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Political Awards
These are the winners and losers from the Irish political year 2024
As picked by The Journal team.
IT’S THAT TIME of year again, where we cast our eye back over the Irish political year to see who has weathered the storms successfully and who has struggled to keep their head above water.
There’s lots to unpack for 2024 – we’ve had the local and European elections, a couple of referendums, the loss of a Taoiseach earlier this year, and throw in a general election to boot.
This year, The Journal team announced its political awards on podcast The Candidate.
You can catch up on the reasoning behind each award by tuning into the episode here.
Editor Sinéad O’Carroll, Deputy Editor Christine Bohan, Political Editor Christina Finn and Political Correspondent Jane Matthews also talk through the Ah Here Moment of the Year and Whoopsie of the Year.
One of the awards is Politician of the Year. We each nominated a candidate and put it to the rest of the team for a vote. Votes were counted by PR-STV by Producer Nicky Ryan.
Agree or disagree, you can let us know in the comments section who you think was most deserving.
Here’s a run down of the awards:
Politician of the Year: Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin
The nominations were: Micheál Martin, Ivana Bacik, Jack Chambers and Eamon Ryan.
The Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin received the top gong for his performance over the last year and for essentially winning the election for his party, getting 48 seats for Fianna Fáil.
“It was an election year. He had a job to do and he did the job,” the podcast team said.
His performance in relation to Gaza was also highlighted, notwithstanding the fact there is an overall view the government can do and should do more.
Looking at where the Fianna Fáil party has come from to where it is now, leading the next government, it is a notable political feat.
To creep out of the shadow of the economic crash and and to come back to be the largest party in the Dáil is some political achievement.
The Minister Who Got Shit Done: Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys
The outgoing Fine Gael minister was given the nod for her work in managing to deliver the largest Social Protection budget in the history of the State – over €2.6 billion worth of measures aimed at supporting our pensioners, carers, people with disabilities and working families.
Her work in getting the auto-enrolment pension scheme legislated for before heading for the hills was also noted upon.
The Opposition TD of the Year: People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barrett
The People Before Profit TD was commended for his oratory and being a voice on the issue of Palestine.
Richard Boyd Barrett has been highlighting the plight of the Palestinian people for a long time now and has spoken truth to power when European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen attended the Dáil.
The Next Big Thing Award: Labour’s Marie Sherlock
Labour’s Marie Sherlock managed to stave off Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch from taking a seat in her constituency. Having been a senator and now a TD, the team believe she is a rising star in the Labour Party. One to watch, for sure.
The Must Try Harder Merit: Social Democrats, now Independent TD Eoin Hayes
Eoin Hayes, who was suspended from the Social Democrats Party before he could take his seat in the new Dáil, was given this award for obvious reasons.
He found himself embroiled in controversy over the sale of his shares in Palantir. Must try harder in 2025.
The Late Debate Debater of the Year: Aontú’s Peadar Toíbín
Aontú’s Peadar Toíbín gets the nod for this award for his clear and concise communication skills which he has displayed in leaders debate programmes as well as numerous radio and TV appearances.
The Resignation of the Year: Leo Varadkar
There were lots of resignations this year – Brian Stanley, Simon Coveney, Eamon Ryan, to name but a few, but the most notable was former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announcing on the steps of Government Buildings that he was throwing in the towel.
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