January The UK's supreme court is expected to rule on the London government's appeal against a High Court decision that the government must seek parliamentary approval before triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, beginning talks to leave the European Union. If the 11 judges reaffirm the High Court decision, it could complicate the task of Theresa May's Conservative government in implementing the narrow Brexit vote. A majority of MPs backed the Remain side in the referendum campaign, but Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – and pro-EU Tories – have agreed not to delay May's Brexit timetable, provided the government publish its plan for negotiations.
Central Bank staff to begin the move from their Dame Street headquarters – and premises in Iveagh Court and the IFSC – to a North Wall Quay building previously earmarked as the headquarters of Anglo Irish Bank. For years, the building sat as an empty shell on Dublin’s docklands: a defining image of recessionary Ireland. For some, its reclamation is a symbol of national recovery.
But what becomes of Sam Stephenson's imposing modernist building on Dame Street? After considering offers from six bidders, the Central Bank has confirmed to the The Irish Times that US property company Hines has been nominated as the preferred bidder. The price is thought to be in the region of €60 million, and will involve a €10 million office upgrade.
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Building work is also expected to begin on another modernist building, the ESB’s controversial headquarters on Fitzwilliam Street. One of the largest-ever developments in the State, the new 45,769 sq m (492,663sq ft) scheme will rise to seven storeys following a €150 million redevelopment.
January 3rd: More than 120 staff at Oberstown child detention centre are due to go on all-out strike, citing violence incidents and insufficient protection for staff.
January 8th: The Golden Globes – Irish nominees include celebrated Dublin film Sing Street (up for best comedy or musical), Ruth Negga and Caitríona Balfe (both for best-drama actress), and Colin Farrell – for best actor in a musical or comedy for his role in The Lobster.
January 17th: The trial of Dublin man Ibrahim Halawa, rescheduled several times, is due to take place in Cairo.
January 20th: Inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States of America.
January 21st: End of discussions between RTÉ and its trade union group (TUG), over the broadcaster's plans to outsource all young people's programming.
January 22nd: The French Socialist Party holds its presidential primary, following the decision by president François Hollande not to stand for a second term. Former prime minister Manuel Valls is the front-runner to win the run-off, which takes place on January 29th.
January 31st: Government expected to extend rent caps from Cork and Dublin to the cities of Galway, Limerick and Waterford.
February Italy's prime minister Paolo Gentiloni, successor to defeated reformer Matteo Renzi, is expected to call elections in 2017. While Renzi is said to favour a June poll, the interior minister Angelino Alfano is predicting a February election. All eyes will be on the main opposition party Five-Star Movement, which has called for a referendum on eurozone membership, and on the anti-immigrant Northern League.
In Cork, the redeveloped Capitol cinema site, adjoining the city-centre English Market, is expected to open. Facebook has held discussions with developers over occupying offices on the site.
February 1st: Sentencing expected in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial of Irish international footballer Anthony Stokes. Stokes (27) pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Anthony Bradley at Dublin nightclub Buck Whaleys in 2013.
February 4th: Ireland's rugby team to begin its Six Nations campaign away to Scotland at Murrayfield.
February 6th: Sentencing is expected in the trial of a 16-year-old who admitted stabbing 21-year-old Lorcan O'Reilly to death at a Halloween bonfire in Dublin in 2015 . The accused was 14 years' old at the time.
February 14th: Irish Water concludes public consultations on a new €1.2 billion pipeline linking Dublin with the River Shannon via Tipperary, Offaly and Kildare. The utility will submit a planning application to An Bord Pleanála in late 2017.
February 26th: The 89th Academy Awards to take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, presented by Jimmy Kimmel.
March British prime minister Theresa May is expected to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty this month, beginning the negotiating process for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU, after which the border of the world's largest trading bloc will run across the island of Ireland.
Ireland’s first community-funded ‘flying doctor’ service is expected to begin operations out of Cork Airport. The Irish Community Air Ambulance will complement the existing air ambulance, run by the National Ambulance Service in Athlone, and Coastguard helicopters.
Dublin City Council is to submit revised traffic plans for Dublin city centre to An Bord Pleanála. The proposals include a new pedestrian plaza at College Green, and the rerouting of some bus routes down Parliament Street in the city. A decision is expected in December.
The Citizens Assembly is expected to make a recommendation to the Oireachtas on the issue of the 8th amendment to the Constitution, concerning abortion.
