State Papers – Day One: 1980: Timeline

* January 6: Three members of UDR killed by an IRA landmine near Castlewellan, Co Down.

* January 7: Talks begin at Stormont between SDLP, UDP and Alliance parties.

* January 9: Charles Haughey warns the country is living beyond its means in TV address on RTÉ.

* January 14: Shots fired at the removal of John Joe Sheehy’s body from hospital in Tralee.

* January 17: IRA bomb detonates on a passenger train near Belfast, killing three people.

* January 20: President Jimmy Carter threatens US boycott of Olympic Games in Moscow.

* January 22: Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov arrested in Moscow.

* January 25: Paul McCartney is released from Tokyo jail and deported.

* January 26: Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations.

* January 29: Six US hostages escape from Iran with help of Canadians.

* February 4: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Banisadr as president of Iran.

* February 14: Winter Olympic Games opened at Lake Placid, New York.

* February 18: Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal Party wins general election in Canada.

* March 4: Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF wins parliamentary election in Zimbabwe.

* March 21: JR Ewing in shot in Dallas, the TV show.

* March 21: President Carter announces US boycott of Moscow Olympics.

* March 24: Archbishop Oscar Romero is killed by gunmen while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.

* March 25: CIÉ’s first bus lane comes into operation on Parliament Street in Dublin.

* March 27: The Norwegian oil platform Alexander Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 crew.

* March 30: 42 people died attending the funeral of Archbishop Romero in San Salvador. Bishop Eamonn Casey of Galway was one of the survivors from a total crowd estimated at more than 250,000.

* April 7: US break off diplomatic relations with Iran and imposes economic sanctions over the holding of American hostages in Iran since November 4, 1979.

* April 15: Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Lenihan meets Northern Secretary Humphrey Atkins in Dublin.

* April 19: Johnny Logan wins Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland in The Hague with What’s Another Year.

* April 24: Eight US servicemen die in botched efforts to rescue hostages in Iran.

* April 30: Six Iranian-born dissidents seized at Iranian embassy in London.

* May 1: Derrynaflan Chalice is discovered in a bog.

* May 4: Josip Broz Tito, leader of Yugoslavia, dies.

* May 5: SAS storm Iranian embassy in London after six-day siege.

* May 18: Mount St Helens blows erupts in Washington State in the US, killing 60 people.

* May 18: Pro-democracy rising in Gwangiu, South Korea.

* May 20: 60% vote against independence from Canada in referendum in Quebec.

* May 21: Taoiseach Charles Haughey met British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at 10 Downing Street.

* May 27: Rising in Gwangiu suppressed, 2,000 dead.

* June 25: Death of James Delargy, founder of Irish Folklore Commission.

* June 27: A commercial DC-9 (Itavia Flight 870) crashed after explosion, killing 81 people.

* July 2: Death of Tom Barry, Irish independence fighter.

* July 5: Björn Borg wins his fifth consecutive Wimbledon title in men’s singles.

* July 7: Detective Garda John Morley, 37, and Garda Henry Byrne, 29, murdered by armed robbers at Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon.

* July 16: Former California governor Ronald Reagan wins Republican Party nomination for US president.

* July 22: Olympic Games open in Moscow.

* July 29: Irish pair David Wilkins and Jamie Wilkinson win silver medal in flying Dutchman class at Olympic yachting in Tallinn.

* July 31: Hugh Russell of Belfast wins bronze medal in boxing at Moscow Olympics.

* August 1: Eighteen people die in Buttevant rail disaster.

* August 2: Bomb kills 85 people at the railway station in Bologna, Italy.

* August 7: Lech Walesa initiates strike in Gdansk shipyard in Poland.

* August 8: Ten people die in the Central Hotel Fire, Bundoran.

* August 14: President Jimmy Carter defeats Senator Edward Kennedy for Democratic Party nomination for President.

* August 30: Solidarity trade union formed in Poland.

* September 1: China’s first ambassador to Ireland, Madame Gong Pusheng, arrives in Dublin.

* September 7: Galway beat Limerick in All-Ireland senior hurling final.

* September 12: Military coup in Turkey.

* September 21: Kerry beat Roscommon in All-Ireland senior football final.

* September 22: Iraq invades Iran.

* October 6: Justice Mella Carroll is the first woman appointed High Court judge.

* October 13: Detective Garda Seamus Quaid, 43, is murdered at Ballyconnick after stopping a van carrying arms.

* October 15: James Callaghan resigns as leader of British Labour Party.

* October 24: Polish government legalises Solidarity trade union.

* October 27: Seven Provisional IRA prisoners begin hunger strike in Maze prison.

* November 1: The Health (Family Planning) Act, 1979 comes into operation.

* November 4: Ronald Reagan comfortably defeats President Jimmy Carter in US Presidential election.

* November 11: National Institute for Higher Education admits first students in Dublin.

* November 23: Earthquakes in southern Italy kills some 4,800 people.

* November 25: Death of Joseph Sweeney, member of first Dáil.

* December 1: Taoiseach Haughey attends European Council in Luxembourg.

* December 8: Haughey meets with the British Prime Minister Thatcher at Dublin Castle.

* December 8: Former Beatle John Lennon murdered in New York.

* December 15: Thirty more Provisional IRA prisoners join hunger strike.

* December 16: Death of union activist Roddy Connolly, son of 1916 leader.

* December 18: Seán McKenna becomes critically ill and hunger strike ends.

* December 19: Former Taoiseach Jack Lynch is conferred with the Freedom of Cork.