The A to Z of 2015
The year gone was, to some extent, all about the year to come. Preparations for the centenary of the 1916 Rising got under way during the year, with all manner of planned ceremonies, commemorative books and various movie and TV portrayals all set up.
On September 18, a state funeral took place in Cork for Thomas Kent, the only man to be executed outside of Dublin following the Rising. Kent had been buried in the grounds of Collins barracks, and it was deemed time that he be given a proper burial in his hometown of Castlelyons.
On the political front, the split has already occurred, with Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin announcing during the year that they would hold their own commemorations.
A taste of things to come was presented on August 1 with an event to mark the 100th anniversary of the funeral of O’Donovan Rossa, the event at which Pádraig Pearse’s oration singled him out as a serious dude. The President, Taoiseach and various dignitaries all attended. A few hours later, Sinn Féin held its own re-enactment of the funeral complete with period costumes and all that jazz. Expect more jockeying for position to claim the mantle of “real inheritor” of the fallen leaders’ Ireland in the year to come.
The Irish movie of the year according to the critics and the box office. Saoirse Ronan (above right) plays the lead role in the film adaptation of Colm Toibín’s novel about emigration from Wexford in the 1950s.
Ronan’s performance has attracted much speculation about the possibility of Oscar action, but it remains to be seen whether this weepie from the ‘oul country makes waves among the movie people on the west coast of the USA.
Typical of the gushing reaction was that in the British Daily Telegraph, which said the director John Crowley managed to “achieve something close to a miracle — the kind of old fashioned shivers-down-the-spine serendipity that’s hushed and special and can’t be taught”.
On June 12 the 350 staff at the iconic Dublin store were given 30 minutes to pack up and leave the building. The store had been sold and the new owners had new ideas for an enterprise that resonated with old Ireland.
Clery’s opened for business in 1853, but the current location dated from 1922, having been completely rebuilt from the ruins of O’Connell Street after the Rising.
Trading had not been going well for at least a decade. Shopping habits had changed. Yet many felt that Cleary’s could have a future with a little tweeking.
The big issue was the treatment of staff. Some had worked there for more than 40 years. Many of them had come out and worked to save the store during a flood in 2013. Now they were simply being told they were excess to requirements, that a property ploy was in train and would they kindly clear off.
For many, the episode was a searing example of modern capitalism.
This guy is the business, all hair and hot air and a capacity to tap into the basest instinct among a particular type of American. The Donald, as he is known, bought Doonbeg golf resort in Co Clare in 2014 and arrived here like the Pope, greeted on the Shannon tarmac by a band of musicians and the minister for finance.
In 2015 he concentrated on his race for the US presidency, outpolling a whole field of contenders for the nomination for the Republican party. The scary prospect that he could one day be US president is no longer a joke. At the very least, he is currently on track to get the nomination.
Over the year he has managed to outrage by blaming Mexicans for US economic woes and suggesting in the wake of the Paris attacks that all Muslims in the US should be recorded on a database.
He also managed to mock a reporter with a disability, just to show what a tough guy he is. On the upside, if he does become president, he is likely to retreat to Doonbeg for a little R&R, which will give our government the opportunity to bow and scrape before him on a regular basis.
Flash Gordon never had it this bad in his attempts to save the universe. Climate change kept coming at us throughout 2015, but as the curtain came down on the year the nations of the world gathered to join battle. The COP21 climate change conference in Paris went through some tortured negotiations before finally coming to an agreement to decarbonise as much as possible over the next decade.
Among the ‘world leaders’ in attendance was Enda Kenny, who gave a rousing speech about our responsibility to the planet, and soon after demounting the podium he explained to Irish reporters that this country would require a major derogation due to our reliance on agriculture. This may be the best little country in the world in which to do business, but as far as the environment is concerned, there’s no getting away from farting cows.
The report by Judge Niall Fennelly into the departure from office of former garda commissioner Martin Callinan was published on September 1. This could have been a banana skin for the Taoiseach. Did he, like a tin pot dictator, sack the police chief for political expediency? Not really, said Fennelly in a report notable for its Jesuitical nuances.
No record had been kept of a meeting in April 2014 where the commissioner’s fate was sealed. It is “beyond argument that good administration would require that a proper record be kept of such an important decision.” In effect, the report gave the Taoiseach enough cover to claim that he didn’t sack Callinan, although he created the conditions to induce Callinan to sniff the wind and take a hike. One way or the other, the public gave the Taoiseach a pass on the matter. A man with his folksy smile and clumsy charm would never cut mustard as a tinpot dictator.
