1989 in Ireland

Events

January 2 – Dundalk, County Louth celebrates its 1200 year heritage.
February 12 – Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane is shot dead by loyalists.
March 21 – Three Irish soldiers are killed in a alndmine explosion in southern Lebanon.
April 3 – Belfast-born Alex Higgins beats Stephen Hendry to win the British Benson and Hedges snooker championship.
April 4 – The Windmill Lane Consortium says that if it gets the franchise it will be on the air within 9 to 12 months with its station TV3.
June 16 – Ray McAnally, one of the country's most versatile actors, dies suddenly.
June 22 – an order is signed creating the University of Limerick, the first university founded since the foundation of the state, later in the day Dublin City University is created
June 29 – Charles Haughey resigns as Taoiseach. He remains on in a caretaker capacity.
August 19 – 10,000 people march from Dublin city centre to the British Embassy calling for British withdrawl from Northern Ireland.
September 4 – Century Radio goes on the air for the first time.
October 11 – The Republic of Ireland beat Northern Ireland 3–0 in a World Cup Qualifier at Lansdowne Road.
October 19 – Three of the Guildford Four are released in London. Paul Hill is re-arrested.
December 21 – Aer Rianta's 5,000,000th passenger is presented with a holiday to Florida.
December 26 – Poet, playwright and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Samuel Beckett, dies in Paris.

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January 31 – Allan McClelland, actor and writer.
April 7 – Frank Cluskey, former leader of the Labour Party.
June 15 – Ray McAnally, actor.
August 3 – Dominic Behan, author and songwriter.
August 12 – Emyr Estyn Evans, Ireland's first Professor of Geography.
October 6 – Patricia Cockburn, artist.
October 31 – Liam Redmond, actor.
November 4 – Vivian Mercier, critic, scholar and teacher.
December 14 – Gerry Healy, British Trotskyist leader.
December 22 – Samuel Beckett, poet, novelist, playwright and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.