1936 Aer Lingus (Aer Loingeas) is founded by the Irish government as the national airline of the Republic of Ireland.
1937 The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution.
1949 The twenty-six counties of the Irish Free State become the Republic of Ireland.
1949 At midnight 26 Irish counties officially leave the British Commonwealth. A 21-gun salute on O'Connell Bridge, Dublin, ushers in the Republic of Ireland.
1973 Denmark, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland are admitted into the European Community.
1973 Mountjoy Prison helicopter escape. Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escape from Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, Republic of Ireland aboard a hijacked helicopter that lands in the exercise yard.
1976 Christopher Ewart-Biggs British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland is assassinated by the Provisional IRA.
1979 An IRA bomb kills British World War II admiral Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and 3 others while they are boating on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Another bomb near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland kills 18 British soldiers.
1979 Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to set foot on Irish soil with his pastoral visit to the Republic of Ireland.
1980 Buttevant Rail Disaster kills 18 and injures dozens of train passengers in Ireland.
1990 Mary Robinson is elected Ireland's first female President and the first from the Labour Party.
1994 The Irish Government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Féin.
1998 Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Republic of Ireland's parliament.
2004 The Republic of Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants.