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IT IS FINALLY Christmas week and after a mammoth year of elections and referendums, it is time for a wee break and some reflection on the year that was.
It was a hectic year in Irish politics, so roll it there Róisín and let’s have a look back at the highlights reel.
Here are the ten standout Irish political moments in 2024 as nominated by The Journal staff:
Leo Varadkar’s shock resignation as Taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael back in March is arguably one of the most consequential moments in Irish politics this year.
Tearing up toward the end of his speech, the Fine Gael leader said he made the decision for political and personal reasons.
“After seven years in office, I am no longer the best person for that job,” Varadkar said.
What came next was a short and snappy leadership discussion in Fine Gael.
Just four days after Varadkar made his announcement on the steps of Government Buildings, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris was named his successor as leader of the party.
As Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza continues, the death toll as we near the end of 2024 has surpassed 45,000.
The decision by the Irish government in May to recognise the State of Palestine was a significant moment this year for both political and symbolic reasons.
Ireland announced it would officially recognised the State on 21 May 2024 alongside our European neighbours Spain and Norway, after months of delicate high-level negotiations.
“It’s a matter of giving hope as well for the Palestinians that the international community recognise this nation and recognise its right to self-determination and to have a right to have its own state,” Palestine’s ambassador to Ireland, Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme back in April.
In response to the decision, Israel recalled its ambassadors in both Ireland and Norway.
Seven months later, in early December, Israel made the decision to close its embassy in Ireland citing what it deemed as the Irish government’s “extreme anti-Israel policy”.
Just days before, Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin secured Cabinet approval for Ireland to intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the International Criminal Court.
Ireland’s intervention will ask the ICJ to broaden its interpretation of what is legally understood to be a genocide.
On 8 March, International Women’s Day 2024, Ireland’s electorate went to the polls to vote whether to change the Irish Constitution in what was referred to as the Family and Care Referendums.
It was seen as almost inevitable that the ‘women in the home’ clause in the Constitution would be removed and replaced at the first presented opportunity, but this and an amendment to change the definition of family were comprehensively rejected by the electorate.
The government chose its own softer wording rather than presenting the electorate with the amendments the Citizens’ Assembly had proposed.
The Family amendment was rejected by 67.7% of voters, while the Care amendment was rejected by 73.9%.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar conceded defeat, saying the Government clearly “got it wrong”.
The defeat was a significant embarrassment for the government and indeed all of the major parties in the Dáil who campaigned for a Yes-Yes.
June saw the local and European Parliament elections held in Ireland, with immigration a dominant issue in the polls.
Over 100 far-right candidates stood in this year’s local elections, almost three times more than stood in 2020.
FactCheck Editor Stephen McDermott wrote in June: “Although they occupied a similar space to other candidates who aired anti-immigrant views – particularly some rural independents – far-right candidates were distinguishable by their more extreme brand of politics.
“Rather than simply questioning Government policies on immigration, far-right figures use arguments that are unashamedly racist and littered with conspiratorial thinking and misinformation.”
Five far-right candidates were elected in June’s local election, marking a watershed moment for the movement in Ireland.
That said, the momentum did not carry through to November’s general election. Over 70 far-right candidates ran, but none were elected to Dáil Éireann.
There was a period in October of this year where it felt to political reporters that we were going to be writing about internal issues in Sinn Féin for the rest of our lives.
Other parties dubbed what happened to Mary Lou McDonald’s party in the weeks leading up to November’s election as an “implosion”.
The party had to deal with a clatter of crises in quick succession, with opposition parties more than happy to stick the boot in.
It began with questions over the party’s handling of a former party staffer who pleaded guilty to child sex offences.
Then it emerged that a party member resigned from the party after allegedly sending inappropriate messages to a teenager in an entirely separate development.
This Sinn Féin member was subsequently named as former Sinn Féin senator Niall Ó Donnghaile, who resigned from his position in December 2023 citing “health reasons”.
McDonald was forced to admit that she regretted how she handled the situation and issued an apology in the Dáil to the teenager at the centre of the matter.
Then came the resignation of two TDs, Kildare’s Patricia Ryan and Laois’s Brian Stanley.
Stanley’s resignation came after what he dubbed a “seriously flawed” internal investigation after a complaint was made against him in July, and a “counter allegation” was made during that process.
Despite all of these issues, the party was largely successful in not dragging them with them into the general election. Undoubtedly though, they did cast a shadow.
A key part of the rejection of the Family and Care Referendums was the failure of the State to listen to carers, and this was an issue that also came front and centre eight months later during November’s general election.
