Highlights

How would Ireland cope with the loss of its corporation tax bonanza? That’s just one of the big questions that will challenge the next government. Photograph: Alan Betson Fintan O’Toole: Ten big questions for incoming politicians

In choosing a government, we should think of the major challenges between now and 2025

Catherine Cleary: when I was 19, I lived on tinned tuna and pasta for days so I could spend a week’s salary on a black swing coat with a high collar that felt like a hug. Photograph: Tom Honan Could I go a whole year without buying any new clothes?
I’ve always told my firefighter Dad 'I love you' as he leaves for work, just in case
Young boys were being used by the older gang members to deal drugs on the streets as well as for storing drugs, burning out cars as a means of intimidating others and even forcing some families out of particular areas, one garda said. Photograph: David Sleator Teenage boys and organised crime gangs: A complicated dynamic
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar Harry McGee’s 2020 election tally: Key battleground constituencies
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs said early indications are voters see election as a choice between Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire Election 2020: Will smaller parties be sidelined in Varadkar-Martin shootout?
Baby John’s grave, in St Cronan’s cemetery in Roscrea. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Ireland’s abandoned babies: ‘Stories of unimaginable fear’
The champion Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho 50 people to watch in 2020: the best young talent in Ireland
Marian Finucane, in studio at RTÉ Radio One, in 1999. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill Marian Finucane obituary: A brave and trusted broadcaster
Black & Tans guarding Dublin street after a shooting on Gloucester Road. Black and Tans: ‘Half-drunk, whole-mad’ and one-fifth Irish
Fintan O’Toole: 2019 was a bit like Game of Thrones – lots of action, no climax
Ireland’s Ciara Mageean celebrates qualifying for the final of the World Athletics Championship. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho Glittering Irish day in muddled murky sporting year of 2019
Charlize Theron plays Megyn Kelly (left) in a study of sexual harassment at Fox News, with Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie Film 2020: The 50 films to watch out for
Kirsty Spencer with her children outside their hub accommodation, in Drumcondra in Dublin. Photograph: Alan Betson It’s our fourth homeless Christmas, our third in a ‘family hub’
Balata is by far the most densely populated among the 19 West Bank camps In the West Bank, American funding cuts run deep
Prime minister Boris Johnson and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds arriving in Downing Street on Friday after the Conservative Party won an electoral landslide. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA Wire The inside story of how Boris Johnson won the UK election
People attend the inauguration of the Alan Kurdi rescue ship in Palma de Mallorca. File photograph: Jaime Reina/AFP via Getty Images Christmas on the Mediterranean – a month on a migrant rescue ship
Malcolm Gladwell. Photograph: Crispin Rodwell Malcolm Gladwell: ‘Once you put words into the world you lose control over them’
Vaping has been linked to deaths in the United States, but advocates say it can help people quit smoking. Photograph: Moment/Getty Is it time to quit vaping? What the science says
Christmas cheer: Micheál Martin, Finian McGrath, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Mary Lou McDonald, Róisín Shortall and Shane Ross at the Oireachtas Christmas tree lights switching-on ceremony at Leinster House. Photograph: Alan Betson The week that saw the beginning of the end for Varadkar’s Government and 32nd Dáil
Carol Connors holds a photograph of her daugher Anne Marie who died of a drug overdose in supported accommodation. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Children spent night alone with mother’s body in homeless accommodation
Photograph: iStock/Getty ‘I blamed myself for not wanting it enough’ – Untold tales of miscarriage
China Cables: More than a million people detained against their will in Chinese province
Prince Cyrus of Oudh at his family home in New Delhi in 2016. Photograph: Andrea Bruce/The New York Times The amazing, epic tale of the Indian jungle prince
Direct provision: Pierrot Ngadi, one of the first people to go through the system. Photograph: Crispin Rodwell Direct provision: The controversial system turns 20
Ana Kriégel murder: What it taught us about bullying, porn and boys
A lorry at the Border town of Carrickcarnon has a slogan marked on it during a protest by anti-Brexit campaigners Borders Against Brexit. File photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/|Reuters Fintan O’Toole: What will EU demand for supporting us on Brexit?
