The Family Law (Divorce) Act 1996 came into operation on 27 February 1997. It provided the legal machinery through which Irish courts could grant decrees of divorce following the narrow approval of the Fifteenth Amendment referendum in 1995. For the first time since the foundation of the State, a marriage could be legally dissolved in the Republic under specified constitutional conditions.
On 30 April the Eurovision Song Contest was held at the Point Theatre in Dublin. Ireland won the contest for the third consecutive year, with Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan performing “Rock ’n’ Roll Kids”. The interval performance, however, became the event remembered far beyond the competition. Riverdance, composed by Bill Whelan and featuring dancers Jean Butler and Michael Flatley, combined traditional Irish dance with contemporary staging, music and choral performance.
The events firmly assigned to 1034 come principally from the Annals of Ulster, Annals of Inisfallen, Annals of Tigernach and the later Annals of the Four Masters. These chronicles sometimes disagree over titles, circumstances and even the identities of participants. Their notices are also highly selective. Kings, abbots, scholars, relics and military expeditions appear; ordinary births, marriages, harvests and local exchanges generally do not. A responsible account must therefore distinguish the year’s recorded events from the broader conditions under which most people lived.
