still was published.
* John Montague's poetry Forms of Exile was published.
* The Oxford Book of Irish Verse, XVIIth century-XXth century, edited by Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, was published.

## Sports
### Association football

* Football World Cup
(The Republic of Ireland did not qualify for the 1958 world cup)
Northern Ireland:
** Group stage
*** Northern Ireland 1–1 Czechoslovakia
*** Northern Ireland 1–1 Argentina
*** Northern Ireland 1–1 West Germany
**** Northern Ireland entered group playoff stage
*** Northern Ireland 2–1 Czechoslovakia AET
**** Northern Ireland qualified for the quarterfinal stage
*** Northern Ireland 0–4 France
**** Northern Ireland were knocked out at the quarterfinal stage

## Births

* 1 January – Liam Fennelly, Kilkenny hurler
* 27 January – Synan Braddish, association football player
* 1 February – Seán Fleming, Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for Laois–Offaly
* 2 February – Paddy Prendergast, Kilkenny hurler
* 16 February – Fintan O'Toole, journalist and drama critic
* 1 April – Stephen O'Rahilly, Irish-British physician and academic
* 19 April – Denis O'Brien, entrepreneur
* 30 April – James Hewitt, soldier and lover of Diana, Princess of Wales
* 6 May
** Tommy Byrne, motor racing driver
** Ivor Callely, Fianna Fáil politician, member of the 23rd Seanad, TD and Minister of State
* 8 May – Roddy Doyle, novelist, dramatist and screenwriter
* 11 May – Conor Hayes, Galway hurler and manager
* 2 June – John Buckley, Cork hurler
* 7 June – Aidan Fogarty, Offaly hurler
* 8 June
** Louise Richardson, political scientist and university vice-chancellor
** Niall Williams, writer
* 5 July – Veronica Guerin, journalist (murdered by drug dealers in 1996)
* 10 July – Fiona Shaw, actress
* 11 July – Martin Doherty, member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
* 16 July – Michael Flatley, American dancer
* 10 September – Siobhan Fahey, musician
* 16 September – Maura O'Connell, singer
* 18 September – John Aldridge, Irish international association football player, in England of Irish descent
* 11 November – John Devine, association football player
* 21 November – Eddie O'Sullivan, head coach of the Ireland national rugby union team

### Full date unknown

   * Noel Hill, concertina player
   * Glenn Meade, fiction writer

## Deaths

* 1 January – Richard Hayes, doctor and Sinn Féin Member of Parliament (born 1878)
* 17 January – Michael Donohoe, Irish-born American politician, Democratic U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania (born 1864)
* 24 March – Seamus O'Sullivan, poet and editor (born 1879)
* 29 March – Jimmy Archer, Major League baseball player (born 1883)
* 24 April – Mabel McConnell Fitzgerald, republican, suffragette and socialist (born 1884]
* 6 July – John Esmonde, soldier, Fine Gael TD (born 1893)
* 28 July – Dick Walsh, Kilkenny hurler (born 1878)
* 13 August – James Lennon, member of 1st Dáil representing the County Carlow constituency
* 24 August – Paul Henry, artist (born 1876)
* 9 September – Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh, actress and Republican activist (born 1883)
* 15 October – Lennox Robinson, dramatist, poet and theatre director and producer (born 1886)
* 2 December – Alan McKibbin, businessman and Ulster Unionist Party MP (born 1892)
* 8 December – Peig Sayers (Máiréad Ó Gaoithín), seanachaí (traditional storyteller) (born 1873)
* 19 December – Arthur Gore, 6th Earl of Arran, Anglo-Irish peer and soldier (born 1868)
* 23 December – Dorothy Macardle, author and historian (born 1889)
* 24 December – Martin O'Brien, hurler (Thurles Sarsfields, Tipperary) (born 1885)