Events from the year 1938 in Ireland. Incumbents President: Douglas Hyde (from 25 June 1938) Taoiseach: Éamon de Valera (FF) Events 17 January – the Ford Motor Company in Cork City produces its 25,000th car to be built there. 13 April – the Department of Local Government & Public Health reports that cases of typhoid and diphtheria have reduced; however, infant deaths have increased. 21 April – Douglas Hyde is selected unanimously by the two main political parties to serve as the first President of Ireland. 25 April – Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement, signed between Ireland and the United Kingdom in London, settles the Anglo-Irish Trade War and agrees to the Royal Navy abandoning the British sovereign bases at the Irish Treaty Ports in return for a one-off payment of £10 million. 10 May – the Government makes an order converting the "Saorstát pound" to the "Irish pound" as part of the new constitutional reforms. 24 May – the new Anti-Partition Party takes eight seats in a Unionist-controlled Londonderry Corporation. 17 June – 1938 Irish general election: Fianna Fáil under Éamon de Valera retain power, winning the first overall majority in the history of the State. Members of the 10th Dáil assemble on 30 June. 25 June – Douglas Hyde is formally inaugurated as the first President of Ireland. 11 July–3 October – Military installations at the Treaty Ports in the Republic (Berehaven, Spike Island at Queenstown, and Lough Swilly) are handed over from British control to the Government of Ireland, under terms of the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement. 8 August – Dublin Corporation purchases 16 sets of traffic lights. 21 August – the £50,000 20,000-seat Cusack Stand is officially opened at Gaelic Athletic Association headquarters in Croke Park. 12 September – Éamon de Valera is elected President of the Assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva. 17 December – the Gaelic Athletic Association confirms that the President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, will cease to be a patron of the organisation because of his attendance at an international soccer match. Arts and literature 19 August – W. B. Yeats' drama Purgatory is premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Samuel Beckett publishes his novel Murphy. Cecil Day-Lewis publishes Overtures to Death, and Other Poems. Oliver St. John Gogarty publishes his poetry Others to Adorn, with a preface by W. B. Yeats. Louis MacNeice publishes I Crossed the Minch and his poetry The