Photographs of 2018: Politics

Mary Lou McDonald on audience monitors during the Sinn Féin special ardfheis (above), at the RDS in Dublin in February, where she was confirmed as party leader, succeeding Gerry Adams.

President Michael D Higgins’s second-term inauguration, in November.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at a replica first World War trench in Cavan in October.

Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton at an event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement in April.

Business 2018: the winners and the losers

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Rental market dysfunction set to continue through 2019

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Sports Review 2018: The day Limerick hurlers finally took the road less travelled

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US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before a United States Senate judiciary committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, in September. Despite allegations of sexual misconduct, Kavanaugh’s nomination was confirmed by the senate in October.

Minister Shane Ross at the July road-safety-review publication.

As Ireland experiences an extreme housing shortage, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe greet local residents Rose O’Connor and her grandchildren Lily and Brandon O’Connor, during a visit to O’Devaney Gardens in Dublin 7 in October. The O’Devaney Gardens Project will see the demolition of existing housing blocks and the development of just under 700 social, affordable and private homes on the site.

British prime minister Theresa May dancing to Abba as she arrives on stage to make her keynote speech at the Conservative Party annual conference, in Birmingham, in October.