Events
- January 1 - The Northern Ireland Fair Employment Act becomes law.
- April 3 - There is all-party support for the Criminal Justice Bill to abolish capital punishment for all offences and replaces it with lengthy prison sentences (although in practice the penalty for murder has always been commuted in the Republic after 1954).
- April 26 - The Labour Party selects Mary Robinson as its candidate in the presidential election.
- June 11 - Republic of Ireland national football team begin their World Cup campaign with a 1-1 draw against England in Cagliari. Kevin Sheedy scores for the Republic, with Gary Lineker scoring for England.
- June 17 - The Republic's World Cup campaign continues with a goalless draw against Egypt.
- June 20 - Circulation begins of the IR£1 coin as a replacement for the note of the same denomination.
- June 21 - The Republic complete their group stage unbeaten and reach the last 16 of the World Cup with a 1-1 draw against Holland.
- June 25 - The Republic reach the World Cup quarter-finals by beating Romania on penalties after a goalless draw in the last 16 tie in Genoa.
- June 30 - The Republic's World Cup bid ends with a quarter-final defeat by hosts Italy in Rome.
- July 2 - Deputy President of the ANC, Nelson Mandela, addresses a joint session of both houses of the Oireachtas.
- July 11 - The Criminal Justice Act abolishes capital punishment for all offences and replaces it with lengthy prison sentences.
- July 24 - The IRA kills three policemen and a nun in a bomb attack near Armagh.
- August 24 - Brian Keenan is released after 1574 days in captivity in Beirut.
- September - Janet Catterall becomes the first woman in the Republic of Ireland to be ordained as a priest in the Church of Ireland.
- September 28 - Centenary of People's Park, Dún Laoghaire, celebrated
- October 24 - The IRA kills 6 soldiers and a civilian in bomb attacks at Derry and Newry.
- October 25 - Presidential candidate Brian Lenihan denies that he tried to contact President Hillery to stop the dissolution of the Dáil in 1982. This is in spite of a taped interview where he confirms that he did.
- October 31 - Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Brian Lenihan is dismissed from the government over the telephone call controversy.
- November 9 - Mary Robinson is elected the seventh President of Ireland.
- December 3 - Mary Robinson is inaugurated as President of Ireland. Patrick Hillery bows out after 14 years as Head of State.
- The pro-cathedral in Ennis is rededicated as a cathedral.
Read more about this topic: 1990 In Ireland
Famous quotes containing the word events:
“One cannot be a good historian of the outward, visible world without giving some thought to the hidden, private life of ordinary people; and on the other hand one cannot be a good historian of this inner life without taking into account outward events where these are relevant. They are two orders of fact which reflect each other, which are always linked and which sometimes provoke each other.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“Man is a stream whose source is hidden. Our being is descending into us from we know not whence. The most exact calculator has no prescience that somewhat incalculable may not balk the very next moment. I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events than the will I call mine.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A curious thing about atrocity stories is that they mirror, instead of the events they purport to describe, the extent of the hatred of the people that tell them.
Still, you can’t listen unmoved to tales of misery and murder.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)