1939 in Northern Ireland
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Events during the year 1939 in Northern Ireland.
Events
- 7 March – Harland and Wolff's Belfast shipyard launched the ocean liner RMS Andes for Royal Mail Lines.[1]
- 17 April – Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Lord Craigavon, dismissed the Republic of Ireland government's position of neutrality as "cowardly".
- 4 May – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland announced that conscription would not be extended to Northern Ireland.
- 17 August – Harland and Wolff's Belfast shipyard launched the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable for the Royal Navy.
- 3 September – The United Kingdom declared war on Germany following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September.
Arts and literature
- 18 May – Louis MacNeice's Autumn Journal: a poem was published.[2]
- June – The Northern Ireland Players performed Joseph Tomelty's Barnum is Right as their first commercial stage play.
Sport
Births
- 1 January – Billy Reid, volunteer in Provisional Irish Republican Army (killed in gunfight with British Army 1971)
- 13 April – Seamus Heaney, poet, writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (died 2013)
- 17 May – Eddie Magill, footballer and football manager
- 6 July – Mary Peters, pentathlete and 1972 Summer Olympics gold medal winner
- 27 July – Michael Longley, poet (died 2025)
- 9 August – Vincent Hanna, television journalist (died 1997)
- 16 August – Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland
- 11 October – Austin Currie, founder-member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), Fine Gael TD (died 2021)
- 8 December – James Galway, flautist
- Undated – Éamonn O'Doherty, sculptor (died 2011)