Gay Byrne, the veteran RTÉ broadcaster, has died at the age of 85. Photograph: David Sleator Gay Byrne obituary: The maestro of Irish broadcasting
Ana Kriégel. Photograph courtesy of family. Ana Kriégel murder: What drove two teenage boys to murder a 14-year-old girl?
British Army troops with army Land Rovers and trucks on a side street in the predominantly Catholic Falls Road area of Belfast in May 1971. Photograph: Rolls Press/Popperfoto via Getty Images Who shot my 14-year-old brother Peter in 1973?
Cocaine use has reportedly returned to Celtic Tiger levels in Ireland. File photograph: Getty Images/iStockphoto Cocaine in Ireland: ‘The average consumer is a farmer or nurse... It’s universal’
Spanish dictator General Franco inaugurates a number of new rooms in an army museum, on March 11th, 1946. File photograph: Keystone/Getty Images Spain’s reckoning with its past shows Francoism is far from dead
Illustration: Fuchsia MacAree ‘Show us your boobs and you’ll get a tip’: An Irish waitress’s life
The Mardyke in Cork city, where homeless man Timmy Hourihane was killed last weekend. Photograph: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision Homeless in Cork: ‘Everybody can list friends who have died’
Katie de Gama: ‘I couldn’t have told you one fact about the Famine. I hadn’t ever heard of it.’ Photograph: Nick Bradshaw ‘You can be anything in Ireland now, except English’
Jean McConville, Ivor Bell and Gerry Adams. Irish Times photomontage Jean McConville’s murder, the Boston tapes, Gerry Adams and the Ivor Bell trial
David Reilly and Derek O’Driscoll have used an insidious brand of intimidation and control, all underpinned by lengthy criminal records and reputations for ultra violence, to rule Ballyfermot Crime kingpins of Ballyfermot: The men behind the Dublin City Council protection racket
‘The shame and stigma surrounding baby loss is still rampant’ I thought I knew something about miscarriage. But I hadn’t a clue
The Defence Forces’ Ordnance Corps at Casement Aerodrome in Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Inside the bomb squad: Combating terrorist attacks and gangland devices
The Border on the M1/A1 Dublin to Belfast road as viewed from the northern side. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Brexit: A day in the life of an Irish Border crossing
Colin Healy, Richie Sadlier and Roy Keane at Ireland training in 2002. Photo: Tom Honan Richie Sadlier memoir: ‘The abnormal, especially when it came to sex, was normal'
Children of the Troubles: Desmond Guiney, Charles Love, Lesley Gordon, Julie Livingstone and Siobhan McCabe (top row); John Dougal, Dessie Healey, Brian Stewart, Peter Watterson and Patrick Rooney (middle row); and Michael McIlveen, Paula Strong, Clare Hughes, Angela Gallagher and Philip Rafferty (bottom row) Children of the Troubles: They took a child off the road, put a hood over his head and killed him
Fintan O’Toole: Greta Thunberg is a prophet, preacher, rulebreaker, avenging angel
Oughterard campaign leaders say the help of the far-right is not welcome. Photograph: Joe O’Shaughnessy How the far-right is exploiting immigration concerns in Oughterard
Michael O’Regan. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien Michael O’Regan: I have learned to talk about cancer
Stephen Cluxton lifts the Sam Maguire as Dublin celebrate beating Kerry in the All-Ireland senior football final replay, at Croke Park. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill/The Irish Times Dublin put in a champion performance to make Irish sporting history
The closed Shamrock bar on the Killarney road in Newcastle West, Limerick. Photograph Liam Burke/Press 22 Irish pub closures: The slow death of the local bar
Earn more than you think while working less
John Gormley outside his home in Oak Grove, Derrinturn, Co Kildare. Photograph: Enda O’Dowd Ireland’s defective buildings: Not just a Celtic Tiger problem
Joe Schmidt: “I think the great days have been the ones where the players have done something a little bit special, and you’ve seen players grow.” Joe Schmidt at the Aviva Stadium: The pleasure, the privilege was ours
The family of ‘Ms P’ is suing the HSE over her death and over the horrific ordeal of being left in legal ‘limbo’ for weeks 'I didn’t just lose my daughter, I lost her baby and my grandchildren'
‘Whatever happens with Brexit in the end is likely to be bad news for Ireland, assuming of course there isn’t a second referendum and the UK decides to stay in.’ No-deal Brexit capable of derailing economy and reigniting Troubles
