2000 in Ireland

Incumbents

• President: Mary McAleese
• Taoiseach: Bertie Ahern
• Tánaiste: Mary Harney
• Minister for Finance: Charlie McCreevy
• Chief Justice:
• * Liam Hamilton
• * Ronan Keane
• Dáil: 28th
• Seanad: 21st

  Events

February

• 3 February – John Gilligan's extradition from the UK to Ireland on drug trafficking and murder charges was completed.
• 11 February – the British government suspended devolution in Northern Ireland.

  April

• 10 April – the ambulance service regulator, the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council, was established.
• Spring – Clive Cussler's National Underwater and Marine Agency discovered the wreck of west of Fastnet Rock.

  May

• 6 May – the Provisional Irish Republican Army began decommissioning its weapons.
• 30 May – devolution returned to Northern Ireland.

  July

• 6 July – the Intoxicating Liquor Act, 2000 came into effect abolishing the so-called ":wikt:holy hour|holy hour" between 2 pm and 4 pm on Sundays when pubs had been forced to close their doors.

  December

• 12 December – President Bill Clinton of the United States arrived in Dublin beginning his last international trip as President and met with President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and gave a speech in Dundalk.
• 13 December – Bill Clinton met with the political leaders of Northern Ireland.
• 31 December – Ireland celebrated as the 20th century drew to a close.

  Arts and literature

• 7 February – the Chester Beatty Library opened in its new premises in the grounds of Dublin Castle.
• 31 October – boyband Westlife scored their seventh straight UK number one, becoming the only artists in UK chart history to achieve this.
• December – the quarterly cultural magazine The Dublin Review was launched by Brendan Barrington.
• John Banville's novel Eclipse was published.
• Anne Enright's novel What Are You Like? was published.

  Sport

Association football

Gaelic games

• Kilkenny won the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship.
• Kerry won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.

  Golf

• Murphy's Irish Open was won by Patrik Sjöland.

  Births

• 16 October – David Rawle, actor

  Deaths

January to June

• 15 January – Alf Ringstead, football player.
• 28 January – Tony Doyle, actor.
• 1 February – Patrick Shanahan, Fianna Fáil TD.
• 2 February – Francis Stuart, writer.
• 13 February – F. X. Martin, priest and historian.
• 25 February – Tom McEllistrim, Fianna Fáil TD.
• 6 March – Jonathan Philbin Bowman, journalist and radio presenter.
• 20 April – John Carthy, shot dead in controversial circumstances by An Garda Síochána after a twenty-five-hour siege at his home.
• 7 June – Mona Tyndall, missionary sister and development worker.
• 10 June – Frank Patterson, tenor.

  July to December

• 10 July – Denis O'Conor Don, hereditary chief of the O'Conor Don sept.
• 14 August – John Boland, senior Fine Gael politician.
• 18 October – James Gill, cricketer.
• 8 November – Brian Boydell, composer, professor of music at Trinity College, Dublin.
• 18 November – Lochlainn O'Raifeartaigh, physicist responsible for the O'Raifeartaigh Theorem and the O'Raifeartaigh Model of supersymmetry breaking.
• 21 November – Paddy Flanagan, cyclist.
• 26 November – Paddy Donegan, former Fine Gael TD and Cabinet Minister.
• 15 December – Paddy Barry, Cork hurler.