27 May – The first meeting of an Irish head of state with a British monarch took place when President Mary Robinson makes a private visit to Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.[1]
24 June – Dáil Éireann passed the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, decriminalising consensual homosexual acts.
15 July – The Beef Tribunal ended after 226 days.
September – The sale of land beside a Dublin convent and the consequent exhumation of at least 133 former residents of a Magdalene asylum from unmarked graves brought the existence of these institutions to wide public attention.[2][3]
16 September – A new green coloured £10 note was issued depicting the writer James Joyce.
30 October – Greysteel massacre – The Ulster Defence Association shot 21 people in the Rising Sun Bar in Greysteel, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, during a Hallowe'en party. They chose the pub as it was in a Catholic area.
12 November – The issue of a new, smaller 10 pence coin meant there was no longer a coin equivalent in size to a florin after 22 years.