Taoiseach Simon Harris was forced to apologise after RTÉ captured on video an encounter he had with a disability sector worker named Charlotte Fallon in a supermarket in Kanturk, West Cork while he was out canvassing.
Fallon approached Harris and claimed that he had “done nothing” for the sector while in government.
The Taoiseach received huge criticism for walking away from the woman mid-conversation.
The encounter became one, if not the, stand out moment from the election campaign and formed part of a long list of misteps by Fine Gael (Don’t forget John McGahon and Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary’s teacher comments) in what was a bruising campaign for the party.
2024 saw the Green Party go from 12 TDs and five years in Government to almost complete annihilation in the general election, with only party leader Roderic O’Gorman retaining his seat.
It was the year Eamon Ryan decided to pass the torch, stepping down as leader of the party in July.
Speaking during the count, O’Gorman said he has “no regrets” about going into a three-party government in 2020, but said the two main coalition partners did them “no favours”.
Whether the Green Party can build back up its support over the next five years remains to be seen, but seems likely. Although, it did take the Labour Party a while after 2016…
Speculation began to build ahead of the general election that Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch would be returning from Spain, where he had been arrested and charged for alleged organised crime activity, to contest a seat in the general election.
But no one really believed it until he lodged his papers in Dublin on 11 November before quickly taking off on his scooter.
During the campaign Hutch never really elaborated on what he was offering the people of Dublin Central other than to say he would be “the people’s choice” and deliver “change”.
Despite this, he very nearly won a seat in the four seat constituency, losing out to Labour’s Marie Sherlock in what was for a few hours a nail biter of a race.
Pandemonium broke out in the RDS when Hutch arrived at the count centre to concede defeat to Sherlock, with the gangland figure answering few questions from media before literally running from the property.
Watch this space though, asked if he would give a career in politics another go his response was: “I’d consider it.”
There she is in all her glory, the €335,000 Leinster House bike shed.
In September, one of the defining political stories of the year was written by journalist Ken Foxe, who learned via a freedom of information request that €335,000 was spent by the Office of Public Works on a bicycle shelter in Leinster House.
The OPW justified the cost by saying a high-quality structure was needed because of its sensitive location.
Speaking in the Dáil later that month, Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl said: “I know that I speak for everyone in this house when I say that it’s a profound embarrassment and the depth of public anger is entirely justified.”
The Social Democrats had an impressive general election, going from six seats to 11 in the Dáil.
But the celebrations were short-lived, when hours after the parliamentary party’s very first press conference in Leinster House, newly elected TD for Dublin Bay South Eoin Hayes was suspended from the party.
His suspension came after Hayes was forced to admit that he had not given accurate information to the media about when he sold shares he held in Palantir, a company that supplies AI technology to Israel that is used to help identify bombing targets in Gaza.
Hayes repeatedly refused to say when exactly he sold the shares or how much he sold them for.
He told reporters they were sold before he entered politics, but hours later a statement from him clarified that this was not true and they were sold for €199,000 a month after he became a councillor.
Deputy party leader Cian O’Callaghan said the following day: “Embarrassed would be an understatement. I’m very angry about the way this happened.”
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Tis like watching a car crash in slow motion
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: over, and over and over again
Good man Joe. Feed your own ego and hand Trump the presidency.
@Ger Whelan: exactly.
Yeah he’ll definitely just get sharper as time goes by, that’s how it works doesn’t it?
All joking aside, his family and those around him should be facing charges.
@marklars81: Facing charges for what? Other than the recent Hunter gun / drugs thing, what did the rest of them do? There is only one candidate in the race who is a proven sex offender and convicted felon and fraudulent liar, with plenty more charges yet to be heard.
@Kevin Collins: you need to broaden you information/news net
@Oh Mammy: I did just that recently and let me tell you that it’s a huge relief just believing whatever I want to believe and not bothering about finding reliable sources of info (i.e. having to watch them carefully over time to see how accurate & consistent they are), cross-checking info between different sources, etc. Now I can just kick back and dismiss anything that contradicts what I’ve accepted as other people just being jealous of my vast intellect and infallibility.
@Kevin Collins: Gaza ?
@Kevin Collins: plenty more charges to come, god it’s great to be on the inside track like you!
@Kevin Collins: Maybe elder abuse.
The media bear a lot of responsibility. The mainstream US media is extremely partisan . Virtually all of their coverage of Biden has been favourable, they tried to discredit anyone, even those on the left, who brought up his cognitive decline and age. Now that it can’t be denied anymore, they’ve turned on him and all of a sudden its all they talk about.
