Events from the year 1958 in Ireland.
Incumbents
Events
- 6 February â Association football player, 22-year-old Billy Whelan, who played four times for the Irish national team, was among 21 people killed in the Munich air disaster involving English football team Manchester United.
- 18 March â Taoiseach ÃÂamon de Valera said he would be willing to have talks with the government of Northern Ireland on wider economic co-operation.
- 20 March â Work began on the ã80,000 restoration of the State Rooms at Dublin Castle.
- 10 May â The Independent Teachta Dála (TD), Jack Murphy, resigned in protest at the indifference of the main political parties to the plight of the unemployed.
- 12 May â The Ardmore Film Studios were opened by the Tánaiste, Seán Lemass.
- 22 May â The Minister for Education, Jack Lynch, told the Dáil that the ruling requiring women teachers to retire upon marriage was to be revoked.
- 25 July â ã100 damages were awarded to a nine-year-old boy who was beaten by his teacher in a national school.
- 28 July â The Carlisle Monument, an eight-foot bronze statue in the Phoenix Park in Dublin, was blown up by an Irish republican bomb in the early hours.
- 8 August â The United States Embassy in Merrion Square, Dublin displayed plans for a new embassy.
- 8 September â Pan Am's Boeing 707 became the first jetliner to touch down on European soil at Shannon Airport.
- 1 October â Assets and management of the Great Northern Railway were divided between and the Ulster Transport Authority.
- 29 October â The Government announced that the question of ending the proportional representation method of voting was to be put to the people in a referendum.
- 4 November â In the Vatican, Taoiseach ÃÂamon de Valera attended the four-hour coronation of Pope John XXIII.
- 31 December â The Harcourt Street railway line in Dublin closed, having served Ranelagh, Milltown, Dundrum, Stillorgan, Foxrock, Carrickmines, Shankill and Bray.
Arts and literature
Sports
Association football
(The Republic of Ireland did not qualify for the 1958 world cup)
Northern Ireland:
Births
- 1 January â Liam Fennelly, Kilkenny hurler
- 27 January â Synan Braddish, association football player
- 1 February â Seán Fleming, Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for LaoisâÂÂOffaly
- 2 February â Paddy Prendergast, Kilkenny hurler
- 16 February â Fintan O'Toole, journalist and drama critic
- 1 April â Stephen O'Rahilly, Irish-British physician and academic
- 19 April â Denis O'Brien, entrepreneur
- 30 April â James Hewitt, soldier and lover of Diana, Princess of Wales
- 6 May
- Tommy Byrne, motor racing driver
- Ivor Callely, Fianna Fáil politician, member of the 23rd Seanad, TD and Minister of State
- 8 May â Roddy Doyle, novelist, dramatist and screenwriter
- 11 May â Conor Hayes, Galway hurler and manager
- 2 June â John Buckley, Cork hurler
- 7 June â Aidan Fogarty, Offaly hurler
- 8 June
- Louise Richardson, political scientist and university vice-chancellor
- Niall Williams, writer
- 5 July â Veronica Guerin, journalist (murdered by drug dealers in 1996)
- 10 July â Fiona Shaw, actress
- 11 July â Martin Doherty, member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
- 16 July â Michael Flatley, American dancer
- 10 September â Siobhan Fahey, musician
- 16 September â Maura O'Connell, singer
- 18 September â John Aldridge, Irish international association football player, in England of Irish descent
- 11 November â John Devine, association football player
- 21 November â Eddie O'Sullivan, head coach of the Ireland national rugby union team
Full date unknown
* Noel Hill, concertina player
* Glenn Meade, fiction writer
Deaths
- 1 January â Richard Hayes, doctor and Sinn Féin Member of Parliament (born 1878)
- 17 January â Michael Donohoe, Irish-born American politician, Democratic U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania (born 1864)
- 24 March â Seamus O'Sullivan, poet and editor (born 1879)
- 29 March â Jimmy Archer, Major League baseball player (born 1883)
- 24 April â Mabel McConnell Fitzgerald, republican, suffragette and socialist (born 1884]
- 6 July â John Esmonde, soldier, Fine Gael TD (born 1893)
- 28 July â Dick Walsh, Kilkenny hurler (born 1878)
- 13 August â James Lennon, member of 1st Dáil representing the County Carlow constituency
- 24 August â Paul Henry, artist (born 1876)
- 9 September â Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh, actress and Republican activist (born 1883)
- 15 October â Lennox Robinson, dramatist, poet and theatre director and producer (born 1886)
- 2 December â Alan McKibbin, businessman and Ulster Unionist Party MP (born 1892)
- 8 December â Peig Sayers (Máiréad àGaoithÃÂn), (traditional storyteller) (born 1873)
- 19 December â Arthur Gore, 6th Earl of Arran, Anglo-Irish peer and soldier (born 1868)
- 23 December â Dorothy Macardle, author and historian (born 1889)
- 24 December â Martin O'Brien, hurler (Thurles Sarsfields, Tipperary) (born 1885)
References