A Look Back At

Born in 1940

What Was Life Like in 1940?

Who Was in Charge?

A selection from Wikipedia's '1940 in Ireland'. Not a complete list.

17 January – The Enid (Captain Wibe) of neutral Norway sailing from Steinkjer to Dublin, 10 miles north of Shetland, went to assist SS Polzella which had been torpedoed by German submarine U-25 which then shelled and sank Enid.
7 February – The Munster (Captain R. Paisley) was mined and sunk in the Irish Sea while entering Liverpool.
3 March – Flooding of Poulaphouca Reservoir was begun by damming the River Liffey at Poulaphouca as part of the Electricity Supply Board project to build Ireland's second hydroelectricity generating station, together with an improved water supply for Dublin.
20–24 April – Plan Kathleen, an Irish Republican Army (IRA) plan for a Nazi German invasion of Northern Ireland, was presented to the Abwehr (German military-intelligence service).
19 June – The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies was established.
8 August – Operation Green (Unternehmen Grün), a proposed German invasion of the south of Ireland, was presented to Nazi German High Command as a diversion for Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Britain planned at this time.
4 September – The Luimneach (Captain E. Jones) was sunk by gunfire from German submarine U-46 in the Bay of Biscay.
3 October – The German news agency announced that the German government was willing to pay compensation for dropping bombs on Dublin.