Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
.
Incumbents
*
First Minister
A first minister is any of a variety of leaders of government cabinets. The term literally has the same meaning as "prime minister" but is typically chosen to distinguish the office-holder from a superior prime minister. Currently the title of ' ...
-
David Trimble
William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, (15 October 1944 – 25 July 2022) was a Northern Irish politician who was the inaugural First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002 and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1995 to 20 ...
Seamus Mallon
Seamus Frederick Mallon ( ; 17 August 1936 – 24 January 2020) was an Irish politician who served as deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2001 and Deputy Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) from 1979 to ...
Mo Mowlam
Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam (18 September 1949 – 19 August 2005) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Redcar (UK Parliament constituency), Redcar f ...
(until 11 October),
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, (born 21 October 1953) is a British politician, lobbyist and diplomat who has served as British Ambassador to the United States since February 2025.
A member of the Labour Party, Mandelson serve ...
Lurgan
Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh and roughly southwest of Belfast. The town is linked to Belfast by both the M1 motorway (Northern Ireland), M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin rail ...
solicitor, is killed in a
car bomb
A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles.
Car bombs can be roug ...
attack by
loyalist
Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...
paramilitary
A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934.
Overview
Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...
group the
Red Hand Defenders
The Red Hand Defenders (RHD) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in 1998 by loyalists who opposed the Belfast Agreement and the loyalist ceasefires.Senator George Mitchell Peace Bridge opened across the Border.
*14 May - The fully renovated St George's Market in
Belfast
Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
reopens its doors.
*21 October -
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, (born 21 October 1953) is a British politician, lobbyist and diplomat who has served as British Ambassador to the United States since February 2025.
A member of the Labour Party, Mandelson serve ...
arrives in
Belfast
Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
as the new
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The secretary of state for Northern Ireland (; ), also referred to as Northern Ireland Secretary or SoSNI, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the Northern Ireland Office. The offi ...
.
*29 November - Ten designated ministers are appointed to the power-sharing executive of the
Northern Ireland Assembly
The Northern Ireland Assembly (; ), often referred to by the metonym ''Stormont'', is the devolved unicameral legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliam ...
.
*2 December - The
Irish Government
The Government of Ireland () is the executive authority of Ireland, headed by the , the head of government. The government – also known as the cabinet – is composed of ministers, each of whom must be a member of the , which consists of ...
ratifies changes to Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution. Direct rule from
Westminster
Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...
in
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
ends.
*13 December - The first meeting of the
North/South Ministerial Council
The North/South Ministerial Council (NSMC) (, Ulster-Scots: ) is a body established under the Good Friday Agreement to co-ordinate activity and exercise certain governmental powers across the whole island of Ireland.
The Council takes the for ...
takes place in
Armagh
Armagh ( ; , , " Macha's height") is a city and the county town of County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All ...
.
*
Nuala O'Loan
Nuala Patricia O'Loan, Baroness O'Loan, (born 20 December 1951), is a public figure in Northern Ireland. From 1999 to 2007, she was the first Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. In July 2009, it was announced that she was to be appointed t ...
is appointed as first
Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland
The Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (OPONI) is a non-departmental public body intended to provide an independent, impartial police complaints system for the people and police under the Police (Northern Ireland) Acts of 1998 ...
.
Date unknown
* Sirocco Works closes down for plans of redevelopment.
Arts and literature
*
Ciaran Carson
Ciaran Gerard Carson ( Irish: ''Ciarán Gearóid Mac Carráin''; 9 October 1948 – 6 October 2019) was a Northern Ireland-born poet and novelist.
Early life and education
Ciaran Carson was born on 9 October 1948 in Belfast
Belfast ...
publishes ''The Ballad of HMS Belfast: A Compendium of Belfast Poems''.
*
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...
publishes a verse translation of ''
Beowulf
''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...
'' from the
Old English
Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
.
* Glenn Patterson publishes his novel ''The International''.
