January – A gay town councillor inGorey, County Wexford,Malcolm Byrne, was the object of a vicious hate campaign whichouted him in a local newspaper.[1]
11 March – The last competitiverugby international took place at the oldest rugby venue in the world,Lansdowne Road, after 128 years of use, before the ground was redeveloped.
17 March – Over 400,000[2] people took to the streets of Dublin to celebrateSaint Patrick's Day as part of the world's largest Saint Patrick's Day Festival.
16 April – Up to 120,000 people lined the streets of Dublin to mark the 90th anniversary of the 1916Easter Rising.
7 July –Dublin Airport was evacuated for the second time in a week when an abandoned suspect package was found.
19 July – The warmest temperature since 1976, 32.3 °C (90.14 °F), was recorded atElphin,County Roscommon. Ireland was one of many countries affected by the2006 European heat wave. July 2006 was the warmest, on average, since records began in both the Republic and Northern Ireland.[3]
19 July – Preliminary 2006 census findings indicated that the population was 4,234,925 million, an increase of 8.6% since 2002 and at its highest since the 1861 census. The total population for the island now stands at just under 6 million (estimates).
June –Ciaran Creagh's playLast Call, based loosely on the hanging of murdererMichael Manning in1954 as witnessed by the playwright's father, was staged inMountjoy Prison, Dublin, where it is set.
Ireland'sDerval O'Rourke won the women's 60m hurdles at the2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships, setting a new national record in the event, and becoming the first Irish woman to win an international senior sprint medal at this level.
Munster andLeinster both progressed from the group stages. They played each other in the semi-finals, with Munster claiming victory. Munster then won the championship, defeatingBiarritz 23 – 19
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