1941 in Ireland

← 1940 1939 1938 1937 1936 1941 in Ireland → 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s
See also:	1941 in Northern Ireland Other events of 1941 List of years in Ireland

Events from the year 1941 in Ireland.

Incumbents

• President: Douglas Hyde
• Taoiseach: Éamon de Valera (FF)
• Tánaiste: Seán T. O'Kelly (FF)
• Minister for Finance: Seán T. O'Kelly (FF)
• Chief Justice: Timothy Sullivan
• Dáil: 10th
• Seanad: 3rd

Events

• 2 January – three Carlow women are killed in a night of German bombing in parts of Leinster.
• 3 January – further German bombing of Dublin.
• 13 January – the poet and novelist James Joyce dies in Zürich.
• 24 January – part of the old State Chambers in Dublin Castle are destroyed by fire.
• 20 February – emergency Scientific Research Bureau set up to seek alternatives to raw materials in short supply.^[1]
• 21 February – first flight by a British Royal Air Force flying boat through the "Donegal Corridor", Irish airspace between its base in Northern Ireland and the Atlantic Ocean, a concession secretly agreed by Éamon de Valera.^[2]
• 6 March – 3,800 animals are slaughtered after the fiftieth case of
  foot-and-mouth
  disease is announced.
• 20 March – bread rationing is introduced.
• 21 March – Glencullen (Capt. T. Waldron) and Glencree (Capt. D. McLean) machine-gunned by Luftwaffe in Bristol Channel.^[3]
• 22 March: 16:00 hours – collier St. Fintan (Capt. N. Hendry) attacked by two Luftwaffe bombers, off the coast of Pembrokeshire and sunk with all hands – 9 dead.^[3]
• 26 March – Edenvale (Capt. T. Tyrrell) bombed and machine-gunned by Luftwaffe in Bristol Channel.^[3]
• 27 March – Lady Belle (Capt. T. Donohue) bombed and machine-gunned by Luftwaffe in Irish Sea.^[3]
• 2 April – Edenvale (Capt. T. Tyrrell) bombed and machine-gunned (again) by Luftwaffe in Bristol Channel.^[3]
• 15 April –
  fire tenders from Dundalk, Drogheda, Dublin and Dún Laoghaire
  cross the Irish border to assist their Belfast colleagues.
• 18 April – An RAF Handley Page Hampden aircraft (Registration AD730)^[4][5] gets lost in bad weather and crashes on Black Hill (Kilbeg)^[6] above the village of Lacken, County Wicklow killing its entire crew of four.
• 5 May – Belfast suffers its third bombing raid during World War II. The Dublin government authorises its emergency services to assist.
• 7 May – Wages Standstill Order.^[1]
• 12 May – Menapia (Capt C Bobels) bombed and machine-gunned by Luftwaffe off Welsh coast: 2 wounded.^[3]
• 14 May – five further outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease are reported.
• 17 May – Glenageary (Capt R. Simpson) bombed and machine-gunned by Luftwaffe in Irish Sea.^[3]
• 19 May – City of Waterford (Capt. W. Gibbons) bombed and machine-gunned by Luftwaffe off Welsh coast: 1 wounded.^[3]
• 26 May – a special sitting of Dáil Éireann unanimously condemns the introduction of conscription in Northern Ireland.
• 27 May – speaking in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Winston Churchill rules out the introduction of conscription in Northern Ireland.
• 30 May – Kyleclare (Capt. T. Hanrahan) bombed off Waterford coast.^[3]
• 31 May – bombing of Dublin in World War II: 34 people are killed when the Luftwaffe bomb part of Dublin.
• 2 June – Arklow is bombed by the Luftwaffe, with no casualties.
• 24 July – Dundalk is bombed by the Luftwaffe, with no casualties.
• Summer – 16,000 men and boys are employed on county council
  turf-cutting schemes.^[1]
• 22 August – S.S. Clonlara (Capt. Joseph Reynolds) torpedoed and sunk by
  North Atlantic while in Convoy OG 71 ("Nightmare Convoy"): 13 survivors and 11 dead.^[3]
• 12 October – Charles Stewart Parnell, the uncrowned King of Ireland, is honoured in a huge pageant in Dublin.
• November – Brendan Behan is released from Borstal in England and deported to Ireland.
• 8 December – the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill cables the Taoiseach inviting him to join the Allies of World War II.

