Even today it must still be Éire go brách

In no particular order or weight ... Paul Brady, Henry Shefflin, Myrtle Allen, Saoirse Ronan, the Gulf Stream’s micro climate, Seamus Heaney, Fiona Shaw, Martin Hayes, Graham Norton, the Society of St Vincent de Paul, Rory McIlroy, Olivia O’Leary, Connemara, the Delphi and Blackwater valleys, Julie Feeney, John Hume, Lyric FM, Michael Noonan’s unflinching, selfless resolve at a moment of great personal tragedy.

All Irish, all people alive and well, all places or entities any country would be proud to call their own.

John Connolly, Orla Kiely, Michael O’Leary, Bernard Brogan, the best beef, the thousands of volunteers who keep community and sports’ organisations at the beating heart of life. Johnny Duhan, Roy Foster, the Freedom of Information Act — when restored — Paul O’Connell and Brian O’Driscoll, Thomas Packenham, a winter storm at Banna strand, Lorraine Mulvey, Brian Cody, the emigrants — arriving or leaving — who refused to fail and left home to build a new life abroad, Ballydoyle-Coolmore, Joe Lee, Mairtín O’Connor, and, though she died a few weeks ago Mary Raftery. Susie Long, though American, too, An Bord Pleanála. All Irish, all significant and inspiring. Each, sometimes despite stiff opposition, playing their part in making this a better country.