1943 in Ireland - Events

Events

• February 1 - The Currency Commission is renamed the Central Bank of Ireland (under terms of the Central Bank Act 1942); it is not, however, given all the powers expected of a central bank.
• February 23 - S.S. Kyleclare torpedoed in North Atlantic by U-456: eighteen die.
• February 23–24 - Cavan Orphanage Fire: Thirty-five girls and a cook from St Joseph's Orphanage, an industrial school in Cavan, are killed in a fire in their dormitories. A subsequent inquiry absolves the Poor Clares of blame.
• March 17
  • Éamon de Valera and his government celebrate St. Patrick's Day with a céilí in the Great Hall of Dublin Castle. de Valera makes the speech "The Ireland That We Dreamed Of", commonly called the "comely maidens" speech.
  • British military aircraft crashes at Templeport, Tullyhaw, County Cavan: pilot and navigator survive.
• May 1 - Sir Basil Brooke becomes Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
• May 15 - Irish Oak (Irish Shipping) torpedoed and sunk by U-607, 700 miles west of Ireland: crew rescued by Irish Plane eight hours later.
• June 2 - S.S. City of Bremen (Saorstat & Continental Steam Ship Company) bombed and sunk in the Bay of Biscay: all eleven crew lost.
• October 5 - In the largest manufacturing campaign in the history of the Irish Sugar Company, seven hundred employees at the Carlow Sugar Beet Factory will work in three shifts without pause for 18 weeks until all the 230,000 acres (930 km²) of beet is processed.
• December 29 - MV Kerlogue (with a crew of 11) rescues 164 Germans from the Bay of Biscay.