1996

Meath won the All Ireland Senior Football Champions

Wexford won the All Ireland Senior Hurling Champions

Famous Irish movies included

Michael Collins

Some Mother’s Son

The Van

The Brothers McMullen-US

Also that year

Osama Bin Laden is expelled from Sudan and moves to Afghanistan

France halts Nuclear testing in Pacific

Divers discover the ancient port of Alexandria

US eases sanctions against Cuba

1996 is the year of Dublin’s ‘Millennium Clock’. Although it is supposed to count down to the year 2000, the clock only lasts nine months due to be covered from slime in the River liffey.

British animal feed practices are blamed for ‘mad cow disease’. Beef prices fall as consumer confidence is shaken. The BSE crisis dominates Ireland’s EU Presidency.

Britain’s ‘Spice Girls’ are the most successful pop act of 1996. ‘Wannabe’ is one of three Number One hits for ‘girl power’.

In the US elections, Bob Dole’s Presidential hopes take a tumble. Bill Clinton is re-elected.

January 24 – The international body proposes six principles of democracy and non-violence (‘the Mitchell principles’) as conditions for entry to all-party talks in Northern Ireland.

February 5 – The FAI appoint Mick McCarthy as the Republic of Ireland national football teams manager.

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May 18 – Ireland wins the Eurovision Song Contest for the seventh time with the song The Voice.

June 6 – President Mary Robinson meets Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, London.

June 17 – Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland signed into law, repealing the absolute constitutional prohibition of divorce under terms of the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act, 1995.

October 31 – Ireland’s first Irish language television station, Teilifís na Gaeilge (TnaG) launched.

November 6 – The film Michael Collins is shown in Cork and Dublin.

November 29 – It is revealed that Dunnes Stores paid £208,000 for an extension to Minister Michael Lowry’s house.

December 13 – On the opening day of a Dublin summit, EU leaders achieve a breakthrough in the argument over preparations for a single European currency.

Christmas Number 1

The Spice Girls ‘2 become 1’

Suede – Trash
Richie Kavanagh – Aon Focal Eile
Dodgy – Good Enough
Manic Street Preachers – A Design For Life
Spice Girls – Wannabe
Radiohead – Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Ash – Oh Yeah
Alanis Morrissette – Ironic
Gina G – Ooh Aah…Just A Little Bit
Eimear Quinn – The Voice
Blur – Charmless Man3