2012 In Ireland

Events during the year 2012 in Ireland.

Incumbents

* President: Michael D. Higgins
* Taoiseach: Enda Kenny ( FG)
* Tánaiste: Eamon Gilmore (Lab)
* Minister for Finance: Michael Noonan ( FG)
* Chief Justice: Susan Denham
* Dáil: 31st
* Seanad: 24th

Events

January

*The occupation of the Vita Cortex plant in Cork, which closed in December, continued into the new year.
* 1 January – the Government stopped paying expenses to former taoisigh (prime ministers), while sweeping price increases for goods and services, and in value added tax (VAT), affected consumers when decisions announced in Budget 2012 came into effect. A controversial €100 household charge was applied, as were large increases in transport fares, motor taxation, and health insurance costs.
* 2 January – Ireland was battered by bad weather.
* 3 January – a large fireball was seen across Ireland. Astronomy Ireland calculated that it landed as a meteorite in the Irish Sea off County Louth.
* 3 January – a new €2 coin was issued by the Central Bank of Ireland as it celebrated ten years of the euro.
* 3 January – Occupy Cork: The NAMA-listed Stapleton House on Oliver Plunkett Street was occupied in the city.
* 8 January – Fine Gael politician and RTÉ broadcaster Barry O'Neill was involved in controversy when photographs appeared on Facebook of his new wife giving Nazi salutes beside models of Adolf Hitler and other Nazis during their European honeymoon.
* 12 January – Ulster Bank announced plans to cut 950 jobs from its Irish operations by the end of the year, with around 600 to be cut in the Republic of Ireland.
* 13 January – the Criminal Law (Defence and the Dwelling) Act 2012, drafted after the 2004 death of John Ward, came into effect. The new home defence law allowed householders to defend their homes against intruders using reasonable force, including deadly force.
* 14 January – a couple from Clonmel escaped with their lives after the 114,500-tonne '' Costa Concordia'', with more than 4,000 people on board, ran aground off the Italian coast; they soon returned home.
* 15 January – a fatal fishing disaster occurred off the south west coast. Three bodies were later found; two others remain missing.
* 16 January – Seán Quinn, Ireland's richest person as recently as 2008, was declared bankrupt at the High Court.
* 16 January – Proinsias De Rossa resigned as MEP for the Dublin constituency, to be replaced by Emer Costello.
* 22–3 January – a strong solar proton storm created a rare display of the aurora borealis in Ireland that was observed by thousands of people in north County Donegal, and as far south as Charlestown, County Mayo.
* 24 January – debt campaigners dressed as zombies converged on the Irish embassy in Britain to highlight the presence of zombie banks such as the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (formerly Anglo Irish Bank).
* 25 January – Ireland paid another €1.25 billion to Anglo Irish Bank bondholders against the wishes of the country's people.
* 25 January – protesters travelled from Galway to Dublin to rally outside Leinster House against the septic tank charge being brought in by the Fine Gael/Labour coalition.
* 25 January – the websites of the Departments of Justice and Finance were disabled by a denial-of-service attack.
* 25 January – the Office of the Data Protection Commission wrote to Dublin City Council about its giving the personal details of 140,000 customers to a private waste company called Greyhound.
* 26 January – an earthquake classified as minor (magnitude 2.2) struck County Donegal.
* 26 January – Dublin officially began its term as the European City of Science 2012.
* 26 January – Dáil Éireann passed the Water Services Amendment Bill, allowing the government to charge rural dwellers for their septic tanks, as well as to inspect them.
*26 January – Taoiseach Enda Kenny, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, told the world that Irish people "went mad borrowing" from a banking system that spawned greed.
*26 January – the High Court was told that 11 gardaí were investigating sinister goings-on at Anglo Irish Bank; Mr. Justice Peter Kelly called the revelation "extraordinary".

