When a presidential election takes place, it’s reasonable to predict a couple of related stories will populate the very top of the annual most-read lists. In 2025, the election appears more generally, but not as high as you might think.
The Irish presidential election perhaps never really caught fire in the way previous iterations have – that’s written all over the reader figures. The election is missing from the very top of the charts, with just one piece in the top 25 most-read: “Who will be Ireland’s ‘first gentleman’? The man behind Catherine Connolly” - finished in 22nd place. To be fair, the vote had a much better showing within the top 50 or so, with our live coverage of Catherine Connolly’s predicted landslide win in October finishing in 30th place.
When it came to the most prominent topics catching our readers’ attention this year, there was a clear winner: the weather.
Not a surprise, really. Red alerts, power cuts, flooding and expensive clean-ups impact a huge number of people each year as a handful of named storms reach our shores.
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Storm Éowyn arrived in January and became one of the most damaging Ireland has ever faced. Gusts of 184km/h broke wind records that stood since 1945. Hundreds of thousands lost power; 815,000 across the island, with 768,000 in the Republic.
Such was the interest, the live story on Friday January 24th wound up being the top-read piece on irishtimes.com in 2025, outpacing every other story published in the past 12 months. Of the top 25 articles, six were weather-related; four Éowyn, one Storm Amy and one Storm Bram. A year ago, I wrote that live blogs dominated the lists in 2024. This is the year of extreme weather.
In recent years, GAA finals have also become a mainstay, with two All-Ireland final live blogs drawing significant reader attention this year. Kerry’s clinching of the Sam Maguire from Donegal to claim their 39th All-Ireland football win came in at 18th. Not bad, but the hurling did better: Tipperary’s victory over Cork following a second-half score fest at Croke Park was covered live on the day and finished 12th most-read on the site overall.
In other places across the top 25, stories of crime and tragedy feature prominently, as they often do. The second most-read story of the year, and not runner-up by much, was a piece by aviation journalist Gerry Byrne analysing some aspects of the crash of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Ahmedabad Airport in June. The piece was headlined: Air India crash: Early indication is that pilot decision to raise plane’s nose may have caused it to ‘pancake’.
The third most-read was another Storm Éowyn piece, and the case of Kerry farmer Michael Gaine emerged as another story readers followed closely this year. Also widely-read was the story of an Irish woman living legally in the US for decades being detained after a visit to Ireland, which wound up seventh, reflecting the deep anxiety felt by non-citizens living in the US under an increasingly hostile Trump administration.
Reading these lists year-in, year-out reveals patterns: weather, crime, tragedy and All-Ireland finals are subjects that readers are really interested in. But especially since the era of Covid lockdowns, the odd Leaving Cert piece is becoming something of a fixture.
In 2024, the overall top-read story across the site struck to the human experience at the root of a high-level decision: one student’s story of losing out on their top college place in the CAO points “lottery”. Here it is, the most-read story from 2024: ‘She couldn’t have done better’: Leaving Cert student with maximum points misses out on college course due to lottery. There’s a feeling of deja vu reading number 15 from this year’s crop: ‘Inhumane’: Student who got maximum Leaving Cert points loses course in random selection.
Of course, two articles is a tiny sample in the grand scheme, but it’s evident that the sting of unfairness shared by those two stories resonates with Irish Times readers. With the gradual unwinding of inflated Leaving Cert grades set to last for the time being, we may well be back here next year, telling the story of another bitterly disappointed student.
THE TOP 25
- As it happened: Power cuts and widespread destruction in wake of Storm Éowyn
- Air India crash: Early indication is that pilot decision to raise plane’s nose may have caused it to ‘pancake’
- Storm Éowyn: How the day before the red alerts unfolded
- Michael Gaine: Gardaí confirm body parts found in search for missing Kerry farmer
- Death of Garda Kevin Flatley: Drew Harris calls for societal ‘reset’ on road safety
- Irish woman living legally in US for decades detained after visiting her father in Ireland
- Storm Éowyn: Nationwide red wind warning as schools to close for one of the most severe storms Ireland has ever seen
- Garda raid on home of award-winning curry restaurant owner finds bank card in worker’s name
- Ireland weather update: Widespread snow expected with risk of school closures on Monday
- Two HSE staff suspended with pay or on administrative leave for 11 years
- Mary Ronan, separated wife of developer Johnny Ronan, leaves estate valued at €5.6 million
- All-Ireland hurling final – As it happened: Tipperary beat 14-man Cork to lift Liam MacCarthy Cup
- Woman who died in Connemara house fire named as former US death row inmate Sunny Jacobs
- Adult dies with listeriosis as food safety authority confirms ‘extensive’ outbreak
- ‘Inhumane’: Student who got maximum Leaving Cert points loses course in random selection
- Sonia O’Sullivan: My worry for Rhasidat Adeleke is that she’s not being entirely open or honest
- Ryan Tubridy marries Clare Kambamettu in west of Ireland ceremony
- All-Ireland football final: Kerry clinch title with win over Donegal - as it happened
- As it happened: Storm Amy hits the country as man (40s) dies
- Donald Trump, Conor McGregor praise each other’s work ethics during St Patrick’s Day meeting at the White House
- Employee sacked after HR chief recorded him on phone call wins €10k for unfair dismissal
- Who will be Ireland’s ‘first gentleman’? The man behind Catherine Connolly
- Budget 2026: Welfare, petrol, diesel and cigarettes rise, little change to income tax
- ‘Throw out the Irish trash’: I’ve been to 15 Ryder Cups but this was a new low
- Storm Bram: 25,000 homes and businesses without power
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
It would be impossible to mention everything, but some groupings of articles within the engagement data give a good flavour of the year on irishtimes.com. From news and analysis, to longer reads and live stories, here’s what people were reading within some key subsections. And yes, of course, I thought there’d be more Troy Parrott in Sport.
