Events during the year 2013 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 ...

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 ' ...

- Peter Robinson * deputy First Minister - Martin McGuiness * Secretary of State -

Theresa Villiers Dame Theresa Anne Villiers (born 5 March 1968) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Chipping Barnet (UK Parliament constituency), Chipping Barnet from 2005 United Kingdom ...

Events

February

* 16 February – An Irish Premiership match between Crusaders and Cliftonville was called off on security advice following a Union flag demonstration outside the ground. * 23 February – Ryan Dolan from Strabane, County Tyrone, was announced as Ireland's entry for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. * c. February – The last working

Irish linen Irish linen () is the name given to linen produced in Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). Linen is cloth woven from, or yarn spun from, flax fibre, which was grown in Ireland for many years before advanced agri ...

factory in Belfast closed.

March

* 17 March –

Saint Patrick's Day Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (), is a religious and cultural holiday held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patron saint of Ireland. Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Chris ...

festival.All Holidays for 2013
Bank Holiday Dates for Northern Ireland. Retrieved: 2012-11-25.

April

* 17 April – The

Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama (, ; ) is the head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The term is part of the full title "Holiness Knowing Everything Vajradhara Dalai Lama" (圣识一切瓦齐尔达喇达赖喇嘛) given by Altan Khan, the first Shu ...

Tenzin Gyatso The 14th Dalai Lama (born 6 July 1935; full spiritual name: Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, shortened as Tenzin Gyatso; ) is the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. He served a ...

, as patron of the charity Children in Crossfire, began a two-day visit to

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

where he was guest of honour at a Culture of Compassion event. He last visited the city in July 2007.

May

* 3 May – Brian Shivers was acquitted of any involvement in the

2009 Massereene Barracks shooting The Massereene Barracks shooting took place at Massereene Barracks in Antrim, Northern Ireland. On 7 March 2009, two off-duty British soldiers of the 38 Engineer Regiment were shot dead outside the barracks. Two other soldiers and two civil ...

. Mr. Shivers, who had

cystic fibrosis Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder inherited in an autosomal recessive manner that impairs the normal clearance of Sputum, mucus from the lungs, which facilitates the colonization and infection of the lungs by bacteria, notably ''Staphy ...

, had his life sentence overturned, having been jailed since January 2012 in what his solicitor described as a

miscarriage of justice A miscarriage of justice occurs when an unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Innocent ...

. * c. 29 May – Echlinville Distillery at Kircubbin, County Down, was granted the first licence to distil spirits in Northern Ireland in over 130 years.

June

* 17–18 June – The

39th G8 summit The 39th G8 summit was held on 17–18 June 2013, at the Lough Erne Resort, a five-star hotel and golf resort on the shore of Lough Erne in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It was the sixth G8 summit to be held in the United Kingdom and the ...

was held at the Lough Erne Resort in

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of and had a population of 63,585 as of 2021. Enniskillen is the ...

July

* 12 July – The marching season culminated in

The Twelfth The Twelfth (also called Orangemens' Day) is a primarily Ulster Protestant celebration held on 12 July. It began in the late 18th century in Ulster. It celebrates the Glorious Revolution (1688) and victory of Protestant King William of Ora ...

celebration of the

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1688, was the deposition of James II and VII, James II and VII in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II, Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange ...

and the

Battle of the Boyne The Battle of the Boyne ( ) took place in 1690 between the forces of the deposed King James II, and those of King William III who, with his wife Queen Mary II (his cousin and James's daughter), had acceded to the Crowns of England and Sc ...

, beginning the 2013 Belfast riots.

October

* 25 October – Two

letter bomb A letter bomb is an explosive device sent via the postal service, and designed with the intention to injure or kill the recipient when opened. They have been used in terrorist attacks such as those of the Unabomber. Some countries have agenc ...

s, one addressed to the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Matt Baggott, and another to a senior police officer, were defused by bomb disposal experts at postal sorting offices in Mallusk and

Lisburn Lisburn ( ; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with t ...

in County Antrim. * 28 October – A letter bomb delivered to the offices of the Public Prosecution Service at Foyle Chambers on Limavady Road in

was made safe and taken for forensic examination. * 29 October – A letter bomb was sent to Northern Ireland secretary

. Bomb disposal officers were called to

Stormont Castle Stormont Castle is a manor house on the Stormont Estate in east Belfast which is home to the Northern Ireland Executive and the Executive Office. It is a Grade A listed building. History Stormont Castle was completed c.1830 and was reworked ...

to deal with it. Villiers was in London at the time.

