The Irish rugby team thrashes England 96-3 at Twickenham, and the GAA seizes on the national mood of celebration to announce that the IRFU will play all future home internationals at Croke Park. The move is hailed as a watershed for sporting ecumenism in Ireland. The formal signing of the agreement at Croker is followed by a compromise-rules challenge match between a Garda team and a Crowned Forces XV, in which RUC chief constable Ronnie Flanagan kicks the winning point. Dublin Corporation announces lay-offs at its cleansing department, after the St Patrick's Day parade in Dublin passes off without a single recorded case of littering. The crack-down on public urination also proves unnecessary, as the only man arrested for the offence turns out to be a comic performance artist from Barcelona who had applied for a permit beforehand.
Some tourists regret the new-look parade, however.
It's so God-damn clean. The Government announces another major plan to deal with Dublin's traffic. The historic Orange march in Dublin's Dawson Street passes off peacefully, Dubliners turning out in their thousands to watch the colourful event. A beaming Dublin Lord Mayor, Cllr Mary Frehill, says the event has been the highlight of her year in office. In the first case to be tried under the new Mobile Telephony Offences Against the Person Act, a business executive who annoyed customers in a restaurant by engaging in repeated loud conversations on his mobile phone is jailed for 12 years.