On January 26, the left-wing coalition known as Syriza was elected to government in Greece, a country that was drowning in austerity. Led by Alexis Tsipras (below right, the party promised to tell the EU and ECB to clear off with their austerity. We don’t want your bail-outs no more was the general message.
The new departure was greeted with glee by the Left in Irish politics, which had long claimed that the Government should have talked as tough with the European powers that be. Gerry Adams had once said that the troika should be told to leave with their bail-out cash.
Tsipras and his finance minister Yanis Varoufakis duly toured Europe, lecturing one and all that they had a moral duty to slash Greece’s debt. Morality was on their side, but unfortunately they left the diplomacy at home.
The result was another bailout with more onerous conditions, and a split. Tsipras returned to power in September after calling a general election, but Yanis split on his high-power motorbike, en route to the high moral ground.
At year’s beginning Syriza was all the rage among the left in Ireland. By year’s end it was “Sip what? Naah, never heard of them.”
The year saw the housing problem balloon out of control. By December, around 80 families a month were becoming homeless in Dublin. In Cork, the Penny Dinners organisation had noticed a seven fold increase in those seeking its service over the last few year. Much of this was foretold. In a recent interview Sr Stanislaus Kennedy of Focus Ireland outlined how the housing charity saw what was down the tracks.
“In 2012, Focus Ireland informed the Government that families were at a tipping point with eight families becoming homeless every month. And in 2013 that number had risen to 20 every month. Last year 40 families were becoming homeless and now 70 families a month are,” she said.
The Government was concentrating on making the country the best little whorehouse in the world, sorry, the best little country in which to do business. Measures to alleviate the crisis have been announced, but it’s going to drag on or a few years, leaving the current government with its most damning legacy.
It was the year when the Rebelettes went where few teams have ever gone before — winning five All-Irelands in a row.
The team beat Dublin by two points in a tightly contested final on September 27 in front of a crowd of over 31,083, a record for a woman’s sports event in Europe. This was the team’s second five-in-a-row and their 10th title in 11 years.
On the night after the victory captain Ciara O’Sullivan led the team to the South Mall in the city where they were greeted by hundreds of supporters. Manager Eamon Ryan paid the ultimate tribute to his winning charges.
“Over the past 12 years I’ve been blessed to be working, not so much with great footballers as brilliant people, they are genuine and hard working and although some of the nearly rattle when they walk with all the medals, they don’t have an ounce of ‘eiri in airde’ about them.” Fair play.
The man who dragged rugby into popular culture died tragically on November 18. Lomu, the youngest ever All Black, was an iconic figure. Built like a second row forward with the speed of a gazelle, he burst into public consciousness at the 1995 World Cup when he scored four tries against England.
He was forced to retire early due to a serious kidney condition. Off the pitch he was as warm and humble as he was fearsome on it. He died at the age of 40 soon after arriving home from last summer’s World Cup in England.
A major question haunted his departure over whether or not he should have been on a long-haul flight in light of his condition. Then, in a desperately sad postscript, it turned out that Lomu had been practically broke when he died.
Tony O’Reilly was once the richest man in Ireland, but he was much more than that. A dashing rugby player and international business figure, he epitomised the aspirations of a nation that still suffered from an inferiority complex. Before leaving the state sector for corporate America he was also responsible for the setting up of the Kerrygold butter label, which remains a calling card for Bord Bia to this day.
On November 21, O’Reilly was declared bankrupt in the Bahamas, where he has a home. Earlier in the year he suffered the indignity of Irish banks moving in on his assets, including his main home in Castlemartin, Co Kildare, where his parents are buried.
It was a spectacular fall for somebody with his record. In financial terms, he had flown too close to the sun for far too long. His downfall was largely attributable to ploughing good money after bad into Waterford Wedgewood in the belief that the company could be turned around.
In January this newspaper reported about the extreme safety measures that had to be taken in the Longboat Quay development in Dublin’s docklands. Fire marshals were patrolling the 298 unit blocks 24/7 in order to allow residents remain in their homes.
Further investigation uncovered that the building itself was a fire-trap, built in a dangerous and sub standard manner at the height of the building boom.