Dublin goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton saves a shot from Kerry’s Paul Murphy. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho Dublin’s drive for five just about stays alive as Kerry rise to the occasion
Dún Laoghaire rooftop view Dún Laoghaire’s continuing failure to reinvent itself
Circa 1955: taoiseach Éamon de Valera (1882 - 1975) with Frank Aiken (1898 - 1983). Photograph: Sean Sexton/Getty Images United Ireland: De Valera’s secret plan for unification
By 2031 more than a quarter of a million inhabitants in the State will be aged over 80 years, a departmental review found. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA Wire The old country: Get ready for an ageing Ireland
Edna O'Brien. Photograph: Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert/Getty Edna O’Brien: ‘I have a ferocity in me, but I’m also fearful’
Portrait of Daniel O’Connell. Photograph: Getty Images Daniel O’Connell, the greatest of all politicians
Playing a blinder: Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby. Photograph: BBC Cillian Murphy: ‘We all have contradictions within us’
Dublin Airport: Sean Mackessy, airfield electrical supervisor. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Do bras set off the scanners? The secret life of Dublin Airport
Patients attend the Remote Area Medical Clinic which treats the poorest in America, those squeezed out by ‘the punishing health system’. Photograph: Suzanne Lynch Meet America’s uninsured: Tales from a divided healthcare system
Boris Johnson: his Brexit campaign statement that the UK sends “£350 million a week to the EU” is the subject of a prospective court case. Photograph: Steve Back/Getty Images Fintan O’Toole: Ireland can stop a no-deal Brexit. Here’s how
Lyra McKee's investigation into children who went missing during the Troubles – was due to have been published in 2020. Photograph: Jess Lowe/EPA Lyra McKee and her investigation into the mysterious murder of a unionist MP in 1981
Aisling Bea in This Way Up. Photograph: Adam Lawrence/Channel 4 Plan Bea: Aisling Bea on searching for laughter in sad places
It was the late 1970s before the Liffey Swim welcomed women, and women were finally put on an equal footing in 1991. Photograph: Joey Cleary The Liffey Swim: Dublin’s hardy annual has its 100th outing
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg leaves the Merrion Hotel after meeting the Oireachtas Communications Committee. Photograph: Tom Honan/The Irish Times. Ireland’s love affair with multinationals is set to change - but how can we adapt?
Paddy McKillen Jnr: Creating and gathering up Dublin’s hotspots. Paddy McKillen jnr, the mystery man of Dublin nightlife
The point was not to get to the moon but to return from its great desolation, to come back to this astonishing Earth. Photograph: SSPL/Getty Images Fintan O’Toole: They went to the moon; we discovered the Earth
France and me: The most rewarding relationship of my life
Ireland, 1984: A year of fierce debates and ‘mounting evils’
The ESRI is calling for increases in carbon and property taxes – both of which can be expected to affect the average household. But it could be argued that Irish households are already contributing a disproportionate amount to the Irish economy. File photograph: iStock Who really drives the economy - Facebook, Google, or you?
Frances Street in Kilrush, Co Clare. Photograph: Eamon Ward Which towns in rural Ireland are worth investing in?
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe speaks to media on the conclusion of the National Economic Dialogue at Dublin Castle. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times Budget 2020: Can we rely on the Government's plan?
Boris Johnson: The UK’s deeply polarising next prime minister
Darby O’Gill and the Little People: Albert Sharpe and Jimmy O’Dea in Walt Disney’s 1959 film The making of Darby O’Gill and the Little People
Garda Majella Moynihan in 1998: As senior gardaí interrogated her, she was subjected to a lay version of a Catholic marriage tribunal. Photograph: RTÉ Diarmaid Ferriter: Garda morality and policing of ‘scarlet women’
Ana Kriégel Ana Kriégel murder trial: The complete story
Timi Nicholson has reduced her family's plastic waste for the whole month to a single glass jar. Photograph: Laura Hutton Could you fit your month's plastic waste into a glass jar?
