High-purity silica samples (OH content less than 1 ppm, impurity content less than 20 ppm) were implanted with 2 MeV Ir 2 + ions at doses ranging from 0.6 to 7x10 1 6 ions/cm 2 , and annealed in air at 300 o C, 600 o C and 900 o C for 1 h. An optical absorption band at 248 nm, associated with the presence of B 2 defects, appears in the spectra of all the Ir-implanted samples before the annealing, but these B 2 defects disappear for heat treatments at T>=600 o C. It is important to stress that no surface plasmon resonance associated with Ir ions was observed in the optical absorption spectra of the Ir-implanted silica samples. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra show emission bands at 310, 415 and 620 nm, which can be associated with oxygen vacancies (B 2 defects), O-O weak bonds and non-bridging oxygen hole centers (NBOHC), respectively. In this work we present the first optical studies on Ir-implanted silica glass and discuss the effect of the ion-induced structural defects on the absorption and emission spectra after heat treatments in air.