1992 in Ireland

Incumbents

• President: Mary Robinson
• Taoiseach:
• * Charles Haughey
• * Albert Reynolds
• Tánaiste: John Wilson
• Minister for Finance: Bertie Ahern
• Chief Justice: Thomas Finlay
• Dáil:
• * 26th
• * 27th
• Seanad: 19th

  Events

• 20 January – Peter Brooke offers to resign as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland following criticism of his singing on The Late Late Show only hours after an IRA bomb explodes.
• 30 January – Charles Haughey resigns as Taoiseach and as leader of Fianna Fáil.
• 31 January – the Irish government sells the British and Irish Steam Packet Company to the Irish Continental Group.
• 4 February
• *Mary Robinson becomes the first President of Ireland to visit Belfast.
• *An off-duty RUC officer in Belfast kills three people in a Sinn Féin office before committing suicide.
• 5 February – Loyalist gunmen kill five Catholics in an attack on a bookmaker's shop in Belfast.
• 6 February – Albert Reynolds is elected the fifth leader of Fianna Fáil.
• 11 February – Charles Haughey resigns as Taoiseach. Albert Reynolds collects his seal of office as his successor.
• 18 February – Taoiseach Albert Reynolds discusses the situation with other party leaders as the High Court prevents a 14-year-old rape victim from going to Britain for an abortion.
• 26 February – the Supreme Court lift the High Court ruling preventing a 14-year-old girl from going to Britain for an abortion; the abortion is performed in England.
• 15 March – Proinsias De Rossa leads a breakaway group from the Workers' Party to form what would shortly become Democratic Left. The majority of the breakaway group including De Rossa would later join the Labour Party.
• 13 April – 250 years after the first performance of Handel's Messiah in Dublin, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields performs the oratorio at the Point Theatre.
• 7 May – Bishop Eamon Casey of Galway resigns following the revelation that he is the father of a teenage boy.
• 9 May – Linda Martin wins the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland with Why Me?, composed by previous winner Johnny Logan. This would be the first of three consecutive Irish wins.
• 31 May – Christy O'Connor Jnr wins the British Masters golf tournament.
• 18 June – a referendum in the Republic approves the Maastricht Treaty on European Union: 69.1% in favour; 30.9% against.
• 25 June – new smaller 5p coin means they're no longer the same size as a Shilling after 21 years.
• 8 July – President Mary Robinson addresses both houses of the Oireachtas.
• 23 September – the IRA destroys Belfast's forensic science laboratory with a huge bomb.
• 5 November – the government loses a confidence motion and the Dáil is dissolved. Two former Taoisigh, Charles Haughey and Garret FitzGerald, announce their retirement from politics.
• 6 November – new Violet or Purple £20 note with Daniel O'Connell.
• 25 November – three referendums are held in the Republic on abortion-related issues: the right to travel and the right to information is supported.
• 31 December – unemployment reaches record levels: 290,000 people are out of work.

  Undated

• An appearance by Christine Buckley on The Gay Byrne Show brings an "overwhelming response" from others who felt they had been victims of incarceration and abuse in industrial schools.

  Arts and literature

• April – Patrick McCabe's novel The Butcher Boy is published.
• 11 September – Colm Tóibín's novel The Heather Blazing is published.
• 23 September – the Irish Film Institute opens the Irish Film Centre in Dublin.
• 30 September – Vincent Woods' play At the Black Pig's Dyke opens at the Druid Theatre Company.
• 30 October – Neil Jordan's film The Crying Game goes on general release in the U.K. and Ireland.
• Samuel Beckett's first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, is finally published.
• Maeve Binchy's novel The Copper Beech is published.
• Eugene McCabe's novel Death and Nightingales is published.

  Sport

Gaelic football

• Donegal GAA beat Dublin GAA 0–18 to 0–14 to win their first All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.

  Golf

• Carroll's Irish Open is won by Nick Faldo.

  Hurling

• Kilkenny GAA beat Cork GAA 3–10 to 1–12 in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final.

  Olympics

• 8 August – Michael Carruth wins Ireland's first gold medal in 36 years at the Olympic Games in Barcelona. Wayne McCullough wins a silver medal.

  Soccer

• 5 April – Shelbourne win their first League of Ireland Championship for thirty years.

  Births

• 13 January – Ryan Connolly, footballer.
• 16 January – Matt Doherty, footballer.
• 23 January – Jack Reynor, actor.
• 25 January – Dean McCarthy, actor, dancer and model.
• 27 January – Sam Barry, tennis player.
• 11 February – Aidan Bissett, footballer.
• 7 May – Robbie Benson, footballer.
• 10 May – Sophie Vavasseur, actress.
• 20 May – Jack Gleeson, actor.
• 22 July – George Dockrell, cricketer.
• 27 July – Neil R. Barrett, rugby player.
• 27 September – Ryan O'Shaughnessy, pop singer.
• 18 October – Barry Keoghan, actor
• 14 November – Tadhg Furlong, rugby union player.
• 24 November
• * Aaron Barry, footballer.
• * Oliver Dingley, diver
• 25 November – Declan Hannon, hurler
• 26 November – Paul Dunne, golfer

  Full date unknown

• Aisling Dunphy, camogie player.

  Deaths

• 9 January – Bill Naughton, playwright and author.
• 20 March – Michael McLaverty, novelist.
• 28 April – Francis Bacon, painter.
• 12 May – Joseph Raftery, archaeologist.
• 13 May – F. E. McWilliam, sculptor.
• 20 May – James Tully, former Labour Party TD and Cabinet Minister.
• 3 June – Patrick Peyton, the Rosary Priest.
• 6 July – Bryan Guinness, 2nd Lord Moyne, lawyer and poet.
• 21 July – Aloys Fleischmann, composer and musicologist.
• 17 August – Tom Nolan, Fianna Fáil TD, Minister of State and MEP.
• 23 September – Ivar Ivask, Estonian poet and literary scholar.

  Full date unknown

• Benjamin Guinness, 3rd Earl of Iveagh, peer and Seanad member.
• Aidan MacCarthy, doctor, RAF medical officer, captured by the Japanese during the Second World War.
• Matt O'Mahoney, international soccer player.
• Peter Rice, structural engineer.
• Jim Young, Cork hurler.