Mick Clifford's A to Z of 2023: Our review of what became a very tumultuous year
As Performers In Finest On Sinéad In Rds Watches Sings In Ireland 2023 At Shane Of 2007 Lost Macgowan Its Dublin The Two O'connor
Collins dictionary word of the year. A sign of the times that the word of the year in a renowned dictionary isn’t a word at all but an acronym. This was the year that Artificial Intelligence hit home with a bang. Chatbots such as ChatGPT came to the fore right across society from education to the arts, with the bot assisting in everything from writing essays to making music. The power of AI is awesome and has been met with two parts terror and one part excitement. This year the world began to attempt to come to terms with what it will mean for the future, for medical science, for jobs, for creativity, for war, and for the prospect of AI taking up the role of body snatchers in a filmscript devised by ChatGPT. As if we didn’t have enough to be scared stiff about in a world gone mad. Batten down the hatches.
. He came, he saw, he performed a laying on of the hands. US President Joe Biden deplaned in Belfast on April 11 and spent an impatient day doing his bit for the peace process. And then it was onward to the home beloved of Irish America, the oul sod. He had a day in Co Louth reminiscing on the Bidens who went before him and then our president hosted the president and introduced him to the Aras dog and a few poems.
On it went over three days, enough to tax the fittest of men, not to mind one who is also running a country on the cusp of his ninth decade. The highlight for Joe was a night of magic and lights in his hometown of Ballina. He spoke across a river to 27,000 people who had gathered to give him the nod. On the steps of St Muredach’s Cathedral, he wistfully traced the steps of those who had left these shores in pursuit of the American dream.
As the reported: “He was greeted as if he was bringing Sam back to Mayo but it was also obvious that the man himself really, really loved the reception and was not playing for votes or the camera.”
You couldn’t but like the fella, and at the same time wonder what had become of America that they are now apparently facing a choice between a man who will be 86 if he completes a second term and a dangerous buffoon for whom bluff and kicking down are his principal political tools.
On May 6, King Charles III was coronated king of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth Realms. The dude is 75 years old and spent his whole life waiting for this day. His wife Camilla became queen consort. Nobody does pageantry like the Brits, and it was a day out for the whole island as they mused on how once an occasion like this would reverberate around the globe but today it receives little more than a shrug.
The coronation was also the first to be attended by an Irish president and the Taoiseach. Charles’ mother was crowned back in 1953 when relations between these two islands were glacial. The main event on the day, as far as Ireland was concerned, was a controversy that arose through the person of the Taoiseach’s partner, Matthew Barrett. Despite strict instructions to put phones away in Westminister Abbey, Matt was pinging on Instagram to beat the band in a manner that was less than solemn.
“The queen’s sceptre and rod are brought from the altar by the Right Rev and Right Hon the Lord Chartres GCVO and the Right Rev Rose Hudson Wilkin CD MBE, Bishop of Dover. The queen touches them in turn – sounds like the script to a good night out, tbh,” went one of his posts. Somebody within his Instagram circle of course leaked the stuff. For a few days afterward the British press went gaga at this irreverence from the other half of a foreign leader on a big day out for the empire. They got over it eventually. In all likelihood, it didn’t bother Charlie who must have gone to bed that night with a thought that had for so long been on the never, never. It’s good to be the king.
On November 27, three children and an adult were attacked by a man wielding a knife outside a school in Dublin’s Parnell Square. The incident sparked off a protest nearby that quickly turned into a riot. For three or four hours, the gardaí lost control of the city centre. The whole affair was orchestrated by elements of what is known as the Far Right.
This was the biggest manifestation of their influence in a year in which they attempted to spread hate at every turn. Earlier in the year, elements of the far right were involved in protests against the housing of refugee centres in Dublin, Co Clare, Fermoy, and Mallow. They managed in some instances to inveigle themselves with local people who had genuine concerns. Later in the year some of these people were involved in protests outside libraries, most notably on the Grand Parade in Cork. In September, politicians were accosted outside the Dáil by some protesting against everything, but with far-right undertones. One of the assembled held up a sheet with the words “I am angry” on it. In Christmas week a hotel in Galway to which asylum seekers were to come was burned down.
