Saturday/Sunday
The euro took off with the new year, prompting a search by financial institutions for European funds to finance cheaper mortgages.
Four people were killed in car accidents over the first weekend of 1999 and four were injured, two seriously, when their light plane crashed onto a Dublin golf course. Overall, figures for car accident fatalities were down slightly in 1998, from 472 in 1997 to 463 last year.
Car sales continued to grow, with a record number, 145,000, being sold in 1998, 8,000 more than in the previous year.
The high winds which marked the end of 1998 continued to take a toll, as ferry company passengers remained stranded and fears grew for the safety of a German couple who went missing in west Cork.
The Omagh bombing was remembered with a Boyzone concert in the town. Afterwards the band-members met survivors of the atrocity. The concert raised £20,000 for the victims' fund.
Monday
Fears of a resurgence in paramilitary activity were sparked by an attempted armed robbery of £500,000 from a Brinks-Allied van in Dalkey, Co Dublin. The raiders almost got away with the money stolen from the van when they rammed it with a flat-backed truck modified by a steel girder.
Their getaway car stalled and it was abandoned along with the money. A man was injured when the raiders shot at him while hijacking his car.
In the first day of proper trading in the euro, European financial markets surged ahead and the new currency itself traded steadily in the international currency markets. Dublin share prices rose by 1.6 per cent.
After 25 years, the week on RTE Radio 1 began without Gay Byrne. Its revamped schedules featured a move to 9 a.m. by Marian Finucane from her afternoon slot with a new chat programme, and a new music programme with Carrie Crowley from noon to 1 p.m.
Tuesday
Exchequer figures showed a budget surplus of £747 million last year, with a higher than expected tax take, up 12.9 per cent. Income tax was up by 9.9 per cent and VAT receipts by 14.9 per cent.
However, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, quickly quashed any hopes it might go to reopen hospital wards, as suggested by the Fine Gael spokesman, Mr Michael Noonan. It would go to reduce the national debt, he said.
The search for the gang involved in the Dalkey armed robbery continued, as more details emerged. Two shots had been fired and, according to gardai, the gang was prepared to shoot to kill.
The Rape Crisis Centre reported a rise of a third in reported rapes during 1998. Reports of child sex abuse were up by 13 per cent. Reported sexual assaults to gardai were also up, by 10 per cent. In the North, there was further fragmentation in the unionist political camp, with four Assembly members for the UK Unionist Party deserting their leader, Mr Robert McCartney, to form the Northern Ireland Unionist Party. Mr McCartney described their defection as "a day of political infamy and fraud".
Legal proceedings were issued against seven Goodman companies by the Department of Agriculture, it emerged at the Committee of Public Accounts.
This did not protect the Department from a scathing attack from PD deputy Mr Des O'Malley, who accused it of ignoring a Government decision to remove control of EU funds from it.
The editor of the Church of Ireland Gazette, Canon Cecil Coo per, defended his criticism of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, for having his partner, Ms Celia Larkin, accompany him on official occasions.
Wednesday
The Supreme Court ruled that the Flood tribunal into allegations of corruption in the planning process should proceed in public. It rejected an appeal by a former Dublin city and county manager, Mr George Redmond, against a High Court judgment which gave him leave to seek only a partial judicial review of tribunal proceedings.
The way is now clear for the tribunal to take evidence from the main source of allegations, Mr James Gogarty, on Tuesday. The SDLP and the Ulster Unionist Party clashed on the implementation of their pre-Christmas deal on government departments and North-South bodies. The UUP wants the Assembly to "take note" of the agreement, not to approve and accept it, as urged by the SDLP.
Meanwhile, the IRA said the Belfast Agreement has failed to deliver meaningful change and unionists were pursuing conditions which contributed to the breakdown of the 1994 ceasefire.
A woman prisoner killed herself in Mountjoy prison, and another attempted to do so.
Thirty years after the air crash which claimed 61 lives, relatives of the victims of the Tuskar crash called for disclosure of all documents. There have been persistent claims that the crash was caused by a British missile.
Thursday
A taxi-driver was shot dead with a pump-action shotgun in Finglas, Dublin. He had been questioned about, but not charged with, a crime last year.
Telecom and An Post have had to pay 20 per cent more to retain expert information technology staff dealing with the millennium bug problem and the euro.
A fire killed three members of one family in their home in Rostrevor, Co Down. One daughter, whose 21st birthday was being celebrated, escaped.
The ISPCA reported that thousands of farm animals faced starvation due to fodder shortages.