THE WAY WE cover Irish politics has changed dramatically in recent years with every minor political event now the subject of instant reaction on Twitter and other social media.

2014 was the year that TheJournal.ie, or more specifically this political writer, went a bit mad for the Vines.

So we’ve trawled back through our Vine archive to find that we’ve documented most of the big political events of the year on the six-second video sharing service.

Here’s our by no means exhaustive review of the political year through Vines…

In April, it was local and European election time and while Sinn Féin were all smiles…

… Labour were facing a public backlash…

Fine Gael ran lots and lots and lots of candidates…

… while it was one candidate – Mary Hanafin – that had Fianna Fáil preferring to talk about something else.

Alan Shatter’s resignation saw the installation of a new Minister for Justice:

As the election loomed, Labour was dancing the samba beat…

While Enda and Brian Hayes were having a right laugh…

Meanwhile, Alan Shatter hadn’t gone away as he donated his severance to the Jack and Jill Foundation…

In the May elections, the Socialists took the Dublin South -West by-election…

… while Fine Gael held Longford-Westmeath…

The local and European elections generally can be summed up as bad for Labour with Emer Costello among many who lost their seats…

… and great for Sinn Féin with Lynn Boylan one of the party’s many winners:

The election result saw Eamon Gilmore resign as Labour leader: 

To no one’s surprise Joan Burton threw her hat in the ring…

… as did Alex White:

In June, Michael Noonan revealed he had been receiving treatment for cancer: 

The government botched the membership of the banking inquiry and Gerry Adams wasn’t happy…

Pre-empting his likely sacking from Cabinet, Ruairí Quinn announced his intention to resign in early July:

Joan Burton was elected Labour leader and became Tánaiste on 4 July:

Meanwhile the country was convulsed by the Garth Brooks saga with the country star pulling out of his Irish shows after he only got permission to play three of the five.

Fianna Fáil was looking for the government to intervene:

While the Taoiseach was making jokes about the whole situation at the Chester Beatty Library…

The Cabinet reshuffle saw Leo Varadkar made Minister for Health:

In August, the Miss Y case saw a sizeable pro-choice demonstration on O’Connell Street:

Also in August the former taoiseach Albert Reynolds died: 

In September and October, there was huge controversy surrounding the Seanad by-election which eventually saw independent candidate Gerard Craughwell elected:

While in the Dáil by-election in Dublin South-West Paul Murphy was victorious over Sinn Féin:

The government spent much of the year dealing with the Irish Water fiasco with the semi-state’s managing director John Tierney coming in for much criticism:

Finally, while it wasn’t exactly newsworthy this goes down as our favourite Vine of the year where Enda Kenny mangles his pronunciation of the Web Summit:
https://vine.co/v/OOYjQaqwJqp