The Bidens, lockdowns and life hacks: IrishExaminer.com's most-read stories of 2021
(Left to right) Jill Biden, Joe Biden and nurse practitioner Tabe Mase giving the then President-elect his Covid-19 vaccination back in February. A piece about the Bidens from our Lifestyle section was our most read article online this year. File photo: Joshua Roberts/Getty Images
It’s the end of the year and we’re hearing about a new variant that’s more transmissible than the one before it and will necessitate much harsher restrictions than what we’d been expecting.
This sentence could be equally true for both 2020 and 2021.
Plus ça change.
It’s the story that has enveloped our lives, so it’s little surprise that Covid-19 features heavily in the most-read stories on IrishExaminer.com this year.
We started 2021 in the beginnings of a fairly bleak lockdown with much of the economy closed and many of us confined to within 5km of our homes.
There were many different facets to our experience of Covid-19 and, while there was plenty of interest in whatever the latest news was on restrictions, some of the more offbeat stories are what caught the eye the most.
However, it was actually two stories in the lifestyle section of IrishExaminer.com which came in the top two most-read stories this year.
‘Keeping up with the Bidens: Who is the new first family?’ was the most read story onsite this year as Martha Brennan reported on everything you need to know about America’s new first family.
I think the term “life hack” in this next piece does a disservice to just how useful this advice can be, particularly during the summer.
Denise O’Donoghue’s piece ‘Life Hack: A simple but effective way to rid your home of flies’ provided details on how you probably already have all the ingredients at home to keep the house flies and fruit flies away.
The most-read story this year in the news section of IrishExaminer.com was Michelle McGlynn reporting ‘ Cork man says trip to Tenerife while in receipt of PUP was a 'no-brainer'’.
This was at a time when gardaí could issue fines for those travelling to a port or airport for non-essential reasons. Dean said that while he feels sorry for the people in Ireland who are going about their lives under the current public health guidelines, his decision to travel was a "no-brainer" for him.
"Why would I stay at home and listen to the Government constantly instilling fear into people's lives through lies and manipulation when I can be over here living off my well-earned Covid money?" he told the Neil Prendeville show on Cork’s RedFM.
The second most-read story on the site this year was the grim news that ‘ Level 5 lockdown to remain until March 5 with stricter Covid rules for international travel’.
In late January, Elaine Loughlin and Paul Hosford brought details of how the Cabinet subcommittee on Covid-19 had recommended the extension of the lockdown as well as the introduction of effective travel bans for people coming from certain countries.
In third place was another Covid-19 story from January where Noel Baker reported that ‘ One flight into Ireland sparked 59 Covid cases in six HSE regions - study’.
That plane had been just 17% full and some passengers wore masks according to the study from Eurosuveillance.
Knocking Covid out of the picture, and in fourth place in the top 10, was a far more familiar disruption to our lives: the weather.
Ciarán Sunderland, Greg Murphy and Pádraig Hoare reported that ‘ Sleet and snow forecasted tonight as Ireland braces for icy temperatures’.
It began with this rather chilling intro, invoking the storm of 2018: “It's a snowstorm that remains fresh in the memory, and now its cousin is threatening to be just as mean and fierce three years on”.
More positive news Covid-wise from the end of March comes in fifth place. ‘ Coveney: Ministers to relax 5km and outdoor meeting restrictions and allow full school return’ ran the headline to the piece by Daniel McConnell.
At the time, Mr Coveney said that both Nphet and the Government recognised that people do need some room to breathe in the context of the impact that the restrictions had had for so many months.
In July, the detailed a complaint from a female solicitor who said she was forced to remove her bra in order to attend an urgent meeting with a client in Dublin’s Cloverhill Prison.
In sixth place on the most-read list, Daniel McConnell and Aoife Moore reported how the Taoiseach described the situation as “shocking and unacceptable” and that he had sought a report from the Justice Minister Heather Humphreys on the incident.
The last Covid story in the top 10 comes again from those dark January days and a rather accurate prediction from the Tánaiste.
‘ Level 5 lockdown to be extended as Varadkar predicts slow reopening of society’ ran the headline. And sure we all know how that turned out.
In eighth place, Eoin English, Pádraig Hoare and Nicole Glennon reported in February on the violent tragedy in North Cork which left three brothers dead.
The men were named locally as Paddy, Willie and Johnny Hennessy. An inquest heard how friends and family remained baffled as to why Johnny had killed his brothers and then himself.
More recently, hundreds of thousands of people were affected as Storm Barra moved across Ireland. Our team brought you all the details in ‘ Storm Barra: Creches, Schools and third-level institutions in 12 counties ordered to close tomorrow’ as the south and west, in particular, braced itself for the incoming storm.
Rounding out the top 10 is the first non-Ireland story to feature and it came in the wake of the death of Britain’s Duke of Edinburgh, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II.
‘ Prince Philip's most off-the-cuff remarks and gaffes that shocked the public’ does exactly what it says on the tin.
As you go down the list, Covid begins to feature less prominently as readers engaged with a wide variety of stories.
- ‘I've had enough': Jules Thomas splits from Ian Bailey
- New pictures show Wally the Walrus relaxing on a small boat in Crookhaven
- Man pleads guilty to €4 worth of cannabis
- Cork-based nuns breach Covid guidelines to attend exorcism of the Dáil
- Donnelly makes a series of blunders in Dáil session
Sportswise, the most-read piece online this year came from columnist Bríd Stack.
‘ Bríd Stack: It’s over, but I couldn’t have done any more. It just wasn’t meant to be’ details the struggles with injury suffered by the former Ladies GAA All-Star and Aussie Rules player.
In second was the view of Dublin football great Dr David Hickey, who believed the referee had contributed significantly to Dublin’s defeat to Mayo in the All-Ireland Football Championship.
‘ David Hickey: ‘Four atrocious decisions against Dublin swung the game for Mayo’ certainly piqued the interest of many.
The third most-read piece from sport this year came from the Olympics. ‘ Aidan Walsh's celebration injury costs him chance to fight for Olympic final’ detailed the heartbreaking injury that cost Walsh the chance at a silver or gold medal in the boxing welterweight division.
In the area of lifestyle, the aforementioned stories on the Bidens and the “life hack” on ridding your home of flies were the top two.
- Former Operation Transformation leader passes away after long illness;
- Bernard O'Shea: Turmeric is a handy way to beat the urge to binge-eat;
- And TV reporter 'caught rapid' shopping in Penneys during live broadcast
In the world of business, coming out on top was a story from Eamonn Quinn with the headline: ‘ Revealed: Full list of Bank of Ireland branch closures’.
Second was: Penneys is refusing to sell online – here's why it is right to do so;
And the third most-read was: Corona beer owner mounts legal challenge about use of the name
In our Comment and Analysis section, the most-read this year was Rory Hearne’s column on ‘ The next housing crash will hit even harder than the last’.
In second was Paul Hosford’s take on how and why ‘ Something went wrong somewhere in dealing with Covid-19’ in January.
Coming in third, then, was details of a podcast from Liz Dunphy on ‘ The West Cork fairytale that ended in a nightmare’.
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