2010 The year that was

JANUARY:The year starts with freezing temperatures, school closures, concerns about supplies of rock salt and a cold spell which Met Éireann's Gerard Fleming describes as "unprecedented in 30 or 40 years".

Unemployment is at a 14-year high of 12.5 per cent – it would rise further during the year – and while the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan says “the worst is over”, an MRBI survey shows 61 per cent don’t believe him. In the same survey, 71 per cent of those polled say Lenihan should stay in office despite his cancer diagnosis.

It is revealed that once high-flying property developer Bernard McNamara owes €1.5 billion. The trial and subsequent conviction of Eamonn Lillis for the manslaughter of his wife Celine Cawley dominates the headlines.

FEBRUARY

The Hillsborough Agreement centring on the devolution of policing and justice powers signals a new spirit of partnership between the DUP and Sinn Féin.

“This might just be the day when the political process of Northern Ireland came of age,” says Martin McGuinness of the agreement, which also promises an improved framework on parading.

It is discovered that five of the team allegedly responsible for the assassination in Dubai last month of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas official, travelled on fake Irish passports. RTÉ’s George Lee resigns from Fine Gael and Dáil Éireann after serving as a TD for less than eight months.

The Commercial Court hears that land in Athlone, Co Westmeath, valued at €31 million in 2006 was now worth €600,000. Brian Lenihan flags €3 billion in spending cuts.

MARCH

Chaos in the passport office as industrial action – which had been simmering for some weeks – escalates, causing significant delays in issuing passports. Former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán Fitzpatrick is taken into Garda custody in Bray and questioned for 24 hours. Cameras are there to record his release.

In what’s described as part of the Farmleigh effect, the Taoiseach appoints actor Gabriel Byrne as Ireland’s first cultural ambassador. The country’s first four juice points for electric cars are installed – 1,496 points are to follow.

Greece needs a bailout and, together with the other euro zone countries, we agree to participate in bilateral loans – later it would emerge that our contribution would be €1.3 billion over three years.

APRIL

Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupts and flights out of and into Ireland are cancelled. The scheduling of a Munster v Leinster rugby match in Limerick on Good Friday leads publicans to demand a special exemption permitting them to open. Nama applies for a haircut of 87 per cent to the loan provided by Anglo Irish Bank to buy the Glass Bottle site in Ringsend in a €412 million transaction in 2006. The loan is among the first tranche of €10 billion in assets moving from the bank to Nama.

Almost half of all Irish 15- and 16-year-olds report being drunk in the past 12 months. The same report showed that overall alcohol usage is lower here than the European average and consumption is falling. Broadcaster Gerry Ryan dies at the age of 53.

MAY

Major job losses this month include the news from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer that 785 jobs are to go at its Irish plants.

At Quinn Insurance’s Blanchardstown base, it is announced that 301 redundancies are to be sought and in all about 900 staff at the company expect to be made redundant in the next 12 to 15 months. New legislation effectively closes down the highly-controversial headshops.

Rugby’s new home, the Aviva Stadium opens (diehards will forever call it Lansdowne Road). It has a capacity of 50,000 and cost €410 million. The M8 opens, cutting the driving time from Dublin to Cork to under three hours.

Siobhán Parkinson is named Ireland’s first children’s literature laureate.

JUNE

Ballyfermot brothers Kenneth (32) and Paul Corbally (35) are shot dead while sitting in their car on Neilstown Road, west Dublin – adding to the 12 other gangland killings since the beginning of the year.

The HSE reveals that 188 young people who were in care or in contact with the social services have died within the past decade – the initial figure given for such deaths was 23.

The M3, the biggest, most contentious stretch of Irish road, opens 13 years after it was first proposed and at a cost of a billion euro. Objectors considered that its route through the Tara-Skryne valley constituted a desecration of our cultural heritage.

JULY

Seven men aged between 19 and 23, all passengers in one car, and the 66-year-old driver of a second car are killed in a crash near Buncrana, Co Donegal. It is the highest death toll in a single crash since records began.

Legislation to ban stag hunting is passed with a 73 to 69 vote in its favour. More than one in 25 mortgages are in arrears and new measures are announced to help those struggling to pay their mortgages.

Seán FitzPatrick declared bankrupt owing creditors €150 million.

In what was a rare case of reality mimicking advertising, gardaí picked up a penguin after Kelli, a 10-year-old Humboldt penguin, was stolen from Dublin Zoo. She was found in the inner city.

AUGUST

New revelations about Senator Ivor Callely’s expenses claims dominate the headlines with calls for him to consider his position. After a month of revelations and controversy, he resigns from the Fianna Fáil party, but not his Seanad seat. The party accepts his resignation saying his conduct was “unbecoming a member of Fianna Fáil”.

Girls yet again outperform boys in the Leaving Cert, except in higher-level maths. Competition in the banking sector is reduced with Bank of Scotland pulling out of the Irish market.

Diageo announce that sales of Guinness fell by 5 per cent in Ireland last year. Guinness in Ireland is believed to account for about 15 per cent of Diageo’s £1 billion global sales of the stout.

SEPTEMBER

The premium demanded by investors to lend to the Government reaches a new high with the interest rate on Irish Government 10-year bonds passing 6 per cent – almost three times higher than the equivalent German bond. The following weeks would see intense public interest and awareness of bond rates.

Designed by veteran “starcitect” Kevin Roche, the Convention Centre in Dublin’s Docklands opens with hopes of getting a slice of the global conference market, estimated to be worth €40 billion a year.

The voice of Gaelic games, 80-year-old Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh (right, with his grandson Micheál Óg Kalaitzidis) announces his retirement from broadcasting. Taoiseach Brian Cowen promises to be more cautious in his social life after the controversy following his interview on Morning Ireland.

OCTOBER

The extent of ghost estates is revealed with the publication of the National Housing Development Survey which found more than 43,000 empty or unfinished units across the State’s 34 city and county council areas. Cork County Council has by far the largest number with 284 unfinished or substantially vacant developments, followed by Wexford with 180, and Fingal and Kerry with 152 each.

One in three Irish men and nearly one in six Irish women aged between 25 and 34 live at home with at least one of their parents, according to new European research.

Google’s Irish Street View comes online. Brian Lenihan announces that a €15 billion four-year adjustment plan is needed and the Budget would be “somewhat frontloaded”.

NOVEMBER

Ajai Chopra, deputy director of the IMF, (right with his EU counterpart) became the face of the €85 billion EU/IMF bailout when he arrived in Dublin for negotiations. Some 25,000 students march to the Dáil against the introduction of third-level fees, the Garda Ombudsman subsequently receives 10 complaints about the policing of the march.

EU economics commissioner Olli Rehn welcomes the Government’s target of €6 billion in cuts in the up-coming Budget. It comes as some surprise that the UN Development Programme ranks Ireland fifth in a quality-of-life index. An election in early 2011 is announced. Ireland benefits from the EU’s charity cheese scheme.

DECEMBER

The Pisa/OECD study into educational standards revealed that Ireland has slipped from 5th place in 2000 to 17th place – the sharpest decline among 39 countries surveyed. Almost one-quarter of Irish 15-year-olds are below the level of literacy needed to participate effectively in society. TV3 viewers voted 1 million times during the X-Factor – with most votes going to Ballyfermot’s Mary Byrne, the Tesco checkout operator turned star power diva. She made it to the semi-final. The Budget was described as the most severe in generations. The year ended as it began – with sub-zero temperatures, heavy snowfalls, widespread disruption to travel, school closures and water shortages.