It took until September before the residents and owners were given the full picture. Urgent work would have to be carried out in order to render the building safe. It was going to cost around €5m, and they who had bought homes in good faith, were expected to stump up.
Since then, all parties have been in and out of court, Dublin Fire Brigade has served a fire notice demanding that the work be started, and still no resolution has been found.
Longboat Quay is probably the worst example of the kind of building standards that pertained during the building bubble, and how the results are now seeping out of the shoddy walls.
Unfortunately, the smart money says that more will emerge in the coming years.
Every so often a movie comes along that manages to disturb, entertain and affirm, and such a treat came in the form of Patrick’s Day, the second offering from writer/director Terry McMahon. The movie was released in early February, following a showering of plaudits from a whole range of film festivals in the USA and beyond. Described by one reviewer as a “fascinating collision of psychiatric drama and state-of-the-nation address”, the movie was the subject of rave reviews, despite its difficult subject.
Patrick, played by Moe Dunford, suffers from schizophrenia and is mothered by the overprotective Kerry Fox. He meets a distressed flight attendant on the national feast day, which also happens to be his birthday. Thereafter, McMahon weaves a tale that tells much about attitudes to mental health, and more about where the country is at right now.
In a realm where so much dross is shovelled out on a weekly basis, Patrick’s Day was the best of the Irish in a year that saw a number of other credible contenders, most notably Glassland. As for McMahon, watch this space.
This was the year that a smell began to emanate from Nama, the state body which is the biggest property company in the world. The body’s nemesis turned out to be none other than Mick Wallace, who was a fair-to-middling developer back in the day himself.
Throughout the autumn, Wallace made a series of allegations under Dáil privilege suggesting corruption associated with the sale of Nama assets. Most of the issues were connected to the sale of Nama’s assets in Northern Ireland in a deal called Project Eagle.
The most serious allegation — that £7m sterling had been paid into an off-shore bank account — turned out to be true.
In October he said that three individuals, including a Nama official, were “part of a cabal to seek payment for affecting the biggest property deal in the history of this State.” He claimed the three had “information above and beyond what was available in the data room”.
Nama has denied all allegations of impropriety by anybody associated with it. All of which means the whole shebang is moving inexorably to the Irish solution — an inquiry.
Okey dokey, we’ll leave it there. It is no exaggeration to say that Bill O’Herlihy was a national treasure, and so news of his passing on May 25 led to a sense of national grieving.
For nearly 40 years, O’Herlihy had been moderator of the nation’s greatest sporting occasions. He had presented 10 soccer World Cups and 10 Summer Olympic games, and always managed to capture the spirit of the nation in times of triumph.
He was best known for extracting opinions from the three Amigos of soccer coverage, Giles, Brady and Dunphy, but there was much more to him than that.
In a previous guise he had been an outstanding journalist and one of the pioneers of current affairs broadcasting. Meanwhile, away from the sports coverage he had also run a highly successful PR business.
His death came less than a year after his last major gig, the World Cup of 2014.
The City Of Light. The first outrage was perpetrated on January 7. Two gunmen burst into the offices of satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo and began shooting, killing 11 and injuring another 11. Outside, as they were leaving one approached a policeman who lay injured on the ground and shot him dead.
The second outrage occurred on the evening of November 13. A series of co-ordinated attacks shot and blew up a total of 130 people, including 89 at the Bataclan Theatre, where they were attending a gig.
The whole world reeled at the outrage. The attackers were nearly all European-born and bred, but had become radicalised and then affiliated themselves with the so-called Islamic state.
Two days previously, a pair of suicide bombers from the same depraved outfit blew themselves up in Beirut, killing up to 43 people. The bombings didn’t receive anything like the coverage that Paris did, a fact that was noted in some quarters afterwards.
The reality is that the death-obsessed fanatics kill far more Muslims in the Middle East then they do Europeans, but after Paris many feel that a rubicon has been crossed. Time will tell.
At 7.45pm on Thursday, October 9, Irish soccer was in the doldrums. A miracle was required to get anything out of the game that evening with Germany, and even then the chances of pulling ahead of Scotland in the Euro championship qualifying group were very slim.
Miracles happen. Shane Long put the ball in the German net. Take it out and wash it. A historic victory was achieved, and the Scots obliged by slipping in their match. In the space of 24 hours, Irish soccer took a well-worn path from despair direct to ecstasy.
