2004 in Northern Ireland

All you want to know about 2004 in Northern Ireland

	2004 in
Northern Ireland

Decades:	1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Centuries:	20th • 21st
See also:	2004 in the United Kingdom 2004 in Ireland Other events of 2004

27 March - Ireland's rugby team wins the Triple Crown for the first time since 1985.
27 March - David Trimble retains leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party at their annual general meeting.
30 June - Northern Ireland population estimated to be 1,710,300, a 4.1% increase over the 1994 figure^[1].
14 September - Mary McAleese announces her intention to run for a second term as President of Ireland.
30 September - The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Ian Paisley, makes an historic first visit to Dublin for political talks with An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
1 October - As nominations for candidates close, Mary McAleese is re-elected unopposed for a second term as President of Ireland.
11 November - Mary McAleese is inaugurated for a second term as President of Ireland.
8 December - Negotiated proposals to restore the power-sharing institutions to Northern Ireland by March fail to reach finality. The main sticking point was a refusal by the Provisional Irish Republican Army to allow photographs be taken of arms decommissioning and a refusal by the DUP's Ian Paisley to witness disarmament himself.
21 December - £22 million is stolen in the Northern Bank robbery in Belfast.

Seamus Heaney publishes a version of Sophocles' Antigone, entitled The Burial at Thebes.
Seamus Heaney composes a poem called Beacons of Bealtaine for the 2004 EU Enlargement and reads it at a ceremony for the 25 leaders of the enlarged European Union arranged by the Irish EU presidency.

Football World Cup 2006 Qualification
- Northern Ireland 0 - 3 Poland (4 September)
- Wales 2 - 2 Northern Ireland (8 September)
- Azerbaijan 0 - 0 Northern Ireland (9 October)
- Northern Ireland 3-3 Austria {13 October)

Winners: Linfield

Winners: Glentoran 1 - 0 Coleraine

The Irish Football Association takes over control of the remaining divisions run by Irish Football League, renaming them the IFA Intermediate League First and Second Divisions, effectively winding up the Irish Football League as a separate organisation after 114 years.