May 5th, 1970: Taoiseach Jack Lynch sacks Charles Haughey, Minister for Finance, and Neil Blaney, Minister for Agriculture. Both Haughey and Blaney along with Capt James Kelly and Belgian businessman Albert Luykx are later arrested and charged with conspiring to import arms and ammunition. Blaney is discharged on July 2nd. The others are acquitted on October 23rd.
May 22nd, 1971: The Irish Women's Liberation Movement defies the law by importing contraceptives bought in Belfast through Connolly Station in Dublin.
August 9th, 1971: 17 people are are killed amid riots triggered by the introduction of internment without trial in Northern Ireland. In one night hundreds of Catholics are arrested by the RUC and British army, many of whom are not members of the Republican movement. Thousands of Catholics flee south to the Republic, where they are housed in army camps.
January 30th, 1972: On Bloody Sunday, 13 demonstrators are shot dead by British paratroopers after a banned civil rights rally in the Bogside area of Derry. The British Embassy in Dublin is firebombed on February 2nd in reprisal as a 7,000-strong crowd sing The Soldiers' Song. "It was almost like a Guy Fawkes night in Trafalgar Square, a little less spectacular, a little more dangerous and exciting," says an Irish Times report.
March 24th, 1972: Over 50 years of Stormont rule ends when British prime minister Edward Heath announces it is to be replaced by direct rule from Westminster.
November 24th, 1972: The RTE authority is replaced by the government when it broadcasts a radio interview with Provisional IRA Chief of Staff, Sean Mac Stiofain, deemed contrary to Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act.
January 1st, 1973: The Republic becomes a member of the EEC, along with the UK and Denmark. Ireland takes over the presidency of the EEC in 1974.
February 28th, 1973: The general election ends Fianna Fail's 16-year reign in government. Fine Gael and Labour form a coalition government with Liam Cosgrave as Taoiseach until 1977 when Fianna Fail comes back to power.
May 30th, 1973: Erskine Childers succeeds Eamon de Valera as fourth President of the Republic. His presidency is cut short by his sudden death at the age of 68 on November 17th, 1974. He is succeeded by Cearbhall O Dalaigh.
December 6th-9th, 1973: At the Sunningdale Conference in Berkshire, it is agreed between members of the Northern Ireland executive, the British and Irish government that Ireland can only be united with the consent of the majority in Northern Ireland. A Council of Ireland is to be established to promote North-South economic co-operation. The Council of Ireland is rejected by the United Ulster Unionist Council on January 4th 1974.
May 27th, 1974: Loyalist car bomb explosions go off simultaneously in three Dublin locations at 5.30 p.m., killing 25 people. Six die in Monaghan town in car bomb explosions 90 minutes later. " . . . bodies were strewn around the street, women were screaming, pools of blood lay where the explosion had taken place," says an Irish Times report of the Parnell Street explosion.
October 3rd, 1975: Dr Tiede Herrema, a Dutch businessman, is kidnapped by Republicans Marion Coyle and Eddie Gallagher, who demand the release of Dr Rose Dugdale and two other prisoners. The siege in a house in Monasterevin, Co Kildare ends on November 7th when the kidnappers surrender to gardai.
October 22nd, 1976: President Cearbhall O Dalaigh resigns after Minister for Defence, Patrick Donegan, publicly calls him "a thundering disgrace" for referring an Emergency Powers Bill to the Supreme Court. O Dalaigh is succeeded by Dr Patrick Hillery on December 3rd.
August 27th, 1979: Lord Mountbatten, his 15-year-old grandson, Nicholas Knatchbull, and 15-year-old Paul Maxwell are killed when their fishing boat is blown to pieces by an IRA bomb near Mullaghmore, Co Sligo. "The shock was heightened by the fact that the bomb which blew apart Lord Mountbatten's boat, Shadow V, went off within sight and sound of virtually the whole community," reports The Irish Times.
September 29th, 1979: Pope John Paul II arrives on a three-day visit and celebrates Mass in the Phoenix Park before a crowd of one million people. The Pope also visits Drogheda, Galway and Knock.
Not forgetting
March 21st, 1970: Dana (Rosemary Brown) wins the Eurovision Song Contest with All Kinds of Everything.
February 15th, 1971: Decimal currency introduced.
May 11th 1971: Fianna Fail politician and former taoiseach, Sean Lemass, dies aged 72.
February 26th 1973: Report of the Committee for the Status of Women recommends an end to sex discrimination in employment.
October 8th, 1974: Sean MacBride is the first Irish citizen to be awarded the Nobel peace prize, followed by Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams in 1977.
August 29th, 1975: Fianna Fail politician, former taoiseach and president, Eamon de Valera, dies aged 92.
August 9th, 1979: The first group of Vietnamese refugees arrives in Ireland.
The Irish Times Book of the Century by Fintan O'Toole, about key events this century as reflected in the newspaper, is published by Gill & Macmillan. Price £25
All articles published so far in this series are available at The Irish Times on the Web at: www.ireland.com/newspaper/special/1999/eyeon20
