1980 in Ireland

Incumbents

• President: Patrick Hillery
• Taoiseach: Charles Haughey
• Tánaiste: George Colley
• Minister for Finance:
• * Michael O'Kennedy
• * Gene Fitzgerald
• Chief Justice: Tom O'Higgins
• Dáil: 21st
• Seanad: 14th

  Events

• January – Jorge Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis, arrived in Ireland for three months to learn English at Milltown College in Milltown, Dublin.
• 9 January – Charles Haughey addressed the nation on television on the matter of worsening public finances.
• 31 January – W. B. Yeats featured on the new £20 note, blue in colour.
• 13 February – Ireland's first ATM, the Bank of Ireland Pass, opens.
• 25 March – CIÉs first bus lane came into operation on Parliament Street in Dublin.
• 19 April – Johnny Logan won the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland with the song "What's Another Year".
• 1 May – the Derrynaflan Chalice was discovered in a bog in County Tipperary.
• 1 August – eighteen people died in the Buttevant Rail Disaster.
• 8 August – ten people died in the Central Hotel Fire, Bundoran.
• 15 August - The first section of the wicklow Way – from Marlay Park to Luggala – was opened by Jim Tunney, T. D., Minister of State for Education on 15 August 1980.
• 1 September – China's first Ambassador to Ireland, Madame Gong Pusheng, arrived in Dublin.
• 6 October – Justice Mella Carroll was the first woman to reach the position of High Court Judge.
• 27 October – over 2,000 people took part in the first RTÉ Radio 2 Dublin City Marathon.
• 1 November – the controversial Health Act, 1979 came into operation, permitting the provision of contraceptives by prescription.
• 2 November - The first edition of the Sunday Tribune newspaper hits the shops.
• 11 November – the National Institute for Higher Education, Dublin, admitted its first students to the college, a total of two hundred.
• 8 December – Taoiseach Charles Haughey met with the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher at Dublin Castle. It was the first visit by a British prime minister since Irish Independence.
• 19 December – former Taoiseach Jack Lynch was conferred with the freedom of his native city, Cork.
• The Wicklow Way was designated as the first waymarked long-distance walking trail in Ireland.

  Arts and literature

• 23 September – Field Day Theatre Company presented its first production, the première of Brian Friel's Translations at the Guildhall, Derry.
• Eavan Boland's poetry In Her Own Image was published in the United Kingdom.
• Dermot Bolger's poetry The Habit of Flesh was published.
• Shaun Davey's orchestral suite for uilleann pipes The Brendan Voyage was composed.
• Seamus Heaney's Selected Poems 1965-1975 was published in the UK.
• Ron Hutchinson's The Irish Play was first performed, in London.
• Thomas Kinsella's Poems 1956-1973 was published in the UK.
• Paul Muldoon's poetry Why Brownlee Left was published in the UK.
• Tom Paulin's The Strange Museum, including "Pot Burial" and "Where Art Is a Midwife", was published in the UK.
• Bernard Farrell was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.
• The Irish Film Board was established as a funding body.
• W. A. McCutcheon's official survey The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland was published.

  Sport

Golf

• Carroll's Irish Open was won by Mark James.

  Births

• 11 January – Liam O'Brien, actor.
• 14 January – Clive Clarke, soccer player.
• 19 January – Kevin McHugh, soccer player.
• 31 January – Gary Doherty, soccer player.
• 1 February – Justin Kehoe, golfer.
• 6 February – Bernard Dunne, boxer.
• 28 February – Denise Gough, actress.
• 3 March – Toiréasa Ferris, Sinn Féin politician.
• 14 March – Colin Healy, soccer player.
• 15 March – Caitríona Perry, RTE news reporter.
• 3 April – Mairead Ronan, television presenter.
• 9 April – Jennifer Zamparelli, comedian and television presenter.
• 12 April – Brian McFadden, singer and songwriter.
• 13 April – Jason Maguire, jockey.
• 17 April – Richie Baker, soccer player.
• 18 April – Kevin Doherty, soccer player.
• 29 April – Kian Egan, singer with Westlife.
• 21 May – Darragh Ryan, soccer player.
• 28 May – Mark Feehily, singer with Westlife.
• 3 June – Ciarán Walsh, visual artist.
• 5 June – Stephen Lucey, Limerick hurler.
• 6 June – Colin Moran, Gaelic footballer.
• 16 June – Richie Foran, soccer player.
• 19 June
• * Jean Carroll, Irish cricketer
• * Derek Geary, soccer player.
• 3 July – Donal O'Grady, Limerick hurler
• 8 July – Robbie Keane, soccer player.
• 23 July – Graham Canty, Cork Gaelic footballer.
• 13 August – Paul Crowley, soccer player.
• 22 August – Alan Reilly, soccer player.
• 30 August – Damien Brennan, soccer player.
• 12 September – Richie Partridge, soccer player.
• 15 September – Dean Delany, soccer player.
• 28 September – Danny O'Connor, soccer player.
• 8 October – Tony Buckley, rugby player.
• 27 October – Peter Murphy, soccer player.
• 28 October – Darren McKenna, soccer player.
• 29 October – Derek Kavanagh, Cork Gaelic footballer.
• 14 November – James Ryall, Kilkenny hurler.
• 17 December – Conor Armstrong, cricketer.
• 22 December – Noel Hickey, Kilkenny hurler.

Deaths

• 26 January – John Doherty, fiddle player.
• 14 March – Gustavus Kelly, cricketer.
• 2 May – Cecile O'Rahilly, scholar of the Celtic languages and writer.
• 14 May – Christine Longford, playwright.
• 11 June – William J.E. Jessop, professor, represented Dublin University in the Seanad from 1951 to 1973.
• 25 June – James Hamilton Delargy, folklorist.
• 2 July – Tom Barry, guerrilla leader in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence.
• 5 July – A. J. Potter, composer.
• 13 July – Joseph Brennan, Fianna Fáil TD, Cabinet Minister and Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann.
• 24 August – Frederick Maurice Watson Harvey, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1917 at Guyencourt, France.
• 5 September – Eric Cross, scientist.
• 21 September – Mick Gill, Galway and Dublin hurler.
• 7 November – Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary.
• 9 November – Patrick Campbell, 3rd Baron Glenavy, journalist and author.
• 10 November – John Moyney, soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1917 north of Broembeek, Belgium.
• 22 November – Norah McGuinness, artist.
• 25 November – Joseph Sweeney, member of 1st Dáil representing West Donegal, .
• 16 December – Roddy Connolly, Labour Party TD, Seanad member, son of James Connolly.
• 24 December – Arland Ussher, academic, essayist and translator.
• 30 December – Patrick Hennessy, painter.