Events from the year 1980 in Ireland. Incumbents President: Patrick Hillery Taoiseach: Charles Haughey (FF) Tánaiste: George Colley (FF) Minister for Finance: Michael O'Kennedy (FF) (until 16 December 1980) Gene Fitzgerald (FF) (from 16 December 1980) Chief Justice: Tom O'Higgins Dáil: 21st Seanad: 14th Events January – Jorge Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis, arrived in Ireland for three months to learn English at Milltown College in Milltown, Dublin. 9 January – Taoiseach Charles Haughey addressed the nation on television on the matter of worsening public finances. 31 January – A new £20 note was introduced bearing an image of the poet W. B. Yeats. 13 February – Ireland's first ATM machine, the Bank of Ireland Pass, opened. 25 March – CIÉs first bus lane came into operation on Parliament Street in Dublin. 19 April – Johnny Logan won the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland with the song "What's Another Year". 1 May – The Derrynaflan Chalice was discovered in a bog in County Tipperary. 1 August – Eighteen people died in the Buttevant Rail Disaster. 8 August – Ten people died in the Central Hotel fire in Bundoran, Donegal. 15 August - The first section of the Wicklow Way – from Marlay Park to Luggala – was opened by Jim Tunney TD, Minister of State for Education. 1 September – China's first Ambassador to Ireland, Madame Gong Pusheng, arrived in Dublin. 6 October – Justice Mella Carroll was the first woman to reach the position of High Court Judge. 27 October – Over 2,000 people took part in the first RTÉ Radio 2 Dublin City Marathon. 1 November – The controversial Health (Family Planning) Act, 1979 came into operation, permitting the provision of contraceptives by prescription. 2 November - The first edition of the Sunday Tribune newspaper went on sale. 11 November – The National Institute for Higher Education, Dublin, admitted its first students (200) to the college. 8 December – Taoiseach Charles Haughey met with the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher at Dublin Castle. It was the first visit by a British prime minister since Irish Independence. 19 December – Former Taoiseach Jack Lynch was conferred with the freedom of his native city, Cork. Arts and literature 23 September – Field Day Theatre Company presented its first production, the première of Brian Friel's Translations at the Guildhall, Derry. Eavan Boland's poetry In Her Own Image was published in the