Sport in five links
- All-Ireland hurling final – As it happened: Tipperary beat 14-man Cork to lift Liam MacCarthy Cup
- Sonia O’Sullivan: My worry for Rhasidat Adeleke is that she’s not being entirely open or honest
- All-Ireland football final: Kerry clinch title with win over Donegal - as it happened
- ‘Throw out the Irish trash’: I’ve been to 15 Ryder Cups but this was a new low
- World Cup playoffs: Who are Ireland’s potential opponents and when is the draw?
Personal finance in five links
- A Dunnes parcel goes missing, a customer loses €672, and the retailer won’t repay her
- A sleeping passenger goes hungry on an Aer Lingus flight across the Atlantic
- An Irish family’s Miami ordeal: ‘I was shocked by the heartlessness of Aer Lingus’
- Budget 2026 main points: Renters’ tax credit extended, minimal personal tax changes
- Eir refuses to refund 91-year-old for a service her family says was cancelled a decade ago
Health and Wellness in five links
- Ireland’s most common genetic disorder: ‘It can creep up quietly and cause serious damage if it’s missed’
- ‘I don’t love my husband. I care for him and don’t wish him ill health, but I’m struggling’
- The last thing our teenage son said was: ‘Why are you all so sad? I’m going to be fine’
- ‘Our daughter is almost 40 and moving out soon, but she has told her son that he can stay with us’
- ‘My lovely husband has changed . . . and I am one of the people he has pushed away’
Food in five links
- The Italian restaurant in Dublin that takes bookings 90 days in advance
- Press Up’s Kaldero: A dining experience that feels more like being fed by an accountant than a chef
- London’s eclectic restaurant, where the Irish chef takes only cash and has no website
- Trocadero restaurant review: A timeless classic that is old-school in the best sense
- Chef Gráinne O’Keefe: Eighteen months without sugar - ‘everyone asks about chocolate, but yes, I can still eat it’
Opinion/Irish Diary in five links
- As a Labrador swam by me out to sea his owner said ‘I hope he doesn’t meet a seal’. I later learned why
- The idea that the Kremlin has kompromat on Trump seems increasingly plausible
- ‘Don’t come to Ireland’: PhD researchers offer advice to US colleagues
- Enoch Burke’s lonely vigil at the school gate has not been entirely pointless
- After thousands of years of philosophy, the meaning of life can be summed up in a word
World in five links
- Air India crash: Early indication is that pilot decision to raise plane’s nose may have caused it to ‘pancake’
- ‘The aftertaste is terrible’: Irish pubs lament the arrival of Chinese-brewed Guinness
- Woman who went missing 52 years ago is found alive and well in England
- Power outage update: Spain declares state of emergency; Portugal grid operator says issue caused by rare phenomenon
- ‘It makes me sick’: Mass anti-Trump protests in US cities see Americans express their fear and loathing
Video picks
- Chip off the old block: McIlroy’s daughter sinks monster putt at Augusta
- ‘I was in such shock’: Galway woman loses roof during Storm Éowyn
- When Heather met Jim at the ploughing
- ‘It’s surpassed everything I’ve ever dreamed of’: Over 2,000 Cuala fans take the Dart to Croke Park
- Our home is basically condemned’: Inchicore house partly collapses into Camac river
Podcast recap
- Miriam O’Callaghan: ‘I’m lucky to have eight children after suffering secondary infertility’
- How weight-loss drug Mounjaro is making Ireland the world’s fastest-growing economy
- Prof Donal O’Shea: ‘I’ll be advising my girls to go on HRT’
- Party in Conor McGregor’s pub can’t hide far-right divisions
- Ciara Kelly: ‘A consultant shamed me for being an unmarried, pregnant junior doctor’
