De Valera takes stringent measures against the IRA and Sinn Fein, detaining activists in an internment camp

Irish writer Brendan Behan's autobiographical Borstal Boy is published

On the retirement of de Valera, Sean Lemass succeeds him as leader of Fianna F´il and prime minister of Ireland

Irish author Edna O'Brien publishes her first novel, The Country Girls

Terence O'Neill and Séan Lemass, prime ministers of Northern Ireland and Ireland, have two unprecedented meetings

Irish poet Seamus Heaney wins critical acclaim for Death of a Naturalist, his first volume containing more than a few poems

Flann O'Brien's novel The Third Policeman has a great success when published posthumously

The first civil rights march in northern Ireland, in Derry, is halted by the police with batons and water cannon

The Provisional IRA reintroduces terrorism to northern Ireland after Protestants attack a civil rights march

Ian Paisley and others in northern Ireland form the Democratic Unionist Party, as the intransigent wing of Ulster Unionism

Prime minister Jack Lynch leads Ireland into the European Community

Excavation of the 5200-year-old passage grave at Newgrange in Ireland is completed

Lord Mountbatten is killed by an IRA bomb that explodes on his boat in the bay of Donegal

Republican activist Gerry Adams is elected president of Sinn Fein

Bob Geldof forms Band Aid and releases for Ethiopian famine relief the best-selling UK single Do they know its Christmas?

Britain's Margaret Thatcher and Ireland's Garret FitzGerald sign an Anglo-Irish Agreement to tackle shared problems

Mary Robinson is elected president of the republic of Ireland, the first woman to hold the post

Irish author Brian Friel's play Dancing at Lughnasa has its premiere at the Abbey Theatre

Irish author Roddy Doyle publishes a novel that wins the Booker Prize, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

UK and Irish premiers John Major and Albert Reynolds sign the Downing Street Declaration, a strategy for peace in Nothern Ireland

The IRA declares a cease-fire in Northern Ireland, a gesture followed a month later by Protestant paramilitaries

Divorce is legalized in the republic of Ireland

Irish author Marina Carr's play Portia Coughlin is performed at the Abbey Theatre

Irish author Martin McDonagh's play The Beauty Queen of Leenane is the first in a trilogy

Bertie Ahern, leader of Fianna Fáil, becomes the prime minister (Taoiseach) of the republic of Ireland