1938 in Ireland

Incumbents

• President: Douglas Hyde
• Taoiseach: Éamon de Valera

  Events

• 17 January – the Ford Motor Company in Cork City produces its 25,000th car to be built there.
• 13 April – the Department of Local Government & Public Health reports that cases of typhoid and diphtheria have reduced; however, infant deaths have increased.
• 21 April – Douglas Hyde is selected unanimously by the two main political parties to serve as the first President of Ireland.
• 25 April – Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement, signed between Ireland and the United Kingdom in London, settles the Anglo-Irish Trade War and agrees to the Royal Navy abandoning the British sovereign bases at the Irish Treaty Ports in return for a one-off payment of £10 million.
• 10 May – the Government makes an order converting the "Saorstát pound" to the "Irish pound" as part of the new constitutional reforms.
• 24 May – the new Anti-Partition Party takes eight seats in a Unionist-controlled Londonderry Corporation.
• 17 June – 1938 Irish general election: Fianna Fáil under Éamon de Valera retain power, winning the first overall majority in the history of the State. Members of the 10th Dáil assemble on 30 June.
• 25 June – Douglas Hyde is formally inaugurated as the first President of Ireland.
• 11 July-3 October – Military installations at the Treaty Ports in the Republic are handed over from British control to the Government of Ireland, under terms of the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement.
• 8 August – Dublin Corporation purchases 16 sets of traffic lights.
• 21 August – the £50,000 20,000-seat Cusack Stand is officially opened at Gaelic Athletic Association headquarters in Croke Park.
• 12 September – Éamon de Valera is elected President of the Assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva.
• 17 December – the Gaelic Athletic Association confirms that the President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, will cease to be a patron of the organisation because of his attendance at an international soccer match.

  Arts and literature

• Samuel Beckett publishes his novel Murphy.
• Cecil Day-Lewis publishes Overtures to Death, and Other Poems.
• Oliver St. John Gogarty publishes his poetry Others to Adorn, with a preface by W. B. Yeats.
• Louis MacNeice publishes I Crossed the Minch and his poetry The Earth Compels.
• Colin Middleton first exhibits at the Royal Hibernian Academy.
• Ewart Milne publishes his poetry Forty North Fifty West, with woodcuts by Cecil Salkeld
• Kate O'Brien publishes her novel Pray for the Wanderer.
• W. B. Yeats publishes New Poems, including "Lapis Lazuli".

  Sport

Football

• ;League of Ireland
• :Winners: Shamrock Rovers
• ;FAI Cup
• :Winners: St James' Gate 2–1 Dundalk

  Golf

• Irish Open is won by Bobby Locke.

  Births

January to June

• 4 January – Jim Norton, character actor.
• 2 February – John Moriarty, writer and philosopher.
• 30 January – Mick Lanigan, Fianna Fáil Senator.
• 2 February – Detta O'Cathain, Baroness O'Cathain, businesswoman and Conservative politician in Britain.
• 27 March – Owen Dudley Edwards, historian and writer.
• 4 April – Declan Mulligan, rock guitarist.
• 29 April – Ray MacSharry, Tánaiste, Fianna Fáil TD, Cabinet Minister and European Commissioner.
• 2 May – Douglas Goodwin, cricketer.
• 13 May – Patrick Dineen, cricketer.
• 15 June – Mary Turner, trade unionist in Britain.

  July to December

• 2 July – John McDonnell, head coach for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks track team.
• 15 July – Andy McEvoy, soccer player.
• July – Seán Ó Cionnaith, Workers' Party of Ireland politician.
• 1 August – Paddy Moloney, musician with The Chieftains.
• 3 August – Terry Wogan, BBC, previously, RTÉ broadcaster.
• 5 October – Frank Patterson, tenor.
• 16 October – Gerry Collins, Fianna Fáil TD for Limerick West, Cabinet Minister and Member of the European Parliament.
• 29 October – John Kirby, Bishop of Clonfert.
• 31 October – Anne Buttimer, geographer.
• 28 December – Frank Kelly, actor.

  Full date unknown

• John Behan, sculptor.
• Gerald Davis, artist.
• Pa Dillon, Kilkenny hurler.
• Jim Lane, Irish republican and socialist.
• Úna O'Connor, camogie player.

  Deaths

• 24 February – Thomas Gann, doctor, archaeologist and writer.
• 3 June – John Flanagan, three-time Olympic gold medalist in the hammer throw.
• 27 July – Tom Crean, Antarctic explorer and publican.
• 4 August – William Moxley, representative from Illinois' 6th congressional district.
• 8 September – Robert Henry Woods, Irish Unionist MP.
• 21 October – Sir John Purser Griffith, member of the Seanad.
• 7 November – James Murray Irwin, British Army doctor.
• 12 December – James McNeill, politician and second Governor-General of the Irish Free State.