Events in the year 1961 in Ireland. Incumbents President: Éamon de Valera Taoiseach: Seán Lemass (FF) Tánaiste: Seán MacEntee (FF) Minister for Finance: James Ryan (FF) Chief Justice: Conor Maguire (until 11 June 1961) Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (from 16 June 1961) Dáil: 16th (until 8 September 1961) 17th (from 11 October 1961) Seanad: 9th (until 1 September 1961) 10th (from 14 December 1961) Events 6 January – Lieutenant-General Seán Mac Eoin left Dublin for to the Congo. He was taking up his new post as General Commanding Officer of the United Nations. 20 January – John F. Kennedy became President of the United States, the first of Irish-Catholic descent. 27 January – Laid-up tanker Trigonosemus broke free from her moorings during a gale in Lough Swilly. 9 April – The national census showed that County Cork's population had reached an all-time low, with just 330,000 (in the late 1950s it was 336,000). 10 June – President Éamon de Valera and Mrs. Sinéad de Valera greeted Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco at their home, Áras an Uachtaráin during the couple's state visit to Ireland. 15 June – Prince Rainier and Princess Grace took tea in the Kelly homestead, Drimurla, near Newport, County Mayo from which the Princess's grandfather, John Henry Kelly, set off for America almost 100 years before. 16 September – Atlantic Hurricane Debbie made landfall at Dooega on Achill Island, then tracked across County Mayo, the only known tropical cyclone to make landfall in Ireland. Winds gusted up to 114 mph (183 km/h) off Arranmore. 4 October – 1961 Irish general election: The Fianna Fáil party under Seán Lemass retained most seats and formed a minority government when members of the 17th Dáil assembled on 11 October. 25 October – St. John's Church in Sligo was reconstituted as the Cathedral Church for the Church of Ireland dioceses of Elphin and Ardagh, under the name of the Cathedral of St. Mary the Virgin and St. John the Baptist. November – Minister for Justice Charles Haughey established military courts which handed down long prison sentences to convicted Irish Republican Army men. 10 November – The Guinness ship Lady Gwendolen rammed and sank the Freshfield, anchored in fog in the River Mersey. 20 December – The last legal execution in Ireland, of Robert McGladdery for murder, occurred in Belfast, Northern Ireland. 31 December – Telefís Éireann went on the air