February

*1/2 February – Jimmy Harte, a Labour Senator, was involved in controversy over contributions to a misleading story in the ''Irish Independent'' on a Polish woman's account of living in Ireland, and subsequent comments on Twitter, which he later withdrew.
* 6 February – workers at Galway Airport staged a sit-in to protest at the failure by management to guarantee that they will receive redundancy payments when their contracts expire.
* 10 February – Eircom admitted that personal details of thousands of eMobile and Meteor customers and hundreds of Meteor staff were contained on three laptops stolen in December 2011.
* 11 February – one of the largest protest marches in Cork city in recent years took place in solidarity with the Vita Cortex sit-in.
* 11 February – the France versus Ireland rugby match in the 2012 Six Nations Championship was cancelled minutes before kick-off because of a frozen pitch at the Stade de France, leaving thousands of disgruntled Irish fans stranded in Paris.
* 13 February – Alex Ferguson telephoned workers involved in the Vita Cortex sit-in to express his support, telling them to "stick in there".
* 16 February – Barry Doyle was convicted of the November 2008 murder of Shane Geoghegan.
* 18 February – Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping began a three-day trip to Ireland.
* 20 February – in "scenes reminiscent of the land wars of the 18th century", a group of housing activists and Joan Collins TD successfully prevented an attempted eviction by the deputy sheriff of a man from his home on Mountrath, County Laois.
* 21 February – President Higgins began his first official trip abroad when he went to London for three days, accompanied by his wife, Sabina. He met members of the Irish community and Irish emigrant welfare workers at the London Irish Centre in Camden, and later met London-based Irish business and cultural leaders. He toured the Olympic Stadium, undergoing construction, addressed the London School of Economics in a speech entitled, ''Of Public Intellectuals, Universities, and a Democratic Crisis'', and attended a production of Seán O'Casey's play ''Juno and the Paycock'' by Dublin's Abbey Theatre and the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain (Lyttelton Theatre). He also attended a reception at the Irish Embassy.
* 24 February – Transport Minister Leo Varadkar was heckled and booed by local residents who repeatedly shouted "shame on you" as he attempted to attend a buffet at a Letterkenny hotel.
* 25 February – demonstrators protesting against the downgrading of schools in Bunbeg, County Donegal, marched on the office of their local TD, Fine Gael Junior Minister Dinny McGinley, while similar protests took place in County Mayo.
* 28 February – the Taoiseach announced a referendum to be held on the Fiscal Compact.
* 29 February – James McClean made his international debut.
* 29 February – dozens of community groups from counties Donegal, Tipperary, Galway, Limerick and Kerry went to Leinster House to protest against austerity.
* 29 February – Éamon Ó Cuív was sacked as Deputy Leader of Fianna Fáil and Communications Spokesperson of the party after a row with leader Micheál Martin over the Fiscal Compact referendum.
* 29 February – Minister of State Seán Sherlock signed into law a statutory instrument to amend Ireland's copyright legislation in spite of 80,000 signatures being gathered to oppose the move.

