Saturday/Sunday
An Irish Times/MRBI poll on the presidential election, published on Saturday, showed Prof Mary McAleese with 56 per cent of the votes after the final count, with Ms Mary Banotti winning 44 per cent. The results of a Sunday Independent/IMS poll indicated Mrs McAleese would win on the final count with 57 per cent of the vote compared to 43 per cent for Ms Banotti.
The McAleese camp was buoyed by the polls which showed their candidate winning comfortably on the fourth count. Ms Banotti's supporters still insisted she could win the election.
A letter sent to The Irish Times on Sunday by a group of 15 prominent historians and other scholars advised the electorate to vote No in Thursday's referendum on cabinet confidentiality.
Mr Michael "Mouse" Kelly and his wife Ann, from Birr, Co Offaly, celebrated their £4 million lottery win.
Two men died and a family of three was rescued in a dramatic operation in rough seas at Horse Island off the north Co Mayo coast.
Monday
The New York Stock Exchange suffered its biggest fall since Black Monday in 1987 and stock markets around the world braced for losses running into billions of pounds. Investors began selling when the Dow Jones index fell by over 554 points, a drop of 7.18 per cent, with further stock market falls in the Far East.
The market closed for business an hour early as the New York Stock Exchange introduced a series of curbs designed to prevent drastic movements in share values. The Irish stock market was closed for the bank holiday but it was expected that hundreds of millions of pounds would be wiped off the value of Irish shares.
The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, restated that Ireland was fully committed to joining Economic and Monetary Union as a founder-member in 1999, despite the British Chancellor's announcement that sterling would not enter until after 2002. Mr McCreevy said the Government had already published the national changeover plan to the single currency and that work would continue "at all levels" to ensure that, as Ireland moved to a single currency, business would be adequately informed and prepared.
Tuesday
The New York stock market made a spectacular recovery after its record fall on Monday, but it came too late to prevent the Irish stock market falling by more than 7 per cent, with almost £2.5 billion wiped off the value of Irish shares. Despite the improvement on Wall Street and the subsequent recovery in share prices on most international markets, fund managers and dealers warned that stock markets were facing a period of instability, and prices were likely to be volatile for some time.
An honorary Doctorate of Letters was conferred on Frank McCourt, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, at the University of Limerick. The jury in the British au pair murder trial was sent to a hotel for the night when it failed to reach a verdict during more than five hours of deliberations. Ms Louise Woodward was on trial for the murder of a nine-month-old baby in her charge.
Wednesday
Another Irish Times/MRBI opinion poll showed Prof McAleese heading for a comfortable victory. Her first-preference vote, at 37 per cent, was found to be holding firm over the past five days, while her nearest rival, Ms Banotti, had dropped five percentage points to 24 per cent. Dana Rosemary Scallon, with 8 per cent, had overtaken Ms Adi Roche, on 7 per cent, and moved into third position. Mr Derek Nally was at 4 per cent, down two points. The level of undecided voters had increased again by seven points to 20 per cent.
The jury in the Louise Woodward case was sent to a hotel for a second night after two days of deliberations.
Thursday
Voting began at 9 a.m. at polling stations throughout the State and the turnout in the presidential poll was estimated at a relatively low 1.5 million. Participation in the referendum on Cabinet confidentiality was estimated to be lower still. Reports suggested that many voters, confused by the proposal, returned or did not fill in the referendum ballot paper.
The US First Lady, Ms Hillary Clinton, arrived in Dublin for a brief visit and attended a reception in Dublin Castle hosted by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and attended by the US ambassador to Ireland, Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith.
A Dublin taxi-drivers' protest brought the capital to a standstill from early morning. The protest was strongly condemned by angry workers, businesses and many organisations. The demonstration ended at 4.30 p.m. and the taxidrivers, who resumed work at 9 p.m., are to meet next week to assess the situation. They are complaining that their licence renewal fee has risen from £7 to £450 since 1992, while the fare rate has risen by only 5p a mile since 1985 to 80p.