The political and policing fall-out from the Dublin riots is still unfolding. It remains to be seen whether what happened was a once-off or a harbinger of things to come.
On August 30 this little-known body announced that its review of the electoral system, taking into account a population increase, has concluded that we need more politicians. It recommends that the number of TDs be increased from 160 to 174 and that the number of constituencies increase from 39 to 43. This is all to take account of an increase in population of 8% since 2016. The constitution means that we have a set number of TDs per population. As such it is highly likely there will be other increases in the coming years. But look on the bright side. All of this suggests that the country is a place where people want to come to, work in, settle down, and contribute. Not a bad look in today’s world.
Matthew Perry. On October 28, the former star of the sitcom was found dead in his Californian home. He was 57.
He had, as a result of his role in the iconic sitcom, been much loved by TV viewers around the world. That affection was probably enhanced through the struggles he had in life, most notably addiction to drugs and alcohol. In 2022, his memoir Friends Lovers and the Big Terrible Things was published to much acclaim. The general impression was that he had suppressed his demons but there was to be no happy ever after.
The album of the year, . In the amateur opinion of the A-Z compiler, this gem has to be a contender for album of the year. Chatten in his day job is lead singer for Fontaines DC, one of the best bands to come out of this country in decades. This year he took a little time out to record some of his own personal songs. The lad from Skerries, Co Dublin, shows that he has plenty in the creative tank apart from that which occupies him with the Fontaines.
Ed Power in the summed it up best on the album’s release in June, noting that his bruised, cracked voice is revealed to be a great strength and as a lyricist, he has evolved past the “Dublin is dank but I like it” tropes of his early work.
“If Fontaines DC are a poetry slam in a mosh-pit, Chatten’s stand-alone project is a 2am rumination, full of melancholy and doubt, but illuminated by sweetness and humility that gives the record its more-ish quality.”
Couldn’t have put it better myself. In fact, couldn’t have put it half as well.
It hasn’t gone away, you know, and will be with us when a general election comes rolling around, most likely in the coming year. In January there were 11,542 people classified as homeless. By the end of November, this had increased to 13,179, including 3,991 children, all of whom are living in emergency accommodation.
On October 7, a group of Hamas militants entered Israel from Gaza and went on a killing spree. Around 1,400 soldiers and civilians were killed. Many were young people who had been attending a music festival rave in the desert. More were from a different kibbutz in the area, set up to live collectively and in harmony. Up to 200 people were taken hostage and brought back to Gaza to be used as bargaining tools. The response from the Isreali government and defence forces was indiscriminate and brutal.
Relentless bombing of Gaza ensued in which no effort was made to avoid civilian casualties. At the time of writing the estimate of the number of Palestinians killed is heading for 20,000, with three-quarters of the 2m residents made homeless. As of now, it looks as if this ancient divide is getting worse, with no interest on the Israeli side in striving for a just peace and a commensurate reaction from the Palestinians who, due to the brutality of the Israeli, appear to be more receptive to Hamas than would otherwise have been the case. As Christmas approached, there were signs that even Israel’s allies were growing increasingly concerned at the slaughter being wrecked in the name of self-defence. It just doesn’t wash anymore.
More journalists have been killed in the Israeli-Hamas conflict which erupted on October 7 than in any other conflict over the last thirty years. The International Federation of Journalists reported that 94 journalists were killed this year with almost 400 more imprisoned. The figure for deaths is up from 67 in 2022.
“The war in Gaza has been more deadly for journalists than any single conflict since the IFJ began recording journalists killed in the line of duty in 1990,” the group said, adding that deaths had come at a scale and pace “without precedent”. Nearly 20,000 people have been killed in the three-month-old conflict, around 70% of whom were women and children.