Belfast
Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
.
Football
*
Ulster Senior Football Championship
The Ulster Senior Football Championship is an inter-county competition for Gaelic football teams in the Irish province of Ulster. It is organised by the Ulster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and begins in April. The final is ...
::Winners:
Armagh
Armagh ( ; , , " Macha's height") is a city and the county town of County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All ...
Glentoran
Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club based in East Belfast, Northern Ireland, that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882 and has since won more than 130 major honours. They are one of three Northern Iris ...
*
Irish Cup
The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Clearer Water Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary Association football, football single elimination, knockout cup compet ...
::Winners:
Portadown
Portadown ( ) is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town is based on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population ...
(as
Cliftonville
Cliftonville is a coastal area of Margate in the Thanet District, Thanet district of Kent, England. It includes the Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay estate, built in the 1930s with wide avenues and detached and semi-detached houses with driveways, gar ...
were disqualified)
Golf
*
The Amateur Championship
The Amateur Championship (sometimes referred to as the British Amateur or British Amateur Championship outside the UK) is a golf tournament which has been held annually in the United Kingdom since 1885 except during the two World Wars, and in 19 ...
is held at
Royal County Down Golf Club
Royal County Down Golf Club is a golf club in Northern Ireland, located in Newcastle, County Down, Newcastle, Newry, Mourne and Down. It opened on 23 March 1889 and is one of the oldest golf clubs in Ireland. It has two 18-hole links (golf), lin ...
1921
Events
January
* January 2
** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in First Brazilian Republic, Brazil.
** The Spanish lin ...
).
*15 January -
Robert Lowry, Baron Lowry
Robert Lynd Erskine Lowry, Baron Lowry, PC, PC (NI) (30 January 1919 – 15 January 1999), was a Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland and a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. He was knighted in 1971 and created a life peer in 1979.
The son ...
,
Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland
The Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland is a judge who presides over the courts of Northern Ireland and is the head of the Northern Ireland, Northern Irish judiciary. The present Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland is Siobhan Keegan, Dame ...
(b.
1919
Events
January
* January 1
** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (later Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia.
** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off th ...
1918
The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the ...
. (b.
1914
This year saw the beginning of what became known as the First World War, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip ...
Republican Labour Party
The Republican Labour Party (RLP) was a political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1964, with two MPs at Stormont, Harry Diamond and Gerry Fitt. They had previously been the sole Northern Ireland representatives of the Socialist R ...
Councillor and MP (b.
1942
The Uppsala Conflict Data Program project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 4.62 million. However, the Correlates of War estimates that the prior year, 1941, was th ...
1943
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured.
* January 4 � ...
1932
Events January
* January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
* January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...
).
July to December
*1 July -
William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw
William Stephen Ian Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw (28 June 1918 – 1 July 1999) was a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician who served in a wide number of Cabinet positions, most notably as Home Secretary from 1979 ...
, first
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The secretary of state for Northern Ireland (; ), also referred to as Northern Ireland Secretary or SoSNI, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the Northern Ireland Office. The offi ...
SDLP
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP; ) is a social democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland Assembly ( MLAs) and two members of Parliament (MPs ...
1925
Events January
* January 1 – The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria (1925–1930), State of Syria.
* January 3 – Benito Mussolini m ...
).
*21 August - Noel Larmour, cricketer and diplomat (b.
1916
Events
Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 1 – The British Empire, British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that has been stored ...
).
*23 August - James White, science fiction novelist (b.
1928
Events January
* January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material.
* January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris B ...
1917
Events
Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's ...
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...
activist and writer (b.
1954
Events
January
* January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting.
* January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...
).
See also
*
1999 in England
Events from 1999 in England
Incumbent
Events January
* 22 January – Aston Villa, who have emerged as surprise FA Premier League title contenders this season, have their double hopes shattered by a shock 2–0 exit by the ambitious Division Two ...
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...