Events during the year 2013 in Ireland.
Incumbents
President: Michael D. Higgins
Taoiseach: Enda Kenny (FG) Tánaiste: Eamon Gilmore (Lab) Minister for Finance: Michael Noonan (FG) Chief Justice: Susan Denham Dáil: 31st Seanad: 24th
Events
January
14 January – a couple, including a former nurse, were found huddled together on the bedroom floor of a flat owned by Dublin City Council, having been dead for days. They died from hypothermia. 14 January – music retailer HMV went out of business and thousands of people lost their jobs, including 300 in Ireland. 15 January – a Dublin grandfather challenged HMV's administrators by leaving the Henry Street branch of the shop with three computer games when staff refused to accept a €40 HMV gift voucher he bought his grandson for Christmas. 15 January – the Food Safety Authority of Ireland confirmed the presence of horse DNA in beef burger products on sale in supermarkets. At least ten million burgers were withdrawn from sale. 16 January – former Fianna Fáil politician Pat Melia was fined €500 after pleading guilty to the false claiming of expenses in April 2012. 28 January – protesters against the household tax occupied a public gallery in Cork; Cork City Council abandoned a meeting. 28 January – flash flooding occurred in central Galway. Elsewhere in the country, flooding occurred in Killarney and between Letterkenny and Stranorlar. 29 January – two people were killed by the collapse of an internal wall at a garden centre in Longford. 31 January – the High Court ruled that businessman David Hall did not have the legal standing to challenge the State's use of promissory notes to bail out Anglo Irish Bank and other financial institutions, though the ruling allowed for the case to be brought by a member of the Dáil.
February
5 February – a report into Ireland's Magdalene asylums found "significant" state collusion in the admission of thousands of "fallen women" into the institutions where they were abused and worked for nothing in conditions of slavery before they were shut down nearly two decades ago. 6–7 February – the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) was dramatically liquidated after the Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition passed emergency overnight legislation through the Oireachtas. The Taoiseach Enda Kenny described it as "a good day for the country and its people". He told the Dáil that there would be a €20 billion reduction in the borrowing requirement of the National Treasury Management Agency in the coming years as a result of the changes, but also cautioned that the agreement was not a "silver bullet". 9 February – tens of thousands people marched against the bank debt burden in nationwide demonstrations in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Sligo. 11 February – a house was burnt to the ground in County Donegal three weeks after political criticism over a plan assigning it to a family of 13 Travellers. Fianna Fáil councillor Sean McEniff denied racism and bigotry as a result of comments he made in favour of the segregation of Travellers, while Fine Gael councillor and former Ballyshannon mayor Eugene Dolan proposed that Travellers should be sent to Spike Island. 11 February – protesters against the household tax demonstrated at meetings of South Dublin County Council in Tallaght and Fingal County Council in Swords. 14 February – the High Court ruled in favour of Denis O'Brien against the Irish Daily Mail, marking the first time the defence of honest opinion was used in a defamation case in Ireland after its introduction as part of the Defamation Act 2009. O'Brien received €150,000. 15 February – traditional Irish musicians, The Chieftains, during a visit to Houston, performed a long-distance musical duet with astronaut Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station by playing "Moondance" by Irish musician Van Morrison.
18 February – Chris Hadfield transmitted the first message in the Irish language from outer space when he tweeted "Tá Éire fíorálainn!* Land of green hills and dark beer. With capital Dublin glowing in the Irish night." (* Translation: Ireland is exquisite.) The message was accompanied by an orbital photograph by Hadfield of Dublin at night. 19 February – Taoiseach Enda Kenny delivered an emotional apology in Dáil Éireann on behalf of the State to the Magdalene Laundry survivors. The estimated 800 to 1,000 surviving Magdalene women were told that a compensation scheme would be set up for them.