The following month, the play-off against Bosnia Herzegovina went according to plan. A 1-1 draw away achieved in pea-soup fog, and then a thrilling 2-0 win back in the stadium formerly known as Lansdowne Road.
Martin O’Neill and his confederate Roy Keane had suddenly gone from zeros to heroes. All the breast-beating was stilled. Instead, the general consensus is that they knew what they were doing all along. The finals in France are likely to continue in the vein of either producing apocalyptic disaster or unrivalled success.
It took the image of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, washed up on a Turkish shore like a piece of flotsam to awaken the wider world to the horror unfolding before your eyes.
The boy was drowned on September 2 along with his mother aboard a rickety vessel en route to Europe, attempting to flee the conflict in Syria.
Suddenly, it was brought home that this was a humanitarian crisis on an unprecedented scale. The ongoing civil war in Syria, combined with a number of other smaller conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, has led to millions of refugees trying to enter fortress Europe.
Throughout the latter half of the year biblical processions of desperate people moved across Eastern Europe in attempt to reach salvation in Germany.
Initially, Germany adopted a lead position in welcoming the tired, huddled masses, but despite Angela Merkel’s display of a generosity of spirit — combined with Germany’s demographic needs — the domestic mood appeared to darken as the year wore on, with many asking why other European states weren’t stepping up to the plate.
The refugee crisis is destined to be one of the major issues facing Europe into the future.
The force of nature collided with the force of Star Wars for a second year in a row when filming for the next instalment took place over three days in mid-September.
This time around some of the fears of those who object to disturbing both the ecology and the archaeology of the world heritage site were realised. The Office of Public Works confirmed that some “incidents” occurred during filming which required remedial stone mason work to be undertaken.
The news only leaked out because the environmental group An Taisce had photos from before and after showing some damage to locations, including the steps at Christ’s saddle.
The other issue around the filming which rankled was the decision of the minister for arts and heritage to provide a permit without recourse to the legislation under which it is governed. If she had invoked the law she would have had to consult the director of the national museum and the smart money says he would not have been too pleased at the venture.
Despite that, the locals are delighted at the raised profile of the area and the prospect of tourist dollars.
Two multiple tragedies cast dark clouds over the nation.
On June 16 six students working for the summer in Berkeley, California died when a balcony collapsed. Five were Irish and the sixth from an Irish-American family. All were friends enjoying a rite of passage in the prime of life. They were Ashley Donohoe 22; Olivia Burke, 21; Eimear Walsh, 21; Eoghan Culligan, 21; Niccolai Schuster, 21; and Lorcan Miller, 21. Seven others were injured, some of them with life-altering injuries.
While there was much public grieving at home, the response in some quarters was less sympathetic. The New York Times published a piece suggesting that Irish students were habitually drunk and an “embarrassment to Ireland” while on J1 visas. Former president Mary McAleese responded by calling the coverage “insensitive and inaccurate”, comments which elicited an apology from the august organ.
In the early hours of October 10 a fire ravaged a temporary halting site in Carrickmines, south Dublin, claiming 10 lives. Thomas Connors 27, his wife Sylvia, 25, their children Jim 5, Christy 2, and five-month old Mary.
Jimmy Lynch, 39, also died along with his brother Willie, 25, and Willie’s partner Tara Gilbert, 25, and their children Jodie, 9, and Kelsey, 5.
The public grieving soon gave way to other emotions as a controversy blew up about housing the 15 survivors from the fire.
Local residents objected to a temporary halting site being located in their area, and initiated a blockade. People took sides. Old enmities were resurrected. A dark side of Irish life came out to disturb the public grieving.
It was supposed to be too close to call. “The most unpredictable in decades” according to the media wisdom and, more importantly, the polls.
All the polls indicated that the UK was heading for a hung parliament when it voted on May 7. The big question was whether or not Labour or the Conservatives would have enough votes to attempt to form a coalition with either the Scottish National Party or the Liberal Democrats. The electorate thought differently. David Cameron’s Tory party was returned with a 12-seat majority.
The post-election talk was all about how scientific polling could be so wrong. A consensus gathered around the idea that many voters preferred to keep their intentions quiet, but ultimately considered Cameron the safest bet.
The other major issue was the spectacular rise of the SNP just months after it lost the referendum on independence.