In August, the writer who writes so sparingly released her latest book, . In reality, the hardback offering is a long short story, but no less brilliant for it. Cillian Murphy was busy this year developing her previous novel for the cinema and the adaptation of her book made it to the Oscars as last March. is another gem in which, as usual, the unwritten or unspoken looms larger than anything on the page. Ms Keegan simply creates atmosphere and feeling with the least possible words and thus makes the page come alive. The late Hilary Mantel summed her writing up best. “Every word is the right word in the right place, and the effect is resonant and deeply moving.”
On May 26, Ryan Tubridy presented his last The Late Late Show. (For more on Tubs, see: R). Thus came to an end the tenure of only the third presenter of the second oldest chat show in the world. ( in the USA is older, having started in 1954 in comparison to the 1962 debut).
There was much love for Tubs and he could have done with a camel’s facility to store up natural resources for a rainy day. There were messages of goodwill from Saoirse Ronan, Jessie Buckley, Russell Crowe, and even a hero of Ryan’s, Paul McCartney. Bono, who had been present twenty-five years earlier to gift Gay Byrne a Harley Davidson on his last show, beamed in on this occasion from LA to present Ryan with a vespa. “You’re a mod, not a rocker,” said Bono.
The cup of love really floweth over. And why not? Ryan was no Gay Byrne, but then who was? He was, and is, a nice guy. Everybody was sad to see him go but he timed it well. The show needed something else. Ryan himself was set on pastures new. Except, neither he nor us knew how new they would be. (Admit it, you can’t wait to get to R)
On September 15, Patrick Kielty presented his first Late Late Show, the culmination of a dream. There was universal approval of his selection and so far he’s been doing a pretty good job under the circumstances. He may well extend the show’s life, but there’s no telling for how long.
On June 6, Teddy McCarthy died at the outrageously young age of 57. His death was sudden and the shock reverberated beyond his stricken family into the wide world of Cork GAA and beyond. Teddy was the only man to win both hurling and football senior All-Ireland medals in one year, that year being 1990 when Cork did the double. His feats on the pitch were legendary, particularly the manner in which he reached for the clouds to catch in descent either the big ball or the sliotar.
The most fitting tribute paid to the man came from Michael Moynihan of this parish, who, like Teddy, attended the North Mon, where the future star was notable even as he addressed “the ramp” on the way into school. “And nobody sauntered quite like Teddy, who even then had an aura. Long blond hair and open shirt collar, books about to cascade from the bag at any second, he walked the ramp with his pals in the manner of Napoleon and his generals considering the field at Marengo.”
Moynihan went on to note how some of the greats leave this world far too young. “Ring was 58. Teddy would have been 58 on July 1. The comparison isn’t forced or coincidental. At a time when Cork swaggered across all codes and sports, and outrageous feats were common currency, Teddy McCarthy was first among equals, both ferocious competitor and inimitable stylist in Gaelic football and hurling. At a certain point, the ultimate barometer of Irish fame came into play, and the surname became superfluous: it was just Teddy.”
On June 22, a four-day roadshow called the Consultative Forum on International Security Policy kicked off in UCC. The unwieldy name could be distilled down into a couple of questions. To be neutral or not to be neutral? What is neutral? Does today’s world require a different stance? The forum was regarded by some as a Trojan horse to propel the country towards NATO, while others say it was catching up with the world we live in. El Presidente was not best pleased with the whole thing. Michael D Higgins disparaged the chair, Louise Richardson, a Waterford woman who has been honoured in the UK as a Dame of the British Empire for her work in tackling education disadvantage. She came, he said, with a very large letter DBE, the inference perhaps being that she could be a secret agent for the Brits inveigling us into NATO. The president apologised later for what he termed “a throwaway remark”.