March

* 1 March – Catholic priest Father Brian O'Fearraigh spoke out against the Household Charge at a public meeting in Gweedore, County Donegal. Jimmy Harte, a Labour Senator, criticised him, saying "I go to Mass to hear religious instruction".
* 7 March – the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland upheld a complaint against broadcaster RTÉ made by Seán Gallagher relating to the broadcast of an erroneous tweet that unbalanced a television debate during the his presidential campaign.
* 8 March – the Garda Síochána destroyed the Occupy Dame Street camp in an overnight raid.
* 8 March – Fine Gael's planned photocall celebrating a year in power was cancelled by Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the last minute. Fine Gael TDs and Senators had been expected to "hold coloured stars detailing significant Fine Gael achievements in Government" at the event in Merrion Square.
* 8 March – Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty was expelled from the Dáil after trying to question the appointment of a new Secretary General at the Department of Finance.
* 8 March – Allied Irish Banks (AIB) confirmed a plan to cut 2,500 jobs.
* 9 March – Waterford City Council dismantled the Occupy Waterford campsite.
* 13 March – County Donegal was struck by a magnitude 1.1 earthquake.
* 14 March – the Government was defeated in a vote taken at a meeting of the Oireachtas finance committee after numerous Fine Gael TDs went missing. The motion, tabled by Peter Mathews who was then forced to vote against it following threats from his colleagues, proposed that Central Bank Governor Patrick Honohan be forced to appear before the Oireachtas finance committee by the end of the month.
* 15 March – a convicted Garda killer escaped from prison leading to a massive cross-border manhunt.
* 16 March – US sportswear company Nike, Inc. was involved in controversy over the name of its new Saint Patrick's Day runner – "The Black and Tan".
* 18 March – there was a break-in at justice minister Alan Shatter's home in Dublin.
* 18 March – Environment Minister Phil Hogan was involved in controversy over media reports on a crude sexual insult he admitted delivering to ex-Taoiseach John Bruton's former administrator at an Oireachtas golf outing in August 2011.
* 18 March – a passerby stumbled upon the body of a 62-year-old man at his home in central Wexford which lay undiscovered since Christmas. The body was in an advanced state of decomposition and the heating was still on.
* 22 March – the Mahon Tribunal published it findings after 15 years of investigations.
* 22 March – the Central Statistics Office published figures that showed Ireland had fallen back into recession in the final quarter of 2011, following an even larger contraction in the previous one.
* 23 March – a County Louth woman subjected to a symphysiotomy was awarded €450,000 by the High Court.
* 24 March – thousands of people packed to capacity the National Stadium in Dublin for a national rally to protest the household charge payment introduced in the last Budget. Crowds of people unable to get in gathered outside.
* 24 March – facing expulsion, Bertie Ahern resigned from Fianna Fáil before he could be ousted.
* 25 March – Taoiseach Enda Kenny began a four-day trade mission in China.
* 26 March – facing expulsion, Pádraig Flynn resigned from Fianna Fáil before he could be ousted.
* 27 March – the state funeral of footballer Jim Stynes took place in Melbourne.
* 27 March – Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore announced the date of the referendum on the fiscal compact as Thursday 31 May.
* 27 March – 2,104 jobs were lost as video games retail company Game closed 277 stores. Staff began a sit-in.
* 29 March – the latest report results from the 2011 Census were released by the Central Statistics Office Ireland.
* 30 March – Justice Minister Alan Shatter was involved in controversy after telling those who objected to the government's Household Charge to "get a life", remarks made on his way into the Fine Gael Ard Fheis at the Convention Centre Dublin.
* 31 March – Ireland was reported by international media to be facing a popular revolt after government figures indicated less than half of the country's households had paid the new property tax by that day's deadline as thousands of people from across the country marched on the governing Fine Gael party's annual conference at the Convention Centre Dublin.

April

* 3 April – it emerged that six people had died at a private nursing home in County Donegal over the previous ten days.
* 3 April – snow was reported in County Donegal.
* 3 April – RTÉ's defamation of Father Kevin Reynolds: RTÉ head of current affairs Ed Mulhall retired, Ken O'Shea resigned from ''Prime Time'' and the programme was terminated.
* 5 April – the majority of shareholders in support services company Siteserv voted to accept a takeover proposal from the Denis O'Brien-controlled Millington, worth €45 million. The controversial deal came after French company Altrad claimed it had tried to buy Siteserv for a higher price.
* 11 April – Environment Minister Phil Hogan sought sanctuary in a Carlow cathedral after running away from protesters against his property tax in his own constituency.
* 14 April – as the Labour Party held its centenary conference in the Bailey Allen Hall at NUI Galway, Gardaí used pepper spray to hold back anti-austerity demonstrators protesting against government cuts on the grounds, with reports of a 13-year-old child being threatened with the incapacitant as the building was locked down amid chants of "Revolution, revolution!" and a coffin draped in the Irish tricolour.
* 17 April – Environment Minister Phil Hogan announced the establishment of Irish Water, as a subsidiary of Bord Gáis.
* 19 April – Gavin O'Reilly, chief executive of Independent News & Media, resigned after a long-running dispute with Denis O'Brien, the company's biggest shareholder.
* 19 April – Dylan Moran became the first professional English-speaking comedian to perform in Russia, with his routine mentioning Russia's new law banning "homosexual propaganda" and jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
* 19 April – a report commissioned by the Department of Health found significant increase in narcolepsy among individuals given the GlaxoSmithKline developed swine flu vaccine Pandemrix compared to those who did not receive the vaccine.
* 24 April – the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission ruled that there were no grounds for any criminal case against any of five officers involved in an incident on 31 March 2011 known as the "rape tape" controversy, resulting from the inadvertent video recording of a sergeant in a patrol car joking about the rape of two women.
* 24 April – the aurora borealis returned to County Donegal, having already made a rare Irish appearance in January.
* 25 April – a tornado was observed near Fintown in County Donegal.