Comical. He might still be forced out.
Awful. Old men trying to hold on to power.
Reminds me of commenters here willing to support the academic Ponzi scheme where a group of dangerous modellers care nothing for society only their lucrative self-importance.
@Gerald Kelleher: Funny enough your mindless rambling reminds me of Joe Biden.
@Ger Whelan: Biden makes more sense than Gerald
@Ger Whelan: I don’t react to commenters like yourself; however, I can remind others that I know all too well that the same misguided comments directed at me are the same ones that will get people like the ex-President elected and from the same level of consideration.
@Gerald Kelleher: More useless rambling from you.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh:
The modelling community doesn’t even like you for your insignificance to them and would not even come here to engage with you, as you are just cannon fodder to them. They are people with no perceptive abilities other than to fund their lucrative agenda, which can’t even be dignified as extreme.
I come to the Journal and see a more balanced perspective emerging. Environmentalists can still have their pollution concerns, but rather than weaponising this through an ideological one-world UN government, they can demonstrate to society genuine research, which has been missing all along, for a greater appreciation of the planet.
Climate isn’t the problem; mathematical modelling is.
@Ger Whelan: Not all commenters are Royal Society rednecks with Irish names. That is the best I can do for you unless you continue to beg like so many others for a reaction in the absence of anything meaningful to say.
The playback of the experimental theorists is to get the cannon fodder to do their dirty work for them and lower the standard of consideration through slogans, reactions, dehumanisation and all the other worthless comments meant to distract from topics and ideas.
Weak men create weak societies, so while you enjoy being mediocre, others with higher considerations do not.
@Gerald Kelleher: Blah blah, Blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah that about the jist of your rant?
@Ger Whelan:
Although young, many of you have become old men by following the imperatives of old men who do not want to give up their lucrative social station.
I do not generalise scientists as many do; I isolate experimental theorists or scientific method modellers and their toxic influence on young people. You are a victim, and your reactions mark you out that way without any glimpse of a better world than the dire conclusions of the modelling community.
Many Americans would prefer to vote for and listen to mind-numbing junk from a social psychopath than listen to a bunch of self-serving academic psychopaths who have convinced many in humanity that it can control the weather.
I wish you were young but you choose to react rather than respond. Such is a slave to old men.
@Gerald Kelleher: that was not reacting?!
@Evan Keane: Yea Gerald I’m reading the rants you post. But it’s good to see you’re not taking the bait and over reacting.
@Ger Whelan: Weak men make weak societies if that is all you can manage to take from the comments.
@Gerald Kelleher: hey you kept your rant short. So I’ll read it. No weak men say one thing and do another. Much like you on this thread. I won’t react, yet here you are reacting because you can’t help yourself.
@Ger Whelan:
I won’t say God help Ireland, just help those who appreciate that getting old to practice politics happens, but people stay young by appreciating the planet and life on it.
All these are responses to what is possible, not reactions to those who sold their youth to a subculture.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: three Ger’s walk into a bar …
@Gerald Kelleher: Ah your back to long useless rambling again.
Darwin pegged the Irish as an unaspiring, superstitious and subservient ‘race’, and sometimes it seems the Journal and most of the commenters want to prove him correct and true.
Being slaves to a subculture that some call secularism but is really scientific method empiricism can be an unpleasant encounter but worth it when the opportunity to remove prejudice in all human enterprise is at stake.
Time for commenters to be more considerate and less reactionary.
@Gerald Kelleher: No idea what you said because I ain’t bothered to read it. But I tell you it’s a good thing you didn’t react to what I said. Otherwise we’ll be here for days
I am Democrat all day….. but he needs to be challenged.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: At this rate Biden is Trump’s biggest asset in his presidential campaign.
Ai Joe speaks better than real Joe. All the Best.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it’s Donald Trump!
If you truly want Trump to lose, you need Biden to go
@Mr Sparkle: Very true
Joe Bidens’ record as president is clear. He’s presiding over a booming economy, record jobs, etc. Even if the choice is him or a convicted criminal, sex offender, narcissistic, lying, cheating lunatic that cares for no one only himself. Joe Biden should win it hands down.
@Ian: The irony of it is that by Biden forcing people to make the decision you are asking them make will hand Trump the presidency. Trump will beat him easily and that’s why he’ll be replaced.
@Ian: if ever anybody needed proof the president runs nothing in the US, Joe Biden is that proof. They might think they are democratically electing a leader to run things but really the president these days is just a mascot. The days of real leaders like Kennedy or Roosevelt are long gone. Groups in shadows run things now.