November

* 15 November – Musician

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison (born 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician whose recording career started in the 1960s. Morrison's albums have performed well in the UK and Ireland, with more than 40 reaching the UK ...

was awarded the freedom of Belfast. * 20 November – A bus driver in

was ordered by suspected IRA militants to deliver a bomb to police headquarters, a frequent IRA target. She agreed, but parked the bus and called police, who removed the bomb. * 24 November – A man was stopped in the

Ardoyne Ardoyne () is a working class and mainly Roman Catholic Church, Catholic and Irish republicanism, Irish republican district in north Belfast, Northern Ireland. In 1920 the adjacent area of Marrowbone saw at multiple days of communal violence be ...

area of Belfast by three masked men and forced to drive a bomb to Victoria Square shopping centre in the city centre. The detonator ignited while bomb disposal experts prepared to examine the car but it failed to trigger an explosion. * 27 November – Liam Adams, the brother of Sinn Féin leader

Gerry Adams Gerard Adams (; born 6 October 1948) is a retired Irish Republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020. From 1983 to 19 ...

, was sentenced to sixteen years in prison by Laganside Crown Court in Belfast for sexually abusing his daughter Áine.

December

* 3 December – The

Smithwick Tribunal The Smithwick Tribunal was an Irish Tribunal of Inquiry into the events surrounding the killing of Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Robert Buchanan of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). The men were killed in a Provisional ...

inquiry in Dublin into the 1989 Jonesborough ambush found that members of the

Garda Síochána (; meaning "the Guardian(s) of the Peace") is the national police and security service of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is more commonly referred to as the Gardaí (; "Guardians") or "the Guards". The service is headed by the Garda Commissio ...

colluded with the IRA in the shooting of two RUC officers as they crossed the

Irish border Irish commonly refers to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the island and the sovereign state ***Erse (disambiguatio ...

. * 13 December – An explosion occurred in the Cathedral Quarter of Belfast when extremists opposed to the peace in Northern Ireland left a sports bag containing an explosive on the pavement. Christmas revellers evacuated nearby bars and restaurants.

Óglaigh na hÉireann (), abbreviated , is an Irish-language idiom that can be translated variously as ''soldiers of Ireland'', ''warriors of Ireland'', ''volunteers of Ireland''O'Leary, Brendan. ''Terror, insurgency, and the state: ending protracted conflicts''. ...

claimed responsibilityTerror attacks continue in heart of Belfast city
Irish Independent, 2013-12-16.
The belfast Telegraph, 2013-12-19. * 16 December – The army defused a pipe bomb found in the garden of a house in West Belfast. Later, a fire bomb being carried by an extremist ignited in a shop in the Cornmarket shopping district in Belfast, setting the bomber on fire. He fled through the streets in flames, while the device was taken outside by a member of the shop's staff. A man was arrested five days later. * 18 December – The

Police Service of Northern Ireland The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI; ; Ulster-Scots: '), is the police service responsible for law enforcement and the prevention of crime within Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) after it ...

and

prevented a serious bomb attack, probably on a commercial target 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 ...

, by arresting two men and a woman from

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

in both Dundalk and

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

. Police found equipment and ingredients to create a large fertilizer bomb. * 31 December – The six-month Haass negotiations concluded without resolving inter-community conflict over

flags A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and flags have ...

parades A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety of ...

, and the history of

The Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

The arts

Music

* 12 January — "Sons and Daughters" opening concert for

UK City of Culture UK City of Culture is a designation given to a local area (specifically a city before 2025) in the United Kingdom for a period of one calendar year, during which the successful bidder hosts cultural festivities through culture-led regeneratio ...

year.

Sports

Association football

* 26 January — Irish Football League Cup final.

Athletics

* 1–10 August —

World Police and Fire Games The World Police and Fire Games (WPFG) is a biennial athletic event, open to active and retired law enforcement and fire service personnel throughout the world. The WPFG Federation is an arm of the California Police Athletic Federation (CPAF), ...

Deaths

* 21 January —

Inez McCormack Inez McCormack (née Murphy; 28 September 1943 – 21 January 2013) was a Northern Irish trade union leader and human rights activist. She was the first female president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (1999 to 2001), representing the UNI ...

, trade union leader (born

1946 1946 (Roman numerals, MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1946th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 946th year of the 2nd millennium, the 46th year of the 20th centur ...

). * 7 November — John Cole, 85, broadcaster and journalist,

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

political editor (1981–1992). * 11 November —

Eddie McGrady Edward Kevin McGrady (3 June 1935 – 11 November 2013) was an Irish nationalist politician of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Down from 1987 to 2010. McGrady was also a Member ...

, 78, founder member of the

Social Democratic and Labour Party 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 (M ...

, long illness.

References

{{Reflist 2013 in Europe