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2013 was the year of NSA files and Anglo Tapes, of natural disaster in the Philippines and man-made disaster in Syria. It was the year we (finally!) had a summer in Ireland, the year we lost one of our beloved poets (Seamus Heaney) and the year they buried a British woman hated by generations of Irish people.
Here, we take a look back at the year that was 2013; and some of the events that left a lasting impression.
Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe
Chris Donoghue, Newstalk Breakfast
In January, Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe was shot dead while on duty in Louth. Garda Donohoe and his partner were reporting for a routine cash drop when they were blocked inside the car park of Lordship Credit Union. When Garda Donohoe left their car to investigate he was shot in the head. This all played out in the heart of the community where his family lived and worked. In the days that followed we learned the gang stole around €4,000 and left €30,000 behind and we learned they drove into Northern Ireland before roadblocks were in place.
Garda Donohoe was the first officer killed on duty since 1996 and his full state funeral saw an enormous outpouring of grief and dignity from thousands of members of An Garda Siochana. Garda Donohoe’s widow and two of his brothers are serving Gardai and he was a father of two young children. His killers remain at large.
Photo: Funeral of Garda Adrian Donohoe. Photo: Photocall Ireland
Josef Pavelka and Piotr Baram
Pat Kenny, The Pat Kenny Show
Every day in the course of my work, I come across wickedness and foolishness, tragedy and sadness, but also occasionally, goodness and redemption. Some stories will stay for a while in the memory, but others will linger to haunt you. One such story was brought to me by Brian O’Connell, one of the reporters on Today with Pat Kenny. Brian had made his reporting beat the space from Waterford to Galway, and regularly found the kind of fascinating stories that rarely make the national media, but which speak of some universal truth. And Brian told us an extraordinary story last April, which certainly did make national headlines. Two homeless men had been living for months in two public toilets in Ennis County Clare.
52-year-old Czech national Josef Pavelka and 36-year-old Piotr Baram from Poland had arrived to work during the Celtic Tiger era, but had fallen on hard times. Both had chronic alcohol problems, they ended up sleeping rough, but they were more than drinking buddies, they were the best of friends. Over the cold winter, with no little ingenuity they made the toilets their home every night. They slept in separate locations, because Piotr told us he was kept awake by Josef’s snoring! They were more than tolerated—they were befriended; by the locals who would greet them by name on the streets of Ennis.
When we heard them on the radio programme we were all struck by the sheer dignity of the two men, who had so little and who asked for less. Because they had no fixed address, they didn’t qualify for any welfare help. Everything changed when Josef Pavelka ended up before the District Court in relation to his behaviour while drunk. Judge Patrick Durcan—clearly a humane man—was shocked at the way the men had been living in the toilets, describing it as ”a scandal”.
Killing with kindness
The Society of St Vincent de Paul in Ennis intervened and organised temporary accommodation in Galway, so that, with an address, the men could access the state services. There was also a huge outpouring of generosity from all over the country from listeners who were moved by their awful situation. But there is such a thing as killing with kindness.
People, by now familiar with the story, were much more forthcoming when asked for some change, and Josef’s drinking became much worse. Late on Sunday evening May 5th, a body was found in a laneway in Ennis, and it was identified as that of Joseph Pavelka. No foul play was suspected. Piotr was shattered by Josef’s death, and wept bitter tears for his dear friend. He said he was now going into treatment for his own alcoholism, although he was scared of that prospect in a way he would not have been scared of prison.
The last words we heard from Piotr on radio were heartbreaking: “I am silent now. I have no one to talk to.”
The Anglo Tapes
Shane Coleman, Political Editor
For me the story of 2013 has to be the Anglo Tapes revelations. So much had been written and reported about Anglo Irish Bank and the billions it has cost the state since the crisis began in 2008. But listening to the words spoken by Anglo executives on the tapes shone a light into the workings of, and the mindsets that existed at, the bank.
For most people, high finance is an esoteric and highly complex world. But the tapes stripped away all the mystery and showed Anglo up for what it truly was. When 'Reeling in the Years' eventually comes to focus on 2013, the Anglo Tapes will feature large - how about Justin Timberlake's 'Suit & Tie' as the soundtrack?
Photo: Anglo Irish Bank Graffiti Murals on Ormond Quay, Dublin CREDIT: Photocall Ireland
We Need to Talk
Ger Gilroy, Off The Ball
2013 was the year of talking. Alan O’Mara, the Cavan goalkeeper, and Conor Cusack (pictured below), the former Cork hurler, both came in to talk to us about depression and how it had reached a chronic point in their own lives. They had both contemplated suicide but both had managed to eventually find a way through their own problems.
