1954 in Northern Ireland

Events during the year 1954 in Northern Ireland.

Incumbents

• Governor - The Lord Wakehurst
• Prime Minister - Basil Brooke

Events

• 6 April – Flags and Emblems (Display) Act (Northern Ireland) is introduced, making it illegal to interfere with the display of a Union Flag and giving the Royal Ulster Constabulary the right to remove any other flag or emblem if it is thought that it might lead to a breach of peace.
• 12 June – An Irish Republican Army unit carries out a successful arms raid on Gough Barracks in Armagh signalling the renewal of IRA activity following a long hiatus.
• 17 August – Ocean liner SS Southern Cross is launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.
• The Republican political party Fianna Uladh is formed by Liam Kelly as the political wing of Saor Uladh.
• Roselawn Cemetery opens in Belfast.

Arts and literature

• John Hewitt's The Bloody Brae: A Dramatic Poem (1936) is first broadcast on the BBC Northern Ireland Home Service.

Sport

Football

• Irish League

:Winners: Linfield

• Irish Cup

:Winners: Derry City 2 – 2, 0 – 0, 1 – 0 Glentoran

Births

• 9 March – Bobby Sands, Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer and MP (died on hunger strike 1981).
• 8 April – Joe Kernan, Gaelic footballer and manager.
• 28 April – Monica McWilliams, Northern Ireland Women's Coalition MLA, later Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
• 11 May – Jane Morrice, Northern Ireland Women's Coalition MLA.
• 23 May – Gerry Armstrong, footballer.
• 23 June – Michael Copeland, Unionist politician.
• 2 August – Sammy McIlroy, footballer and football manager.
• 28 August – Clive Culbertson, mystic, musician and healer.
• 12 October – Kieran Deeny, medical doctor turned independent politician and MLA.
• 19 October – Angela Feeney, opera singer.
• Eamon Collins, Provisional Irish Republican Army activist and writer (died 1999).
• Martin O'Brien, journalist.
• Marian Price, Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer.

Deaths

• 1 May – James Macmahon, civil servant and businessman, Under-Secretary for Ireland from 1918 to 1922 (born 1865).
• 11 October – Thomas Teevan, Unionist politician and lawyer (born 1927).

See also

• 1954 in Scotland
• 1954 in Wales

References