McCreevy wins Person of Year award for all the wrong reasons

By Fergus Finlay

Tue, 31 Dec, 2002 - 00:00

Fergus Finlay is a former political activist and adviser to three governments, the former head of the children's charity Barnardos, a writer and a broadcaster.

Who do you think had the most influence on us all in 2002? (And it doesn't have to be positive influence Time Magazine once had Adolf Hitler as its Person of the Year.) Was it Keane or McCarthy, two people who polarised the nation during the summer? For weeks we could talk of little else. It seems a bit futile now, like one of those family rows where everyone is a bit resentful still but no-one can quite remember how it started.

Or was it Dunphy, who sometimes seemed like the most passionate commentator on the whole affair, and other times like a player? Love him or hate him, most of us who listened to him frequently are already beginning to miss him.