The Year In Review: What made us laugh, cry and shake our heads in 2014
From thousands of Ice Bucket Challenge clips to more wedding videos than we care to remember; from epic images of the destruction wrought by winter storms to heartwarming shaggy dog tales; from the oddest of viral online trends to those moments that made you almost choke on your Cheerios – here’s our month-by-month look back at the most shared stories of the first half of 2014.
Cast your mind back to the start of the year and you may recall January being a tough month - not only were we trying to cope with the post-Christmas comedown but the country was battered by the worst storms in living memory.
From those storms however came some amazing images, chief among them the incredible picture of Lahinch being engulfed by a storm surge.
Taken by Czech-born surfer and photographer George Karbus, George gave us one of the indelible memories of the year - but funnily enough, it wasn't our top story for January.
That honour fell to Niall Donnelly from Omagh. A YouTube clip of him singing on his wedding day caught the imagination of over half a million of you after it popped up on Facebook, despite having been filmed back in 2010.
Here it is, one more time. Prepare to have your heart melted all over again…
And finally, we couldn't leave January go without mentioning the tale of Fionn the rescue dog, whose story of being nursed back to health after being found left for dead in a Cork ditch captured the hearts of thousands.
Happy Christmas, Fionn. Here's wishing you a spot in front of the fire and a steak dinner from Santa.
As we all clapped ourselves on the back for having made it through January, the inclement weather followed us into February. A startling picture of flooding in a Limerick housing estate was our most popular Facebook post of the month.
Look at the water coming in through the keyhole!
The shot was taken by Natalie Katilius, who told us that her home had been destroyed.
"Thankfully we have wonderful friends who have been our saving grace in all of this and offered wonderful support," Natalie wrote on our Facebook page. Here's hoping she and her family are back on their feet this Christmas.
Startling as it was, that wasn't our most-shared picture for February. That honour fell to the inimitable Murt Kehoe from Wexford, who lit up social media after a shot of him chilling on the beach in Sierra Leone (of all places) bubbled up out of nowhere.
And proved to be solid gold meme material...
In fairness, Murt was a pretty good sport about being awarded the title of Most Irish Person On Holiday, Ever.
And speaking of Irish abroad… one Irish mammy's reaction to her emigrant son returning home for a surprise visit also got a lotta love from you guys in February.
Here it is again - classic! And a bit NSFW! In a good way!
And so to March, and the first green tendrils of spring inching their way ever upwards. Nature is a wonderful thing.
Except, of course, when it's a Great White Shark headed your direction, as was the case with the lovely Lydia, below.
Enough of you were worried about Lydia to make this one of our most popular stores of the month, but in the end she never turned up. Typical. Stood up by a shark :-( .
Also in March, we were impressed by Voice of Ireland presenter Eoghan McDermott, whose emotional confession about historical self-harm was a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate about mental health in Ireland.
And on a lighter note, we had a good laugh at this clever Snickers ad from Australia.
And so did you.
And so, as it usually does, April followed March.
And with it came a video that became an Irish phenomenon - the singing priest.
Father Ray Kelly brought the house down with his customised rendition of ‘Hallelujah’ at a wedding in Meath.
The video - which now has a whopping - went viral overnight. Father Kelly went on the Late Late and, the last we heard, he had a recording contract.
Not bad at all.
Back in April, however, our most viewed video was this heartbreaking anti-speeding advert which asks the poignant question: “What if you were invited to your own funeral?”
It shows drivers known for driving too fast arriving to their funeral where their loved ones are present in an attempt to get through to them.
Very moving.
And so we all made our merry way into summer. Unlike this poor driver who had a very unhappy time of it back in May while trying to park their car outside the Bailey Bar in Cork.
It did not go well and their attempts managed to make it one of most-read Discover posts of the month.
Poor dear.
And we rounded off May with this absolutely brilliant video of these three Irish lads Riverdancing their way around the world.
Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, to name but a few - they really went everywhere. And they brought the spirit of Michael Flatley with them.
Heroes.
And so we came to June, and with it, came .
Drumroll, please....
Minty biscuits!
So many of you enjoyed this hilarious video of Barry calling into a BBC radio show to explain why he needs his disabled parking permit - to buy his wife a very particular type of biscuit.
You have to listen to fully understand.
An absolute classic.
Minty Biscuits dominated June in terms of popularity but there were other stories that tickled your fancy.
Like this story about a painfully honest answer on a pizza comment card.
The either completely misunderstood the question - or they understood it perfectly and wanted to be a bit snarky. Either way, it’s very good.
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