Arts and literature

• Myles na gCopaleen's parodic novel An Béal Bocht
  is published.
• Donagh MacDonagh's Veterans, and other poems is published.
• Louis MacNeice's poetry Plant and Phantom and study The Poetry of W. B. Yeats are published.^[7]
• Kate O'Brien's novel The Land of Spices is published; it is prohibited in Ireland by the Censorship of Publications Board.^[8]
• English poet John Betjeman becomes British press attaché in Dublin, living in Clondalkin.
• Opening of new
  International Style
  building in Ireland.

Sport

Football

League of Ireland

Winners:

Cork United

FAI Cup

Winners:

Waterford

.

Golf

• Irish Open is not played due to The Emergency.

Births

• 3 January – Derrick O'Connor, actor (died 2018).
• 10 March – Pat Donnellan, Galway Gaelic footballer.
• 31 March – Jim O'Keeffe, Fine Gael TD for Cork South-West.
• 18 April – Michael D. Higgins, Labour Party TD, Cabinet Minister and 9th President of Ireland.
• 22 May – Caitlín Maude, poet, actress and traditional singer (died 1982).
• 24 June –
  Archdiocese of Armagh
  .
• 24 July – Tony Dunne, soccer player.
• 27 August –
  Paddy Barry, Cork
  hurler.
• 15 September – Tommy Carberry, National Hunt jockey and trainer (died 2017).
• 18 September –
  Michael Hartnett
  , poet (died 1999).
• 2 October – Donal Moynihan, Fianna Fáil TD.
• 5 October – Phil Larkin, Kilkenny hurler.
• 13 October – Mick Doyle, rugby player and coach (died in car crash 2004).
• 20 October – Mike Murphy, television and radio broadcaster.
• 11 November – Eddie Keher, Kilkenny hurler.
• 23 November – Derek Mahon, poet (died 2020).
• 1 December – Fiachra Trench, musician and composer.
• 2 December –
  William Lee
  , Bishop of Waterford and Lismore (1993– ).
• 10 December – Fionnula Flanagan, actress. (Fionnghuala Manon Flanagan)

  Full date unknown

  • Jonathan Bardon, historian and author.
  • James Coleman, installation and video artist.
  • Cyril Dunne, Galway Gaelic footballer.
  • Paddy Flanagan, cyclist (died 2000).
  • Eamon Grennan, poet.
  • Trotskyist
    theorist.

Deaths

• 6 January – F. R. Higgins, poet and theatre director (born 1896).
• 10 January – John Lavery, artist (born 1856).
• 13 January – James Joyce, writer and poet (born 1882).
• 15 February –
  Seanad member (born 1855
  ).
• 19 February – Hamilton Harty, conductor and composer (born 1879).
• 13 March – Finlay Jackson, cricketer and rugby player (born 1901).
• 1 April –
  Seanad
  from 1922 to 1936.
• 19 May – Lola Ridge, anarchist poet and editor (born 1873).
• 4 July – William John English, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1901 at Vlakfontein, South Africa (born 1882).
• 19 August –
  Mayor of Houston, Texas (born 1845
  ).
• 9 September – William Gerard Barry, painter (born 1864).
• 11 September –
  Seanad
  from 1922 as an Independent.
• 11 October – Mildred Anne Butler, painter (born 1858).
• 26 November – James Jackman, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1941 at Tobruk, Libya; killed in action the next day (born 1916).

  Full date unknown

  • Sidney Royse Lysaght, writer (born 1856).

References