As the dust settled, the Labour party elected a new leader to follow Ed Miliband. Step forward long-in-the-tooth socialist Jeremy Corbyn who was supposed to be in the race to make up numbers. Since then, Corbyn has just kept giving as a story.
From the dark end of the street, to the bright side of life. Van hit 70 on August 31 and the occasion was marked with two concerts on Cyprus Avenue, not far from where he grew up in East Belfast, and the location of a song title from his seminal Astral Weeks album.
There’s life in the old dog yet. During the year he also played the Marquee in Cork, a gig that received widespread plaudits. Later in the year, he did his thing at the 3Arena, the venue formerly known as the O2, formerly known as The Point.
A postscript to the latter gig involved a couple of calls to RTÉ’s Liveline complaining that the singer didn’t interact with the audience and played for only 90 minutes.
For the love of God. If you want a cosy chat between numbers go see Daniel O’Donnell. Van Morrison is about the music, first, last and everything.
In September, the founder of the Web Summit, Paddy Cosgrave, said that the event was leaving Dublin for Lisbon next year. The declaration sparked major moaning wrapped up in a blame game. How could he just up and off?
The summit has been in operation for five years, and attracts up to 20,000 techies from all around the world. Some see its loss as a major blow, others not so.
Cosgrave blamed the Government for failing to properly address either his ego, his demands or his requirements to host the conference, depending on who you believe. Correspondence was released which further muddied the waters.
As is often the case with these matters, the truth appears to have kept its head down in no man’s land. Some of Cosgrave’s demands like traffic management and VIP treatment do appear to have been extreme. There was also, however, a general failure to engage with him in official circles.
Irrespective, the world moves on. Dublin, and indeed Ireland, will survive Paddy’s departure.
On March 27, after seven hours of deliberating, a jury at the Central Criminal Court returned a guilty verdict against Graham Dwyer for the murder of Elaine O’Hara. The verdict brought to an end a trial that had heard evidence which plumbed the depths of human depravity.
The trial had heard graphic evidence of a master-slave relationship between the accused and the deceased, which involved sexual fantasies involving aspects of bondage, domination, submission and masochism.
The depravity, though, was centred on Dwyer’s manipulation of an extremely vulnerable woman who had psychiatric issues, which may have been surmounted in different circumstances. In the end, having used her for his own ends, the court heard that Dwyer performed his ultimate fantasy by murdering her.
To complete the surreal atmosphere surrounding the trial, Dwyer issued a press release after being found guilty, protesting his innocence. A month later he was sentenced to life in prison.
On Friday, May 22, the Republic of Ireland became the first country to bring in same-sex marriage by popular vote. A majority of 62.1% to 37.9% determined that for the first time those who are gay had the same rights as heterosexuals to cement a union in marriage.
Only one constituency in the State, Roscommon South-Leitrim voted no as a majority, and that was only just at 51.4%. As such the result was nowhere near as close as had been predicted.
Taosieach Enda Kenny typified many in the country in how his position on same-sex marriage had evolved over a few short years.
Responding to the result on the day after the vote, he said: “Today Ireland made history. With today’s yes vote we have disclosed we are a generous, compassionate, bold and joyful people. Yes to inclusion, yes to generosity, yes to love and yes to equal marriage.”
The outstanding feature of the referendum was the campaign run by the yes side. Fears that they would talk only to the converted, and lecture the conservative swathes of the country about rights were misplaced. A thorough, patient and comprehensive and perfectly calibrated media campaign ensured they won the day.
The tour once undertaken by U2. The year saw U2 undertake a tour that elicited comparisons with the Zoo TV tour from the early 90s. The main instigator of this comparison was the compiler of the A-Z above on the basis that he was badly stuck for a Z. None of which should take from the plaudits the band received for its Innocence and Experience Tour which landed in Dublin on November 23.
After 40 years on the road, it’s fair to say that the four lads from the northside of Dublin still have something. The shows performed at the venue formerly known as The Point were out of the top drawer in terms of energy, visuals and performance by the band. Bono was in top form, straddling his roles as singer, preacherman and shaman, while delving into his own youth in the most personal manner he has shown yet.
Whatever one may think of the relevance of their music these days, the fact they are still eating road with dollops of chuzpath is worth something in today’s throwaway culture. Their longevity is a testament to the unlikely combination of talent, hard work and level heads.