@Ian: Yes, but at what cost. Look at their national debt. Just printing money to make the economy look good. Not just Joe, being going on since Carter. An economic disaster waiting to happen.
@Ian: His booming economy and record jobs are not making the working class Americas better off. There are hundreds of thousands of homeless Americans literally tent villages in some cities, people can’t afford the bacis. Then they see their president sending hundreds of billions to fight wars on 2 different contents while telling China that it’ll Defend Taiwan should China invade it all the while admitting the US does nto recognise Taiwan’s independence and still see it as part of China. Whereas Don Trump is saying he’ll stop all that and look after the Americans. Guess who the Americans are learning towards.
@did you every wonder: Not really. The US is the strongest of the worlds largest economies. They dominate basically every sector and will dominate future sectors too esp AI. Their demographics aren’t too bad either, more young people, better at integrating immigrants, etc. Europe is in much more danger of terminal economic decline and possibly massive social unrest in the future.
@Eddie Garvey: he wish only compos mentis between the hours of 10am to 4pm according to white house insider reports.
Away with the fairies after that. Doesn’t work wkends either. It’s a crèche.
@Sickof thisshit: I read that, had a good chuckle, it’s amazing what people will believe and accept, should be an IQ test to be allowed vote, I know primary school children with more common sense than voting adults
Booming economy? The jobs “created” are rubbish jobs. Going back to reading other sources, go to the government site and read it for yourself. It’s all in their data
Challengemehnextmothimpresidentmurica trains.
@Stephen Gaffney: Exactly. Just what I was thinking.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: hahahah
Hmmm… I wonder how much Trump and Putin and Xi Jinping are paying the Biden family to get Joe to stay in the race? A new conspiracy theory begins to take shape! “It’s twue, it’s twue!” As Lili Von Shtüpp might say…
The media and Democratic party have turned on Biden and people are now only noticing what was obvious for more than 4 years. The electorate are mostly dunderheads. We get the politicians we deserve. I’m not afraid of the government. I’m afraid of my brain dead neighbours. We already found out who is a functioning human during covid. Very few have changed. They only know what RTE/BBC/CNN tell them.
I guess the pro Trump are more than happy about it. Embarrassing.
I don’t think he’s getting the urgency of the problem. They need to get him out in the next week or two not a month from now.
I wouldn’t worry I’m sure he’ll have forgotten he said it tomorrow. What a state of affairs, like them or hate the the American’s have some real heavy weights of Conservative thought and all they can muster is a crook and a guy who makes it look like Jimmy Carter should get another term.
I don’t accept that Biden (at his age) should be running for re-election. That seems self-evident. However, there are two major and unique factors in play. One is that many Americans will have at least one (and most likely several) reasons why they absolutely cannot vote for Trump (reproductive rights, the Supreme Court, etc.). The other factor is that Trump is without precedent in terms of unfitness and inability to do the job and will just claim election fraud regardless of the verified results. So those are still two major reasons why it doesn’t matter about Biden in relative terms…..even though in practical terms it should. And bear in mind that Trump boasts about taking two cognitive tests…….so the first one he took didn’t dispel the reasons why he had to take the test. A cognitive test is only given if there is substantial doubt about the testee’s mental functionality.
@Numinous20111: I think only a few commenters get it. One runs on a bright future for America, while the other runs with the modelling community and dire predictions of impending planetary doom.
Running to prevent someone from staying out as they did in 2020 will not work now. With all the trappings, any type of power over society must be hard to give up, and some will do desperate things for that experience.
Like most volunteers and I, people should try doing something without financial and reputational gain and the real rewards it gives. Cut the toxic circle of funding, and the Earth-on-fire will go out. If the modelling community cares so much for humanity, let them do it as a vocation rather than a job.
I am leaving this country soon with all the memories of fair people with generous souls who have departed the land and been replaced with… what? Some still retain the traditions in music and other cultural persuits, but in a country where spirituality dies, then so does creativity eventually.
No Country for Old Men
“An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.” Yeats
https://www.yeatsvision.com/Mental.html
Some people are born young and stay that way, and some die when they sell their youth for a pittance.
You go Joe/Jill in your efforts to keep Hunter out of jail!
One candidate we fear, the other we belittle. Hmmm.
Two factors about Biden: His family are pushing him to rule, and his backroom boys are obviously pulling his strings. Is Biden at the helm, or simply a poster boy for unelected individuals?
How has it come to this? A 79 year old convicted felon and a liar vs an 81 year old man who can’t string a sentence together. They wouldn’t get a minimum wage job in Ireland
.
have your say