← 2003 2002 2001 2004 in Northern Ireland → 2005 2006 2007
Centuries:	20th 21st
Decades:	1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
See also:	2004 in the United Kingdom 2004 in Ireland Other events of 2004 List of years in Northern Ireland

Events during the year 2004 in Northern Ireland.

Incumbents

• First Minister - Suspended
• deputy First Minister - Suspended
• Secretary of State - Paul Murphy

Events

• 27 March - Ireland's rugby team wins the Triple Crown for the first time since 1985.
• 27 March - David Trimble retains leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party at their annual general meeting.
• 30 June - Northern Ireland population estimated to be 1,710,300, a 4.1% increase over the 1994 figure.^[1]
• 14 September - Belfast-born Mary McAleese announces her intention to run for a second term as President of Ireland in the Republic.
• 30 September - The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Ian Paisley, makes an historic first visit to Dublin for political talks with the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
• 1 October - As nominations for candidates close, Mary McAleese is re-elected unopposed for a second term as President of Ireland.
• 11 November - Mary McAleese is inaugurated for a second term as President of Ireland.
• 8 December - Negotiated proposals to restore the power-sharing institutions to Northern Ireland by March fail to reach finality. The main sticking point is a refusal by the Provisional Irish Republican Army to allow photographs be taken of arms decommissioning and a refusal by the DUP's Ian Paisley to witness disarmament himself.
• 20 December - Northern Bank robbery: A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from Northern Bank's Donegall Square West headquarters in Belfast, one of the largest bank robberies in British history; no-one is ever found directly responsible for the crime.^[2]

Arts and literature

• Seamus Heaney publishes a version of Sophocles' Antigone, entitled The Burial at Thebes.
• Seamus Heaney composes a poem called Beacons of Bealtaine for the 2004 EU Enlargement and reads it at a ceremony for the 25 leaders of the enlarged European Union arranged by the Irish EU presidency.
• Eoin McNamee publishes his novel The Ultras.
• David Park publishes his novel Swallowing the Sun.

Sport

Births

• Brodie Spencer
• Darren Robinson (footballer)

Deaths

• 11 January - Mairtín Crawford, poet and journalist (born 1967).
• 5 February - Harry West, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party from 1974 to 1979, Stormont MP, Minister for Agriculture (born 1917).
• 2 March - Cormac McAnallen, Tyrone Gaelic footballer (born 1980).
• 13 April - Caron Keating, television presenter (born 1962).
• 24 June - Douglas Gageby, editor of Evening Press (1954–1959) and editor The Irish Times (1963–1974) and (1977–1986).
• 22 July - Bertie Peacock, footballer and football manager.
• 23 July - Joe Cahill, former Chief of Staff of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (born 1920).
• 7 September - Ian Cochrane, novelist (born 1941).
• 28 October - Jimmy McLarnin, boxer (born 1907)
• 5 November - Basil McIvor, Ulster Unionist politician (born 1928).
• 8 December - Digby McLaren, geologist and palaeontologist in Canada (born 1919).
• 26 December - Frank Pantridge, physician, cardiologist and inventor of the portable defibrillator (born 1916).

See also

• 2004 in England
• 2004 in Scotland
• 2004 in Wales

References