Brian Kerr: Quintessential Dubliner with a bit of Belfast in his soul
The unsolved mystery of Peter Bergmann
Thriving family business. Drogheda butcher Justin Callaghan, of Justin Callaghan & Sons. Photograph: Tom Honan Does your neighbourhood make you sicker or healthier?
John Brennan: some of Donald Trump’s behaviour has been treasonous, he says. Photograph: Al Drago/New York Times John Brennan: My trouble with Trump? ‘His dishonesty, his character’
Jackie Healy-Rae jnr takes a break from canvassing to visit his grandfather Jackie’s grave in Kilgarvan, Co Kerry. Photograph: Don MacMonagle New to politics: Hazel Chu, Jackie Healy-Rae jnr and others on their political ambitions
Seamus Mallon in 1998, when he was deputy first minister of Northern Ireland. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien Seamus Mallon: Tony Blair said to me, ‘The trouble with you fellows is you have no guns’
United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Paul Pogba after the final whistle of the Premier League match against Cardiff at Old Trafford on May 12th. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA Wire Michael Walker: The thing is, it could get worse for Manchester United
The Irish baby born today: the First World problem of ‘where will I go on my holidays?’ may be replaced by ‘where is my next meal coming from?’ Photograph: Getty A baby born today: The climate and their future
Huawei’s vice-president for corporate communications Joe Kelly: “The West is quite individualistic. China is more collective” Irish spin doctor in thick of Huawei’s battle with the West
Ireland: what do we do now, now that we are happy? Illustration: iStock/Getty Fintan O’Toole: In today’s Ireland, happiness is a tough gig
Photograph: George Clerk/iStock/Getty Before you leave a tip in an Irish restaurant, read this
The public conversation Niall Quinn has been driving began following an invitation before Christmas to the PFAI awards night in Dublin. Photograph: Tommy Dickson/Inpho Niall Quinn: ‘Who are the FAI trying to fool?’
Caroline Dwyer: ‘We didn’t get to hear anything until the following day. I was at work, and my husband rang me. He said ‘Have you had any strange phone calls?’ ’ Photograph Nick Bradshaw/The Irish Times Caroline Dwyer awaits justice 10 years after son’s death in Bolivia
Party of two: if your partner is heavily intoxicated they can’t give consent. Photograph: iStock ‘So if you go out and both get drunk you can’t have sex? That’s f**ked up’
‘The school tried its best, but they were struggling and ill-equipped’: Suzanne Voakes and her son Rian (6). Photograph: Nick Bradshaw ‘My child was expelled at six. We’re in 2019... Our children are invisible’
The hair collectors: Where wigs and hair extensions come from
Statistics show that Ireland is undergoing a historic shift in its traditional pattern of home ownership. The changing face of Irish home ownership – who wins, who loses?
The food truck outside The Vines in Saltmills, Co Wexford Games, craft beer and food trucks: How the Irish pub is changing
Martina Cox pictured with her husband Sean Cox at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire. Photograph supplied by family. Sean Cox: ‘He has missed so many milestones. That kills me,’ says wife Martina
Kinahan cartel: Liam Byrne heads what the Criminal Assets Bureau calls the “Byrne organised-crime group” Liam Byrne: Christy Kinahan’s lieutenant in Dublin
Seán Quinn’s daughters, Aoife, Brenda, Colette and Ciara, outside the High Court in Dublin. Photograph: Collins How the Quinns' Anglo gamble cost the State millions
Facebook’s dirty work in Ireland: ‘I had to watch footage of a person being beaten to death’
Aaron Monaghan, Garrett Lombard, John Olohan and Jane Brennan in Druid Theatre’s Richard III. Photograph: Robbie Jack The Irish Times 22nd Irish Theatre Awards: Villainy triumphs in tales for our times
Seán Bán Breathnach: “I was lucky,” he declares more than once Seán Bán Breathnach: ‘They probably saw me as . . . a showman.'