1975 in Ireland

Incumbents

• President: Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh
• Taoiseach: Liam Cosgrave
• Tánaiste: Brendan Corish
• Minister for Finance: Richie Ryan
• Chief Justice: Tom O'Higgins
• Dáil: 20th
• Seanad: 13th

  Events

• January-June – Ireland holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first time.
• 7 January – Sinéad 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 an 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 to religious controversy.
• Leland Bardwell, Pearse Hutchinson, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Macdara Woods found the literary publication Cyphers.
• Garry Hynes, Mick Lally and Marie Mullen found the Druid Theatre Company in Galway.
• Lillias Mitchell founds the Irish Guild of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers.
• 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.

  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.
• 10 May – Clodagh McKenna, cookery writer and presenter.
• 10 June – Seánie McGrath, Cork hurler.
• 6 August – Willie Boland, soccer player.
• 25 August – Pat Mulcahy, Cork hurler.
• 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.

Deaths

• 7 January – Sinéad de Valera, writer and wife of third President of Ireland, Éamon de Valera.
• 23 February – Ernest Blythe, writer, journalist and theatre manager, member of 1st Dáil and Cabinet Minister.
• 27 February – John Vincent Holland, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1916 at Guillemont, France.
• 21 April – James Kempster, cricketer.
• 23 April – Michael Carty, Fianna Fáil TD.
• 28 April – Tom Dreaper, horse trainer.
• 29 April – Arthur Blair-White, cricketer.
• 10 May – Michael Tierney, Cumann na nGaedheal TD, Fine Gael member of Seanad Éireann and President of University College Dublin.
• 27 May – Robert Collis, physician and writer.
• 24 June – Frank MacDermot, barrister, soldier, banker and politician.
• 31 July – Dan "Sandow" O'Donovan, Irish Republican Army member during the Irish War of Independence.
• 9 August – Maurice Gorham, journalist and broadcasting executive.
• 10 August – Robert Barton, Sinn Féin MP, Cabinet Minister and signatory of Anglo-Irish Treaty 1921.
• 29 August – Éamon de Valera, former Taoiseach and President.
• 2 October – Seamus Murphy, sculptor.
• 25 October – Padraig Marrinan, artist.
• 26 October – William Teeling, author, traveller and UK politician.
• 25 November – Moyna Macgill, stage and film actress, mother of Angela Lansbury.
• 14 December – George Harman, cricketer and rugby player.