May

* 2 May – Cardinal Seán Brady was embroiled in controversy over a BBC television programme which contained allegations that he failed to act after one sex abuse survivor gave him a list in 1975 of other children being abused by Father Brendan Smyth.
* 3 May – Denis O'Brien bought another 5% stake in Independent News & Media, bringing his stake in the company to 27%.
* 4 May – RTÉ's defamation of Father Kevin Reynolds: RTÉ was fined €2,000,000 by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI). Reporter Aoife Kavanagh resigned from RTÉ over her role in the scandal.
* 9 May
** The Abbey Theatre announced a nine-week closure when asbestos was discovered in the building.
** Archaeologists announced discovery on the Burren of evidence of settlement from 6000 BCE.
* 11 May – President Higgins received the Freedom of Galway from Mayor Hildegarde Naughton.
* 14 May – while canvassing for votes in Athlone, Taoiseach Enda Kenny told an unemployed bus driver to "get a job". The man later requested an apology and retraction, calling Kenny "a smug, arrogant git". In the same town, Kenny had an angry exchange with a man who said his son had been forced to emigrate.
* 16 May – the Garda Síochána destroyed the Occupy Galway camp in an overnight raid.
* 16 May – Finance Minister Michael Noonan caused controversy with his Greek "holidays" and " feta cheese" comment at a breakfast briefing with Bloomberg news agency.
* 17 May – Taoiseach Enda Kenny was heckled and booed by anti-austerity treaty protesters in Galway as he attended a breakfast briefing.
* 17 May – Jobs Minister Richard Bruton let slip on radio the possibility of there being a second referendum if Ireland voted to reject the European Fiscal Compact at the end of the month, though later retracted this statement.
* 28 May – financial irregularities were revealed at Bloxham Stockbrokers.
* 28 May – following the UN Committee Against Torture's condemnation of the Irish government's failure to acknowledge and assist former detainees of the 10 Catholic-run Magdalene laundries, the Justice for Magdalenes campaign group announced its discovery that women were transferred from State-funded mother and baby homes to Magdalene laundries, where they were held against their will and without their children.
* 31 May – a constitutional referendum was held to permit Ireland to ratify the 2012 European Fiscal Compact. Voters passed the amendment.

