Army (born 1919). 4 November – Vivian Mercier, literary critic (born 1919). 14 December – Gerry Healy, British Trotskyist leader (born 1913). 22 December – Samuel Beckett, Nobel Prize in Literature 1969, playwright, novelist and poet (born 1906). Full date unknown – Hugh T. Baker, cricketer (born 1906). See also 1989 in Irish television References 1980s in Ireland Years of the 20th century in Ireland Ireland