• President: Éamon de Valera
• Taoiseach: Jack Lynch (FF)
• Tánaiste: Erskine H. Childers (FF)
• Minister for Finance: George Colley (FF)
• Chief Justice: Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh
• Dáil: 19th
• Seanad: 12th

• 4 January – John McQuaid retired after thirty years as Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. Dermot Ryan was appointed to succeed him on 29 December.
• 15 February – Decimalisation: Ireland and the United Kingdom both switched to decimal currency.^[1]
• 25 February – A partial eclipse of the sun (magnitude 0.708) darkened the sky across Ireland. In Dublin, the event lasted two hours and seven minutes. It began at 9.35 am; the maximum was at 10.37 am when 70.8% of the sun's disc was covered by the moon; and it ended at 11.42 am.^[2]
• 6 March
  • Crowds assembled at Dublin Airport to witness the first flight of a Boeing 747 aircraft in Ireland when Aer Lingus took delivery of its first Jumbo Jet, the Saint Columcille (registration number EI-ASI), which arrived from New York.^[3][4]
  • The rock group Led Zeppelin played their only concert in Ireland at the National Stadium in Dublin.^[5]
• 17 March – The giant Jumbo Jet recently arrived in Ireland flew over the Saint Patrick's Day parade along O'Connell Street, Dublin, escorted by four smaller aircraft.
• 20 March – Major James Chichester-Clark resigned as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. He was succeeded on 23 March by Brian Faulkner.
• 3 April – The Eurovision Song Contest was held in Dublin. Presented by Bernadette Ní Ghallchóir, it was the first colour television broadcast by RTÉ.
• 11 April
  • Ten British Army soldiers were injured in rioting in Derry.^{[citation needed]}
  • The Gaelic Athletic Association voted to lift its ban on members participating in "foreign games" such as association football, rugby and cricket.
• 20 April – Two British Royal Navy survey launches moored off Baltimore, County Cork, were towed out to sea and bombed by a Provisional Irish Republican Army unit. One of them, the Stork, was wrecked.^[6]
• 11 May – Seán Lemass, taoiseach from 1959 to 1966, died aged 71. He fought during the 1916 Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War.
• 22 May – Members of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement returned to Dublin bringing contraceptives from Belfast on the so-called "Contraceptive Train" to protest against the law banning their importation.^[7]
• 8 July – Two rioters were shot dead by British troops in Derry.^[8]
• 16 July – The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) announced that it was withdrawing from the Stormont parliament.
• 9 August – Internment without trial was introduced in Northern Ireland. Over 300 republicans were arrested in pre-dawn raids by British security forces and interned in Long Kesh prison. Some Loyalists were later arrested. Twenty people died in riots that followed, including eleven in the Ballymurphy Massacre.^[9]
• 12 August – British troops began clearing operations^{[clarification needed]} in Belfast following the worst rioting in years. Taoiseach Jack Lynch called for an end to the Stormont administration.
• 7 September – The death toll in The Troubles reached 100 after three years of violence, with the death of 14-year-old Annette McGavigan, who was killed by a gunshot during crossfire between British soldiers and the IRA.
• 25 September – A rally took place in Dublin in support of a campaign of civil disobedience in Northern Ireland.
• 27 September – Prime ministers Edward Heath, Jack Lynch, and Brian Faulkner met at Chequers to discuss the Northern Ireland situation.
• 13 October – The British Army began to destroy roads between Ireland and Northern Ireland as a security measure.^[10]
• 23 October – Two women were shot dead by soldiers in Belfast when their car failed to stop at a checkpoint.^[11]
• 31 October – The Standard Time (Amendment) Act, 1971^[12] reversed the main provision of the Standard Time Act 1968, returning Irish winter time to UTC+0 (Western European Time).
• 10 November – The Government defeated a motion of no confidence in the Minister for Agriculture, Jim Gibbons.
• 17 November – Neil Blaney and Paudge Brennan were expelled from the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party.
• 4 December – The McGurk's Bar bombing, carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force in Belfast, killed 15 people, the highest death toll from a single incident in the city during The Troubles.^[13]
• Undated – Units 1 and 2 of Poolbeg Generating Station in Dublin were completed.

