20 April – Murderer Michael Manning, aged 25, was executed in Mountjoy Prison. He was the last person to be judicially executed in the state.
5 May – At its headquarters in Kingsbridge, CIÉ signed a £4.75 million contract to replace its steam locomotives with diesels.
16 May – Thirty thousand marched through Dublin in a huge Marian year procession, the city's greatest display of Catholic faith since the International Eucharistic Congress of 1932.
12 June – An Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit carried out a successful arms raid on Gough Barracks in Armagh, signalling the renewal of IRA activity following a long hiatus.
16 June – The first public celebration of Bloomsday took place in Dublin. Writers Flann O'Brien, Patrick Kavanagh and Anthony Cronin travelled in a horse-drawn coach stopping at numerous pubs to retrace the steps of the characters from James Joyce's novel Ulysses.
16 October – A marble plaque was unveiled at Westland Row, Dublin, to mark the centenary of the birth of Oscar Wilde.