A year on – Irish Examiner making headlines from kitchens and bedrooms

Golfgate was sparked because a reader took the time to email us with a little nugget of information that needed standing up. Within hours, it became the biggest domestic story of the year. Illustration: Harry Burton.

"Em, I think you're still on mute..."

We've all been there, some of us on a daily basis. Being on mute, battling a dodgy wifi connection on a Zoom call, feeling a bit glitchy and disconnected – it's all very much in keeping with the past year, ever since that extraordinary St Patrick's Day 12 months ago when the then-taoiseach Leo Varadkar delivered an address to the nation that redrew the map for all of us.