Anyway, the forum reported in October, recommending we do away with the triple lock which, as it stands, means we need the nod from the likes of Russia and China before sending troops anywhere in the world. More skin and hair is due to fly over this in the coming year.
RTÉ does not have a sterling record in the dark comedy department, but this six-part series hit the spot in the Autumn. Its official synopsis sets out the plot as “24-year-old Elvira Clancy works for a newspaper that falls into hard times and now she is being paid per obituary. When deaths trickle to a halt and work dries up, Elvira soon discovers that by murdering the unpleasant residents in her small town, she will not only earn money but discovers she has an untapped bloodlust.”
It works and does so wonderfully from the pen of creator and writer Ray Lawlor. Rumour has it that a second series is already in the pipeline.
Few contenders for the title in 2023. David Culinane of Sinn Féin appears to have a total grip on his brief and his contributions to debates and issues have been strategic and largely considered. He is now where many other fierce bright opposition spokespeople on health were before him, waiting for the day. No reason to believe he will fare any better but no harm in hoping.
Jennifer Carroll McNeill was elevated to junior minister status and showed herself to be capable and ambitious at a time when Fine Gael need young and capable pretenders. Catherine Connolly managed to balance her role as Leas Ceann Comhairle and forensic opposition politician. Unlike some of her kindred spirits out on the left, she is not getting bogged down in the kind of identity politics that some have imported from abroad. A final contender is Micheál Martin. Many thought he would fade after handing over the reins of Taoiseach last Christmas but if anything he has grown in stature. Should he take leave before the next general election, Fianna Fáil might as well call in sick.
Taylor Swift was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2023. The magazine’s editor Sam Jacobs called her “the rare person who is both the writer and hero of her own story”. To which one can reply, aren’t we all? Except Taylor’s story is quite extraordinary. Here is how she was described in Time.
“Swift’s accomplishments as an artist — culturally, critically, and commercially — are so legion that to recount them seems almost beside the point. As a pop star, she sits in rarefied company, alongside Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Madonna; as a songwriter, she has been compared to Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and Joni Mitchell. As a businesswoman, she has built an empire worth, by some estimates, over $1 billion. And as a celebrity — who by dint of being a woman is scrutinised for everything from whom she dates to what she wears — she has long commanded constant attention and knows how to use it.”
The A-Z compiler is largely ignorant of her musical virtues apart from a duet with Bon Iver on a song called 'Exile', which really hits the spot.
Two Rs for the price of one. On June 22, the excrement came into violent contact with the air conditioning in RTÉ, and ripped out across the nation, right into the little emotional minds of the nation’s children. RTÉ announced that between 2017 and 2022 it had paid Ryan Tubridy €345,000 more than had previously been disclosed. Ryan hastily issued a release saying he knew nothing about this. Further investigation found credibility issues with such a stance. More was to follow. It would appear that while the national broadcaster was financially on its uppers — and many employed on substandard conditions — some were living high on the hog. We were told about barter accounts and corporate entertainment and spending €5,000 on flip-flops. The great unwashed were equally appalled and intrigued by the whole thing. All this was tumbling out against a backdrop in which a new DG Kevin Bakhurst was only getting his feet under the desk.
Three weeks into it, Ryan came out of the bunker and appeared before two Oireachtas committees in the company of his agent, the Svengali-like Noel Kelly. At the media Oireachtas committee meeting, one TD pointed out to Ryan that the children of Ireland were asking what was going on with the host of the Late Late Toy Show.
“My relationship with the children of Ireland is so important to me,” Ryan replied. “I know that sounds grandiose but it is. I want them to be happy and hopeful and proud to be Irish and real lots of books and just be wonderful young people.”
The nation looked on, open-mouthed.
