1998 in Northern Ireland
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Template:Short description Template:YearInNorthernIrelandNav Events during the year 1998 in Northern Ireland.
Incumbents
- First Minister - David Trimble (from 1 July)
- deputy First Minister - Seamus Mallon (from 1 July)
- Secretary of State - Mo Mowlam
Events
- 9 January - British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mo Mowlam, visits loyalist prisoners in the Maze prison. Afterward loyalists agree to attend the Stormont talks.[1]
- 20 February - Sinn Féin is excluded from the Northern Ireland talks for two weeks. Protests in Belfast follow.[2]
- 10 April (Good Friday) - The British and Irish governments and all the political parties in the Northern Ireland (except the Democratic Unionist Party) sign the Belfast Agreement.[3][4][5]
- 19 May - John Hume and David Trimble join U2 on stage in Belfast as they make a direct appeal to young voters in Northern Ireland to vote 'yes' in the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement.[6]
- 22 May - The Belfast Agreement is endorsed in a referendum by people north and south of the border.[7]
- 25 June - The people of Northern Ireland go to the polls to elect a new Assembly.
- June - Crumlin Road Courthouse is closed and the site is eventually sold to a private developer.[8]
- 1 July - The new Northern Ireland Assembly first meets, in "shadow" form; Reg Empey and Seamus Mallon are elected First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively.
- 12 July - Drumcree conflict: Three young children are killed in a loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force arson attack in Ballymoney.[9]
- 15 August - Omagh bombing: 29 people die in a car bomb explosion near the centre of Omagh, County Tyrone, caused by the Real Irish Republican Army.[10]
- 3 September - Bill Clinton, President of the United States, visits Omagh and views the bomb damage.[11]
- 16 October - John Hume and David Trimble are announced as the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
- 6 November - David Trimble returns as First Minister in succession to Reg Empey.
- 10 December - John Hume and David Trimble are presented with the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway.
Arts and literature
- Malachi O'Doherty's study The Trouble With Guns: Republican Strategy and the Provisional IRA is published.
Sport
Football
- Winners: Cliftonville
Motorcycling
- Robert Dunlop wins the Ultra-Lightweight race at the Isle of Man TT.
Deaths
- 2 September - Jackie Blanchflower, footballer (b.1933).
- 13 November - Valerie Hobson, actress (b.1917).
Full date unknown
- Sean McAloon, Uilleann piper and pipe maker (b.1923).
See also
References
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