1977 in Ireland

1977 in Ireland Return to Years in Irish History
Yeats crater on Mercury	January: A baby boy died in an IRA bomb explosion at Harmin Park near Belfast.
	February: A crater on Mercury was named after the poet W.B. Yeats. The IRA began a campaign of assassinating business people. The first victim was Jeffrey Agate, Managing Director of the American Du Pont factory in Derry.

March: Twenty-six members of the UVF were jailed, which helped curtail the activities of the UVF. April: The United Unionist Action Council, headed by Ian Paisley, threatened a strike in their demands for the return of majority rule and a tougher security presence. May: The UUAC strike lasted for thirteen days, but was judged a failure in comparison to the Ulster Workers Council strike of 1974. On the fifth day, the Peace People organised a rally in Belfast. The Misuse of Drugs Act was passed in the Republic.	Ian Paisley during the 1977 strike
Jack Lynch, 1977	June: Fianna Fáil were elected to government with a twenty seat majority. July: Jack Lynch was elected Taoiseach by the 21st Dáil. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland was granted recognition as a college of the National University of Ireland.
August: Queen Elizabeth visited Northern Ireland. Later in the month, American President Jimmy Carter gave a keynote speech on the situation there. He said America would support a representative government, and he asked Americans to stop funding paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. September: After an outbreak of venereal disease in Irish, British and French horses, Irish horses were prevented from entering the United States. The Christian Brothers celebrated their 150th anniversary in Ennis, County Clare.	Queen Elizabeth in Northern Ireland
Betty Williams, one of the founders of the Peace People	October: Mairéad Corrigan and Betty Williams won the Nobel Prize for Peace after founding the Peace Movement. Off-duty policewoman Margaret Hearst was shot dead at her parents' home by the IRA. In the same month, Lenny Murphy was sentenced to prison on firearms offences. It was later revealed that he was leader of the Shankill Butchers. November: The National Council for Educational Awards was given the power to award degrees. December: The IRA carried out a series of firebomb attacks on hotels.

Notable births in Ireland
Lisa Burke February 4th	Francis Barrett February 7th	Damien Faulkner February 15th	Ian Clarke February 16th	Ronan Keating March 3rd
Donal Óg Cusack, March 16th	Finghin Collins March 31st	Pádraic Joyce April 1st	Trevor Molloy April 14th	Joe Doyle May 8th
Thomas Byrne June 1st	Jamie Costin June 1st	Michael Gomez June 21st	Ciara Durkin July 6th	Jonathan Rhys Meyers 27th July
Colin Hawkins August 17th	Ian Harte August 31st	Michael Horan September 7th	Gavin Smith September 7th	Joe Deane November 15th
Emma Ledden December 11th	Peter Stringer December 13th	Ollie Canning	Genevieve O'Reilly	Ste-V-Roc

Notable Deaths in Ireland
Name	Date of death	Age	Details
Patrick Cogan	5th January	73	Independent TD
William Conway	17th April	64	Archbishop of Armagh
Bill Loughery	1st August	69	Cricketer
Seán Keating	21st December	88	Painter

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