Ireland at the 1998 Winter Olympics

The Olympic Federation of Ireland was formed in 1922, shortly after it became independent of Great Britain in December 1921. The nation made its debut in the Olympics in the 1924 Summer Olympics.^[1] The 1992 Winter Olympics marked Ireland's first participation in the Winter Olympics. After the nation made its debut in the Winter Olympics at the 1992 Games, the nation did not participate in the next Winter Games in 1994. This edition of the Games in 1998 marked the nation's second appearance at the Winter Games.^[1]

The 1998 Winter Olympics was held in Nagano, Japan, held between 7 and 22 February 1998.^[2][3] The Ireland team consisted of six athletes who competed across two sports.^[4][5] Terry McHugh served as the country's flag-bearer during the opening ceremony.^[6] Ireland did not win any medal in the Games, and has not won a Winter Olympics medal as of these Games.^[1][7]

Ireland sent six athletes (all men) who competed in four events across two sports at the Games.^[4][5]

Alpine skiing competitions were held at Happo'one, Hakuba.^[8] Patrick-Paul Schwarzacher-Joyce represented Ireland in two events in the men's category. Born in 1972, this was Schwarzacher-Joyce's debut in the Winter Games. He would go on to represent Ireland in the subsequent Winter Games in 2002.^[9] In the Men's downhill event, he finished 27th.^[10] The combined event consisted of two runs of slalom skiing, and a round of downhill skiing. Schwarzacher-Joyce was ranked last in the slalom rounds with a time of 1:56.22 over two runs. Though he improved to be ranked 14th in the downhill round, he finished in 15th in the overall classification.^[11][12]