Summer ferry services resume for the Aran island of Inis Mór, after interruptions throughout the winter period.
March 1st: Prescription charges for over-70s with medical cards are due to fall from €2.50 to €2 per item. The maximum monthly charge is also to be reduced, from €25 to €20.
March 7th: A new trial is to begin in the case of a taxi driver accused of biting off the top of a passenger's thumb in Rathmines in December 2013. Lookman Kareem, with an address in Knocklyon, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty.
March 15th: A general election is to take place in the Netherlands. Opinion polls suggest right-wing firebrand Geert Wilders's Party for Freedom (PVV) could emerge as the strongest party in the House of Representatives.
March 17th: St Patrick's Day – newly professional boxer Katie Taylor fights on the undercard in Madison Square Gardens.
March 24th: Irish fans hoping to travel to a first World Cup since Saipan could be a step closer to Russia in 2018 if Ireland beat neighbours Wales in a crucial 2018 World Cup qualifier. Much depends on whether the visitors arrive in Dublin without injured superstar Gareth Bale. Iceland's famous fans descend on the Aviva four days later.
April April 1st: India's creeping prohibition proceeds apace with the shutting of all off-licences along state and national highways, following the country's Supreme Court decision. Many states already ban alcohol completely.
April 23rd: The first round of the French presidential election is to take place, pitting Republican François Fillon against Marine Le Pen of the National Front, and the as-yet unknown Socialist nominee, possibly Manual Valls. A run-off is due to be held on May 7th.
April 24th: The trial begins of former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The 50-year-old, with an address in Skerries, Co Dublin, is facing 33 separate charges, including of conspiring to defraud depositors and investors at the now-defunct bank by dishonestly creating the impression that deposits in 2008 were €7.2 billion larger than they were. The trial is expected to last three months. A second trial is due to take place in January 2018, when Drumm will face a further 16 counts of offering unlawful financial assistance to, among others, relatives of businessman Seán Quinn, and of falsifying documents.
The first of three trials of anti-water charges protestors also begins on April 24th, at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin. Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy (33) together with his party colleagues Cllr Michael Murphy (50), Cllr Kieran Mahon (38) and four others, face charges arising out of the alleged false imprisonment of Joan Burton – then tánaiste – in November 2014. A second trial of six other people accused of false imprisonment is due to take place in October.
May Construction to begin in earnest on the €233 million Center Parcs development near Ballymahon, in Longford, following the completion of a public perimeter footpath.
Paris Criminal Court is expected to begin proceedings in absentia against Ian Bailey for the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in west Cork in 1996.
Government’s National Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance is expected.
May 11th: Inscrutable Nobel Laureate and musical colossus Bob Dylan will play the 3Arena in Dublin, the latest instalment of a Never Ending Tour that has run since June 1988.
May 18th-19th: The Houses of the Oireachtas will host the ninth plenary of the North-South Inter-Parliamentary Association.
May 19th: Wow Air due to begin transatlantic flights from Cork Airport to nine North American cities. Budget carrier Norwegian Air will begin passenger flights in July from Cork and Shannon to the US.
May 27th: US hard rock veterans Guns N' Roses to play Slane Castle, Co Meath.
June Construction is due to begin on a new runway at Dublin Airport. Residents' groups have sought restrictions on night-time flights.
The inquest into the death of MMA fighter Joao Carvalho, who died at the National Boxing Stadium last April, is to reconvene in Dublin.
A redeveloped 45,000-capacity Páirc Uí Chaoimh is to open on Cork’s marina. Critics, including former All-Star Donal Óg Cusack, have queried the wisdom of allocating €80 million – including €30 million in State aid – for another large Munster GAA stadium. They say the money should be spent on improving the poor state of the game in Cork, which is undergoing its longest All-Ireland hurling drought since the 1960s.
In London, meanwhile, the revamped €2 million Irish Cultural Centre is due to open in Hammersmith, in the west of the city.
June 3rd: The British and Irish Lions begin their tour of New Zealand, ending on July 8th.
June 13th: The trial of a man charged with 50 counts of sexual abuse against two young girls is to take place at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The 51-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of abusing the victims between 2007 and 2011 at locations in Dublin and Donegal. The charges sent forward include 40 counts of child exploitation by inviting, inducing or coercing the alleged victim to engage in or participate in a sexual, indecent or obscene act.