Not long after, the Pied Piper of Montrose was given the bum’s rush by Bakhurst because he couldn’t leave well enough alone and admit his own role in the fiasco. In November, he announced that he was starting a new show on Virgin Radio in the UK. The children of Ireland were duly consoled and are reported to be doing well. They like the new guy too. The wheel of life rolls on. Still, Ryan must have some regrets, if not about the substance of the issue certainly in terms of how he handled the fall-out.
On July 26, the light of life was extinguished for a sweet, talented, fiery, and torturous soul. Sinéad died in London in circumstances that have not been fully explained. Not that it matters. What we do know is that she was unhappy, particularly since the death of her 17-year-old son Shane in January 2022. Throughout her 56 years, Sinéad was a force of nature, who could write and sing from a deep vault of the psyche. She could be fiery when need be, fearless always, and also dogged by troubles which rendered her vulnerable and endeared her to the country. One of the most unusual yet fitting tributes paid in her wake was a 30-foot-tall stone arrangement on the hill outside Bray where she had lived spelling out ‘ÉIRE ♡ SINÉAD’ fashioned from an old stone arrangement that just had EIRE to warn pilots during the Second World War.
Shane MacGowan, another artist who was beloved, died on November 30 after a long illness. He was 65, but such was his lifestyle his demise had been predicted at various junctures over the last thirty years. “Shane was one of my favourite all time writers,” Bruce Springsteen wrote to mark the occasion. “I don’t know about the rest of us but they will be singing Shane’s songs one hundred years from now.”
His funeral at St Mary’s Church in Nenagh was a feast of music at which the highlight had to be a haunting rendition of 'Rainy Night In Soho' from Nick Cave that almost had the church walls trembling. The requiem mass has to be in the running for gig of the year.
This had to be the most tense, arresting, terrifying, and beautifully shot documentary to arrive in 2023. Directed by Kildare woman Laura McGann it focused on the world of free diving, an insane and compulsive sport in which divers go to crazy depths holding their breath. At its centre is Dubliner Stephen Keenan and his relationship with Italian Alessia Zecchini, both exponents of a sport that took them to exotic locations around the world. There is tragedy and romance and the pursuit of excellence and banging on death’s door in attempts to be the best.
Declan Burke, reviewing it in the Irish Examiner, put it as follows. “It’s a gripping tale, and especially during those long claustrophobic dives into the impenetrably dark depths when Alessia and her peers push their bodies beyond what is theoretically possible, and that’s even before we get to the world’s most notoriously lethal freediving venues, the ominously named Vertical Blue in the Bahamas and the treacherous Blue Hole and its 50-metre-deep arch — freediving’s ultimate challenge — off the coast of the Red Sea.” It’s on Netflix. Do yourself a favour over the holidays.
Still crazy after all these years. On September 29, U2 began what will in time be referred to as their Vegas years. This was a new departure in many ways. Larry Mullen, the drummer who first pinned up a notice in Mount Temple Comprehensive looking for bandmates in 1977, was absent through injury. The shows were also taking place in a venue that is all about effects, visuals, and atmosphere in which, some might say, the music could well get dwarfed. The band has, over its 46-year history, never been afraid to experiment and this is the latest example. They are also due to pull in a million bucks per show which is no bad result for a bunch of oul fellas well past their prime.
“Look at all this stuff,” Bono told the 17,000 crowd on the opening night. “Elvis has definitely not left the building. It’s an Elvis cathedral and tonight there is a password to enter: flirtation.”
The reviews were rave. Say what you like about them, but U2 has continued to find a niche as the years roll on. No longer equipped to mine the rock ‘n roll canon for busted love, booze, or sex, they are settling well into their Vegas years. Fair play to them.
The verdict in the murder trial of the man they call the Monk was delivered by the Special Criminal Court on April 17. He had been charged with the murder of David Byrne in the Regency Hotel in 2016 when chaos ensured at a boxing weigh-in as gunmen burst into the room. The murder was attributed to the Hutch gang which was engaged in a deadly feud with the Kinehans. Daniel Kinihan was believed to be the target. Hutch was apprehended in Spain and extradited. The trial was notable for the evidence of former Hutch associate, Jonathan Dowdall, who had once been a Sinn Féin councillor.