• 27 September – Satirical television series Hall's Pictorial Weekly was first broadcast on RTÉ.
• Playwrights John Arden and Margaretta D'Arcy settled in County Galway.
• John Banville's novel Nightspawn was published.
• Thomas Kilroy's novel The Big Chapel was published.
• Seán Ó Ríordáin's poetry collection Línte Liombó was published.
• Francis Stuart's autobiographical novel Black List, Section H was published.

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship: Offaly 1–14 Galway 2–8

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship: Tipperary 5–17 Kilkenny 5–14

• 19 January
  • Charlie Carter, Kilkenny hurler.
  • John Troy, Offaly hurler.
• 20 January – Ger McDonnell, mountaineer and engineer (d. 2008).
• 31 January – Mark Geary, folk singer-songwriter.
• 3 March – Stephen J. Martin, comic fiction writer.
• 4 March – Fergal Lawler, rock drummer with The Cranberries.
• 12 March – Conrad Gallagher, chef.
• 6 April – Derek Tracey, association football player.
• 29 April – Adrian Maguire, jockey.
• 30 April – John Boyne, novelist.
• 18 June – Jason McAteer, international association football player.
• 28 June – Kenny Cunningham, association football player.
• 16 July – Joe McHugh, Fine Gael party Teachta Dála (TD) for Donegal North-East, senator.
• 30 July – Hubert Rigney, Offaly hurler.
• 2 August – Davy FitzGerald, Clare hurler.
• 4 August – Paul McCarthy, association football player (died 2017).
• 6 August – Conor McPherson, playwright and director.
• 10 August – Roy Keane, Manchester United and Glasgow Celtic footballer and Sunderland manager.
• 17 August – Anthony Kearns, tenor.
• 18 August – Aphex Twin (Richard D. James), electronic music artist.
• 31 August – Pádraig Harrington, golfer, winner of 2007 Open Championship.
• August – Brian Whelahan, Offaly hurler.
• 6 September – Dolores O'Riordan, rock singer-songwriter with The Cranberries (d. 2018).
• 7 October – Johnny Dooley, Offaly hurler, manager.
• 24 October – Dervla Kirwan, actress.
• 30 October – Stephen Kenny, football player and manager
• 3 November – Dylan Moran, comedian, actor, and writer.
• 22 November – Kyran Bracken, rugby player
• 26 November – James McGarry, Kilkenny hurling goalkeeper.
• November – Brian Lohan, Clare hurler.
• 25 December – Noel Hogan, guitarist and songwriter.

Full date unknown

• Amanda Coogan, performance artist.
• John Doyle, folk musician and songwriter with the band Usher's Island.
• Róisín McAliskey, political activist.

• 2 January – J. T. O'Farrell, trade union official, served in the Seanad (Senate) from 1922 to 1936 and 1948–50.
• 24 January – St John Ervine, playwright and novelist (born 1883).
• 28 January – Edward O'Connell, Cork hurler.
• 31 March – Michael Browne, Master General of the Dominicans, Cardinal (born 1887).
• 1 April – Kathleen Lonsdale, X-ray crystallographer (born 1903).
• May – Eamon Martin, a founder of Fianna Éireann and an Irish Volunteer fighting in the Easter Rising (born 1892).
• 4 May – Seamus Elliott, road bicycle racer (born 1934).
• 10 May – Archie Heron, trade union organiser.
• 11 May
  • Seán Lemass, Fianna Fáil TD, Cabinet minister and taoiseach (born 1899).
  • Eamon Martin, one of founders of Fianna Éireann, and an Irish Volunteer who fought in the Easter Rising (born 1893).
• 15 May – Tyrone Guthrie, theatrical director (born 1900).
• 13 June – Máiréad Ní Ghráda, poet and playwright.
• 14 June – Gerard Dillon, artist and painter (born 1916).
• 14 August – Shane Leslie, diplomat and writer (born 1885).
• 15 September – John Desmond Bernal, scientist (born 1901).
• 26 September – Conor Maguire, Chief Justice of Ireland (born 1889).
• 2 October – Paddy Ahern, Cork hurler (born 1900).
• 3 October – Seán Ó Riada, composer and musician (born 1931).
• 16 December – Richard Mulcahy, Chief of Staff, TD, Cabinet minister and former leader of the Fine Gael party (born 1886).

• 1971 in Irish television