Review 2024

A selection of Irish Times visual journalist Dara Mac Dónaill's photographs throughout the year and the story behind one of them

Planet Business: The year in numbers, from Boris Johnson’s book advance to fines for dirty toilets at Dublin Airport

A selection of Irish Times visual journalist Nick Bradshaw’s photographs throughout the year and his story behind one of them

The Dublin riots changed politics, but not in the way anyone expected

A year of change heralds a future of more of the same

A selection of Irish Times visual journalist Alan Betson's photographs throughout the year and his story behind one of them

From Lynda Barry’s moving and frequently hilarious workbook for making and thinking to Seán Hogan’s ripping yarn set in a Tipperary town

It was a challenging year for some listed companies and a record year for CEO departures

Far-right-inspired violence and continued sluggish efforts to grow the Garda force dominated Harris’s final full year in charge

In a year of closures and comebacks, Michael O’Leary had a ‘pain in the backside’, while Gail Slater was urged to ‘Make America Competitive Again’

Budget 2025, public sector pay rises, credit card bills being wiped and a car for a dog all grabbed your attention

Joyful Irish traditional music and politically charged folk feature in our LP picks of the year

Our pick of the year’s roots albums take in Malin Head, Missouri and points between

I fear our property problem will be solved in a brutal way, with a recession so severe, hundreds of thousands will emigrate again

The 10 highest-grossing titles were all sequels – but none is in our 50-best list in a year audiences turned out in numbers for ‘cultural cinema’

‘Thank God I’m alive,’ Mary Coughlan sings on her album Repeat, Rewind. Hear, hear

Winds of change howled across Britain in a year when a Labour election victory ended 14 years of Tory rule

The US president is a once-in-a-lifetime master manipulator of the unseen energies that sway the electorate

Ukraine is still standing after more than 1,000 days of full-scale fighting with Russia, in the biggest war in Europe since 1945

If the 2024 election result marked stability, safety and conservatism, the biggest gig of the year underscored that same middle-brow innocuousness

Ireland heard plenty of ‘eco rhetoric’ in 2024 but there was a clear sense that political leaders have not grasped the reality of the climate emergency

We also decode 12 hot-button words or phrases you might have heard for the first time this year

The family and care referendums were soundly rejected, Leo Varadkar most unexpectedly stepped down, and there was a decided turnaround in parties’ fortunes

Fontaines DC top the 2024 Ticket critics’ choice lists, with Kneecap hot on their heels, but right across Irish music the profusion of excellence shows zero signs of stopping

As China and Russia weigh up their options in anticipation of Donald Trump’s second presidency, horrified countries in the Global South see Gaza as an emblem of US and European double standards

From big group shows exploring topics as vast as time to small but beautifully formed solo painting exhibitions, art has rewarded on many levels this year

Many presenters left RTÉ's pop station but Radio 1 had a much more stable year and Newstalk sailed serenely on. The online sphere and the threat of podcasts looms ever larger

We gave you the best films, now here’s the worst. Is it a surprise half of these are sequels?

A taster of the finest books as Gaeilge for adults and children published over the past year

Books by Ferdia Lennon, Miranda July, Donal Ryan, Mary Costello, Alan Hollinghurst, Christine Dwyer Hickey and Sally Rooney feature prominently in this trawl of the year’s best titles