Suzanne Harrington: The good, the bad, and the ugly of the last year

Well, goodbye 2024, you’ve been mental

Suzanne Harrington: "Ireland has been called both ‘extreme’ and ‘antisemitic’ for its stance as the most unambiguously supportive EU country of this small, powerless state whose civilian population is being systematically annihilated in their tens of thousands." Picture: Andrew Hasson.

Therapeutic breakthrough of the year goes to Ireland, which continues to use the medium of film, big screen and small, to address the horrors of its recent past, both north and south. From Cillian Murphy in Small Things Like These to Maxine Peake playing Dolours Price in Say Nothing and the irrepressible Kneecap playing themselves in Kneecap, Ireland has been processing its past cinematically, resulting in a body of work both cathartic and engaging.

Elsewhere however, things have not been quite so reflective.

Disappointment of the year came in November when a real life Bond villain paid a quarter of a billion dollars, small change from his obscene private fortune, not to reverse climate crisis, end world hunger, eradicate communicable disease, build lasting peace in the world’s war zones, or improve the lives of his fellow humans in any discernible manner. 

Instead, he used his infinite cash to manipulate a catastrophically incompetent criminal into power in a socially failing mega-state — a state formerly regarded by us, and all those around us, as a kind of rich, brash, benevolent cousin you had to be nice to in return for their protection from the scary bullies further afield, but whom we now regard as off-their-meds unhinged, worshipping only dollars and guns. Yet still with all the power.

Cognitive dissonance of the year came in the refusal of so many ostensibly civilised states to call what is happening in Palestine what it is — genocide — while instead sending endless supplies of bombs to those committing the genocide in order to carry on genociding. 

Object to this and you get called antisemitic. Ireland has been called both ‘extreme’ and ‘antisemitic’ for its stance as the most unambiguously supportive EU country of this small, powerless state whose civilian population is being systematically annihilated in their tens of thousands. Lives smashed to pieces.

Ireland is not antisemitic — obviously we are not — but we are emphatically anti-genocide.

Feminist heroine (for the worst reasons) of the year is a tie-break between Gisele Pelicot and Nikita Hand, both of whom displayed lion-like courage, tenacity, heart, and guts in their quest for justice. Gisele Pelicot went public in her desire to transfer the supposed shame of rape — in her case, repeated, ongoing, multiple rapes involving the worst betrayal, the most monstrous duplicity — from the raped to the rapist. 

From the woman to the man. She became a national heroine in France. Nikita Hand took on power, wealth and fame, and won, albeit in a civil rather than legal court. 

Two ordinary women, who refused to be bullied into silence, who refused to go quietly.

What’s horrific about their heroism is how they earned it — it came about as a response to male behaviour.

We venerate these two ordinary women for their extraordinary bravery, yet this bravery was borne of desperation, of injustice, of monstrous acts. We salute them, and we thank them.

We hope 2025 is better for them, and for all of us.