Unusually for the Special Criminal Court, which has a higher than normal conviction rate, the verdict on Hutch was not guilty. Few disputed the decision. The evidence against him was flimsy and relied for the greatest part on Dowdall as a witness. Much of that evidence consisted of a secretly recording conversation between the men on a car journey days after the Regency attack.
"The reality is Gerard Hutch is viewed as head of Hutch family by Jonathan Dowdall but the audio does not establish Gerard Hutch's actual presence or participation in the murder but is consistent with the Hutch family being behind the Regency attack,” the three judge court ruled. “The court found the audio contains no direct admission that Gerard Hutch was present, indeed the opposite because he said nobody knows who was there. The court found it odd that Jonathan Dowdall did not say something about the previous confession at this point in their conversation, it seems strange he did not seek to clarify what was said.”
Hutch walked free from the court after more than a year in custody on remand. Outside a scrum of reporters surrounded him as he progressed away from the centre of justice. Once more, he had beaten the rap.
History was made in July when the Irish national team was among the starters in the FIFA tournament in Australia and New Zealand. The games didn’t go too well and the team exited at the group stage. There were the inevitable recriminations, centring on the coach Vera Pauw, who experienced that phenomenon of going from hero to zero in jig time. Her contract was not renewed and she left the stage with grace and little regret.
In a subsequent interview on RTÉ, Pauw spelled out how the daggers had been assembled when she wasn’t looking. “I found out that behind my back all things were happening,” she told Tony O’Donoghue. “Even my staff was talking bad about the players, my assistant was talking bad about me to the players."
The year ended better with a series of victories in the Nations League under then-interim and now-permanent coach Eileen Gleeson. The women's game in association football would appear to be in a much better place than that of their male counterparts.
An annus horriblis for the great entrepreneur Elon Musk, a man who would give Donald Trump a run for the title of ‘legend in his own lunchtime’. When he bought Twitter it was valued at €44bn, more than double today’s stock market valuation. He has dragged it down into the gutter, most likely believing that’s where the big bucks lie. He formally changed the name to X in April and in July a crane removed Twitter’s iconic bird logo from the company’s San Francisco HQ. At one conference in November, Musk was asked what his reaction would be to advertisers who were threatening to withdraw their business. “Go. Fuck. Yourself,” was his reply. Twitter is dead, baby.
Things here on earth are getting darker, to put it brightly. In December, Cop28 met in Dubai and went through the usual rigmarole about how to save the planet without impacting on economies or standards of living for the people who matter most, those of us in the west and other developed economies. The outcome was a statement declaring that nearly every country has agreed to “transition away from fossil fuels”. This was the first time in 28 years such a position was agreed. However, unless Flash Gordon arrives to save the planet at five to midnight it may all be a way too late.
The unlikely Irish anthem for the Rugby World Cup. The national side travelled to France in September more in expectation than hope. They had been unbeaten over the previous three years, a run that included wins over New Zealand and South Africa. But in the end, it was the All Blacks that once more held the day. Ireland exited at the quarter-final stage but it was not the usual departure full of recrimination and regrets. The boys did as good as could be expected.
The only minor controversy was over the adaptation of The Cranberries hit as the song of choice among the faithful. Zombie was written in reaction to an IRA bombing so some delicate souls of a retro Republican chic bent got very upset that those kind of atrocities could still find a place in the public’s consciousness, however inadvertently. Anyway, they got over it and the song is expected to be a regular at Irish matches from now on. More importantly, it finally looks as if the old dictum about the state of Irish rugby, “Desperate but not serious”, no longer applies. And that’s as good a Z as we’ve managed since the inaugural end of year A-Z a decade ago. Happy New Year.
A collection of the latest sports news, reports and analysis from Cork.