A look back at the final two years of the decade
2008
HEROES
The Beijing Olympics were all about US swimmer Michael Phelps’s astonishing eight medal wins, but in Ireland it was all about the boxers. Kenny Egan had to make do with a silver medal, despite the sense he should have been awarded the win, while the late Darren Sutherland took the bronze and won the affection of the nation with his mile-wide smile and bubbling enthusiasm.
VILLAINS
Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – they weren’t people, but the names of US financial institutions that became known around the world in September, when the global financial crisis exploded. Lehman filed for bankruptcy, the deep and systemic faults in the world’s banking systems were exposed, Iceland went bust and Ireland began its rapid plunge into recession. No one talked in millions any more – from now on it was all billions and trillions.
BREAKTHROUGH
The Democratic candidate Barack Obama was elected president of the United States in November – the first African American to be elected to the office. Young, handsome and articulate – with an exceptionally photogenic family – his popularity made him seem as much a rock star as a president, and his optimistic “yes we can” slogan resonated in a country at war and facing a deepening financial crisis.
INVENTION
While it was way too difficult to explain to non-boffins just what was happening all the way underground at Cern on the Franco-Swiss border, the Large Hadron Collider gripped the imagination. The thousands of scientists involved in the construction of the world’s largest particle accelerator hope that it will help answer some of the most fundamental questions in physics. The first proton beams were circulated in September amid widespread (non-scientific) speculation that even turning on the Collider could cause catastrophe.
DISASTER
An estimated 70,000 people were killed when a massive earthquake struck Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan provinces in western China in May. It was the worst natural disaster that country had experienced in three decades, and some of the heartbreaking stories of devastation that filtered through to the West included the collapse of Juyuan Middle School, where 900 students were trapped.
TERRORISM
It was a year in which India experienced a series of terrorist attacks culminating in a same-day assault in November on some of Mumbai’s most high-profile landmarks, including the historic Taj Hotel, which was badly damaged. Some 170 people were killed. The Deccan Mujahedeen claimed responsibility, although there was widespread feeling in India that terrorists from Pakistan were involved.
2009
HEROES
Ireland’s national rugby team, led by inspirational captain Brian O’Driscoll, defeated Wales to win the Six Nations Championship and capture Ireland’s first Grand Slam in 61 years. On a cold day in Paris in November, the hand of Thierry Henry put a stop to the Republic of Ireland’s hopes of playing in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
VILLAIN
Pigs get flu all the time, usually without causing too much panic. Not this year, though, when the H1N1 strain of the virus became so deadly and so widespread it was designated a global pandemic. A national vaccine programme was begun, starting with the more vulnerable. By the middle of November, 16 people in the State had died from the virus.
DISASTER
In June, Air France Flight 447, en route to Rio de Janeiro from Paris, disappeared off the coast of Brazil. Searchers from Brazil, France, the United States and other countries searched for bodies and any debris that might explain the mysterious circumstances of the crash, which appears to have happened when the airbus flew into thunderstorms. Three young Irish doctors, Jane Deasy, Eithne Walls and Aisling Butler, were among the 228 people killed in the crash.
WAR
The year began with an upsurge of violence between Israel and Hamas. Israeli troops crossed the border into Gaza, launching a ground offensive. The UN called for a ceasefire, but fighting continued, including an air strike from Israel on the UN’s aid building in Gaza. By mid-January, when Hamas announced a ceasefire, about 1,300 Palestinians had been killed and more than 4,000 injured during the three-week conflict. On the Israeli side 13 were killed, including three civilians.
SCANDAL
A decade of revelations about the rape and abuse of children by some members of the clergy culminated in two reports. In May the Ryan Report showed in graphic and deeply disturbing detail that rape and sexual molestation were “endemic” in Irish Catholic church-run industrial schools and orphanages. In November the Murphy report showed that four successive archbishops of Dublin covered up child abuse in Dublin parishes for 30 years – and that the State authorities facilitated the cover-up.
WINNER
Colum McCann's novel Let the Great World Spinwon the US National Book Award which, along with the Pulitzer, is regarded as the US's most prestigious literary prize. He is the first Irish writer to win the award. Red faces presumably all round on the judging panel for the much-hyped Man Booker awards, which didn't even include the book on its 2009 shortlist.