June

* 5 June – hundreds of Bord na Móna workers went on strike in a dispute over pay.
* 6 June – County Mayo was struck by an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.0.
* 7 June – former members of the Defence Forces demonstrated in Dublin over malaria medication they were given on overseas peacekeeping duties which they say has caused them chronic health problems.
* 10 June – Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa visited Ireland. He spoke at the Dublin Writers' Festival and at the Instituto Cervantes about his novel about Roger Casement, ''El sueño del celta'', newly translated into English as ''The Dream of the Celt''.
* 10–17 June – the 50th International Eucharistic Congress took place at the RDS and Croke Park in Dublin. Protesters picketed.
* 11 June – a tornado 700 metres high was seen near Buncrana in County Donegal, one of the biggest ever recorded in Ireland.
* 11 June – the author of the Leaving Certificate mathematics textbook condemned the 2012 higher level paper as a "disgrace".
* 13 June – Justice Minister Alan Shatter spoke of " Londonderry" in a Dáil debate. amid the ensuing controversy, there were calls for him to resign his office.
* 16 June – Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was injured in a cycling accident, requiring hospitalisation and the cancellation of official functions.
* 17 June – Pope Benedict XVI delivered a pre-recorded address about the sex abuse scandal on the final day of the 50th Eucharistic Congress.
* 18 June – Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi paid a six-hour flying visit to Dublin on the day before her 67th birthday. She came from Norway after collecting the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to her in 1991. She was received by President Higgins during a 20-minute visit to Áras an Uachtaráin and was awarded an honorary degree from Trinity College Dublin. She also received the Freedom of the City of Dublin, which was awarded in 2000. At an "Electric Burma" concert at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, she was presented with the Amnesty Ambassador of Conscience Award which had been awarded to her in 2009, and a large crowd sang the birthday song to her at a free open-air concert at Grand Canal Dock.
* 20 June – an independent review into the deaths of children who were in the care of, or who were known to the Health Service Executive (HSE), was published. The following day, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore stated in the Dáil that a referendum on the rights of the child would be held in the Autumn.
* 21 June – turf cutters staged an overnight protest on the bog in County Galway.
* Crisis at Ulster Bank:
** 21 June – more than 100,000 people, including social welfare recipients, were left impoverished after being affected by an Ulster Bank delay in processing money.
** 24 June – Ulster Bank opened branches on a Sunday for the first time as the payments crisis affecting the institution continued unabated.
** 25 June – Ulster Bank announced its money problems would not now be solved this week, with monthly salaries now in danger of being infected.
* 23 June – President Higgins made his second official visit to London with his wife, Sabina. They met members of the Irish community at a GAA club in Ruislip and later attended the official opening of three plays by Tom Murphy on the theme of Irish emigration (''Conversations on a Homecoming'', ''A Whistle in the Dark'', and ''Famine'') in a Druid Theatre Company production at Hampstead Theatre.
* 27 June – President and Mrs. Higgins attended a Co-operation Ireland event at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. There, they met Queen Elizabeth for the first time and were present to witness the first meeting and handshake between the Queen and former IRA commander, Martin McGuinness.

July

* 7 July – a Swedish House Mafia concert in Phoenix Park descended into chaos, with a "significant number" of random unprovoked attacks at the show.
* 10 July – Health Minister James Reilly was named on a debt defaulters' list to the tune of €1.9 million. This was described as "unprecedented" for a government minister.
* 13 July – it was revealed that Fidelma Healy Eames, a Fine Gael Senator, boarded the Galway to Dublin train without a ticket. A fellow passenger alleged that Healy Eames said "she is a Senator and that she makes the law" when an inspector asked her to produce her ticket.
* 18 July – former TV3 News Western Correspondent Jenny McCudden was named as the new editor of ''The Sligo Champion'', becoming the first female to fill the position in the newspaper's 176-year history.
* 26 July – Galway Circuit Civil Court ordered the husband of Fidelma Healy Eames, a Fine Gael Senator, to pay more than €12,000 in unpaid fees to a tradesman employed to carry out renovations at the Healy Eames residence in County Galway. The tradesman launched a lawsuit in 2010 against the Healy Eameses for thousands of euros in unpaid fees.
* 27 July – during a case at Claremorris District Court Judge Mary Devins, wife of former Fianna Fáil TD Jimmy Devins, described social welfare as a Polish charity, sparking national outrage and a formal complaint to the police over "the possibility that she is in breach of the prohibition in the Incitement to Hatred Act from 1989".

August

* 2 August – it was confirmed that a car belonging to Fidelma Healy Eames, a Fine Gael Senator, was seized in July for not having a current tax disc.
* 15 August – Geraldine Kennedy and Justine McCarthy were appointed Adjunct Professors of Journalism at the University of Limerick.
* 17 August – staff at Letterkenny General Hospital were informed of the closure of County Donegal's only gynaecology ward. Nursing unions, patients and staff reacted with shock to the news.
* 20 August – three investigations into a nursing home in Oughterard, County Galway, found most residents had not washed for at least a month, were being starved and lived in squalid conditions.
* 20 August – Fidelma Healy Eames, a Fine Gael Senator, was involved in controversy over her decision to charge a state agency the cost of a plane ticket for her husband to accompany her on a hotel break to Kenya. When news of this was reported in the Irish media, Healy Eames said she would pay back the money used to fly her husband to Africa within "a couple of weeks".
* 22 August – on the 90th anniversary of the death of Michael Collins, the Taoiseach Enda Kenny gave the commemoration speech at Béal na Bláth

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