30 March – Channel 5, the UK's fifth and last terrestrial channel, launches at 6.00pm. The first faces seen are the Spice Girls, who perform 1-2-3-4-5, a rewritten version of the Manfred Mann song 5-4-3-2-1. The channel is available in some parts of Ireland.
30 June – Long running US animated series The Simpsons starts airing on Irish television for the very first time after not being shown for a long time since it was a series of animated shorts on the US variety show The Tracey Ullman Show. It will be first broadcast on Network 2 starting off with the final episode of the very first season Some Enchanted Evening (which was originally meant to be the very first episode of the series despite being the first one to be produced and made).
July
No events
August
No events
September
2 September – Long running American-Canadian animated series Arthur based on Marc Brown's well known books begins airing for the first time on Irish television on Teilifís na Gaeilge as part of its children's block Cúlabúla. It was translated and dubbed into Irish with the title Art ó Ruíarc although the original English version can be viewed on BBC and Nickelodeon via access to UK television broadcasting. The English version will start airing on Network 2 in 2003.
8 September – The Den returns to Network 2 with Ray D'Arcy as host once again after another summer break. The block opens up with some new series including debuts of the British children's animation Enid Blyton's Enchanted Lands (before airing in its original country which won't happen until 29 September) and the smash Nickelodeon hit Rugrats plus more episodes of Tom and Jerry Kids, The Enid Blyton Secret Series and Pinky and the Brain and the Irish programmes including Echo Island as well as Den TV's segments Den Pet Vet and The Joke Box.
24 November – The two mean puppet characters Podge and Rodge from the long running children's programme The Den star in their very own adults only series A Scare at Bedtime. The very first episode premieres on Network 2.