June 15th: Inquest to continue into the death of cyclist Donna Fox, who died when she collided with a truck while cycling into Dublin city centre last September.
June 21st: Justin Bieber plays the RDS in Dublin.
June 30th: Minister for Finance Michael Noonan is to receive a review of Ireland's tax code from UCC academic Michael Coffey, a supporter of the Government's response to the European Commission's ruling that Ireland granted IT giant Apple more than €13 billion in illegal state aid.
July In Britain, new rules banning junk foods targeting children on social media come into effect.
The Central Statistics Office is due to release economic data for the first three months of 2017. The Economic and Social Research Institute is predicting GDP growth of 3.5 per cent for 2017, following 4.2 per cent in 2016. Ibec is predicting growth of 2.8 per cent, however.
The CSO will also release revised growth data for 2016 – probably well down on the 26 per cent headline figure for 2015, which drew international derision. The 2015 figure was skewed by aircraft leasing arrangements, and corporate restructuring of assets.
July 21st: Dunkirk, a second World War blockbuster directed by Christopher Nolan, is to be released in Ireland. Recounting the evacuation of thousands of Allied troops in 1940 under siege from Nazi German forces, it stars Irish actors Cillian Murphy and Barry Keoghan.
August August 27th: "Whoever possesses Berlin possesses Germany. And whoever controls Germany controls Europe." Thus spake Karl Marx more than a century ago. On a date between August 27th and October 22nd, 2017, Germans go to the polls to decide who holds the reins in Das Bundeskanzleramt, in federal elections. Angela Merkel is seeking a fourth term at the helm of the world's fourth-largest economy, with the effects of her so-called policy towards migrants under scrutiny from the conservative wing of her Christian Democratic Union party – and supporters of the burgeoning anti-immigrant parties Pegida and AfD.
August 31st: Closer to home, up to 100 low-income families from Fairfield Park caravan site in Greystones, Co Wicklow, face homelessness after receiving a year's notice of the landlord's intention to close the park.
September Ireland is expected to take the last of 1,100 Syrian refugees from Greece, part of an overall Government commitment to resettle 4,000 Syrian refugees fleeing the conflict in their home country. Classes to begin at Castlebar Educate Together school, following the granting of planning permission despite objections on 19 grounds from a local councillor that the multi-ethnic, multi-denominational school was "elitist".
Under the Lansdowne Road Agreement on public pay, many public sector staff will receive a second and final €1,000 pay increase, following a previous €1,000 increase in January.
October Former American Football star OJ Simpson becomes fully eligible for parole from Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada, nine years after being sentenced to 33 years in prison for armed robbery and kidnapping.
November US president Donald Trump to travel to Vietnam for the annual APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic summit), an early test of his diplomatic skills.
A decision is due on Ireland’s all-island bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup. If successful, matches would take place in four main rugby stadiums – the Aviva Stadium, the RDS, Kingspan Park in Belfast and Thomond Park in Limerick – as well as two GAA stadiums in each of the four provinces, including Casement Park in west Belfast, Celtic Park in Derry’s Bogside, and Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney.
December Star Wars Episode VIII, which features footage shot from Unesco world heritage site Skellig Michael – and much of the Wild Atlantic Way – is to be released. A State report found no long-term impact to the national monument, despite two "minor incidents" during the 2015 filming. Conservationists nevertheless question the unseen effects of the film crew's presence on Skellig during breeding season for storm petrel and manx shearwater seabirds.
The CSO releases its monthly unemployment figures on December 1st. The ESRI is forecasting unemployment to drop to 6.8 per cent – down from 7.3 per cent a year previously.
Work is expected to begin on new €150 million flood defences for the Lee Valley and Cork city, beginning at the Inniscarra Dam before progressing to the city centre. The project is designed to protect 2,000 homes and businesses in Cork, which was inundated by floods in 2009, 2012 and 2014.
Tourism Ireland to release visitor numbers for 2017. Due to capacity problems, visitor figures are expected to be about 1 per cent on 2016, when 11 per cent growth was recorded.
Finally, Luas Cross City is expected to open before the end of 2017, bringing the existing green line on from St Stephen’s Green to College Green, O’Connell Street, Marlborough Street and onwards to Phibsborough via Parnell Street. It finally links the capital’s two light-rail lines, more than 13 years after the first Luas journey.
