February 14th, 1981: Forty-eight people die in a fire in the Stardust Ballroom in the north Dublin suburb of Artane during a St Valentines night dance. A Tribunal of Inquiry finds that the fire was probably started deliberately.
March 1st, 1981: A hunger strike led by Republican prisoner, Bobby Sands, begins at the Maze Prison in a bid to win five demands, including the right of political prisoners to wear their own clothes. Sands is elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone on April 9th and dies on May 5th after 66 days of hunger strike. Nine others die by the time the hunger strike is called off on October 3rd.
October 16th, 1981: Dunnes Stores joint managing director Ben Dunne is kidnapped by the IRA and released after six days, the first in a series of abductions of businessmen for ransom. They include supermarket executive Don Tidey in November 1983 and dentist John O'Grady, kidnapped by the INLA in October 1987.
August 16th, 1982: The Attorney General, Mr Patrick Connolly SC, resigns after Malcolm McArthur, who is wanted for the murder of nurse Bridie Gargan, is found in his flat. The incident gave rise to the term GUBU, coined from Haughey's description of events: "grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, unprecedented."
January 19th, 1983: Minister for Justice, Michael Noonan, announces that the former Fianna Fail administration was involved in tapping the phones of political journalists Geraldine Kennedy and Bruce Arnold. On January 12th, 1987 the High Court rules that the incident was conscious, deliberate and without justification.
September 7th, 1983: The Pro-Life amendment to the Constitution is carried.
June 1st, 1984: US President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy arrive in Ireland for a four-day official visit.
July 13th, 1985: The Republic of Ireland contributes £8 million to Live Aid, organised by Bob Geldof for famine victims in Ethiopia.
July 23rd, 1985: Two women claim to have seen a statue of the Virgin Mary moving at a grotto in Ballinspittle, Co Cork. A team from UCC led by Jurek Kirakowski concludes that light conditions and eye strain could explain the movements.
November 15th, 1985: The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed by Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher at Hillsborough Castle.
June 6th, 1986: John Stalker, deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester, is removed from his inquiry into the alleged "shoot to kill" policy of the RUC directed against the IRA.
June 26th, 1986: A referendum making divorce available in the Republic is defeated.
July 26th, 1987: Stephen Roche becomes the first Irish cyclist to win the Tour de France. "It is very touching to see so many Irish people here. I felt very emotional when I met Mr Haughey and heard our national anthem," says Roche after his win.
November 8th, 1987: Eleven civilians are killed when an IRA bomb explodes during an open-air service at the war memorial in the centre of Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh.
October 19th, 1989: There are emotional scenes at the Old Bailey in London as the Guildford Four are declared innocent of crimes for which they served 14 years.