Their decision to share their stories is the kind of quiet heroism that makes us all glad we’ve heard them speak. They’ve started a conversation and made it good to talk. For a lot of families it’s too late but for the rest of us it was an important start.
Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Dead, Dead, Dead
Henry McKean, Under the Covers & The Moncrieff Show
It was a sunny spring day in Belfast and there was snow on the mountains, after the flag riots in January, Belfast seemed calm and at peace with itself.
In the pub they chanted ‘Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Dead, Dead, Dead’. One man said, “There is ice cream and jelly available. Not that it’s a Mardi Gras but it’s defiantly a relief.” A lady said, “To be honest I’m glad she is dead she destroyed my country.” While another person declared, “She is the biggest bitch who ever walked this earth, the only good thing she done with her life is died, [sic] I hope the maggots eat her whole eyes.”
The Royal Bar on the Shankill road was busy having a wake even though they didn’t always see eye to eye with her because of the Anglo Irish Agreement. A drinker said, “She was the greatest Prime Minister of all, the Iron Lady, she said let Bobby Sands die, she was right.”
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
207 Days
Jonathan Healy, Newstalk Lunchtime
Mags Smart spoke to me on Newstalk Lunchtime in September. She wanted to raise awareness about meningitis, the awful illness that claimed the life of her baby son, Ruairi. She told us that her beloved little boy lived just for 207 days, and died within 24 hours of falling ill at his crèche.
Hers was a story she had probably told to others a hundred times, but its 100th retelling it was as tragic and honest as the first. Mags' reason for speaking out was to create awareness around research that will hopefully lead to more vaccines and more treatments to prevent another death like that of Ruairi.
I don't think I would ever be as brave in those circumstances to go on the radio and talk about it. But Mags, and so many others are. And for that, we're thankful.
No Reply
Orla Barry, The Green Room
A few nights ago a TV camera focused on an elderly woman crouched at the side of the road, staring at what she’d lost. Like so many others I thought what if that was my mother. What if those little children sent to the streets with a box, begging for food were my nieces.
Then I am distracted by a text and before I know it my mind has wandered onto something else. Until the next day when I hear that a good friend and former producer cannot be contacted. He moved to the Philipines five years ago. Then the devastation and fury and helplessness of those people comes crashing home to me. I try phoning, send an email, log onto Facebook. There is no reply. It’s so easy with all our technology and all our news media to move on to the next story and forget what happened yesterday. This story I won’t forget.
Photo: Flickr/EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection, WFP/Praveen Agrawal
Lance Armstrong
Joe Molloy, Off The Ball
From his first Tour de France win in 1999, there had been question marks over Lance. For the subsequent 14 years, the Tour wins kept coming, the bank balance kept growing and the evidence against him kept mounting. For a time, it looked like he was going to get away with it.
His defence had been to attack. He was relentless. So it was a surreal, deeply satisfying experience, to watch him squirm in front of Oprah. That Irish journalists like David Walsh and Paul Kimmage had played such a pivotal role in this global story, added to the intrigue. That’s my 2013 stand-out moment. Oprah: “Yes or no, did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance?” Lance: “Yes.”
I Will
Dil Wickremasinghe, Global Village
2013 saw the long awaited historic decision by the Irish Government to hold the same-sex marriage referendum in 2015. This holds huge significance as although my partner Anne Marie and I have been engaged since 2010 we decided to hold out for same-sex marriage. We can now finally look forward to our special day and set about starting a family of our own.
I first became an activist 13 years ago to campaign for same-sex marriage and my first published article as a journalist was in fact on the same topic. Now after attending numerous marches, taking part in countless television and radio debates on this civil rights issue I feel an immense sense of pride and satisfaction that I was part of this fabulous movement.
Photo: sushiesque/Flickr
Mission to Mars
Jonathan McCrea, Futureproof
On April 21st, a Dutch engineer and entrepreneur by the name of Bas Lansdorp announced his audacious mission to the world: to colonise Mars by 2023. In comparison to the discovery of the Higgs Boson, it pales in true scientific significance, but as a story it was electrifying. NASA had already announced the end of its shuttle programme 2 years earlier and it seemed that this generation would never get its moon landing.
Critics scoffed at the notion, but while Lansdorp’s team may never even leave earth, the idea itself—that there are serious, qualified people intent on making it happen, even that there are people out there who are still dreaming the impossible—made it an inspirational news story. Lansdorp creaked open the possibility that in our lifetime, we may bear witness to the first human settlers on a distant red planet called Mars.
Bas Lansdorp. Photo: Flickr/TEDxDelft
My Name Is…
Sarah Carey, Talking Point
In March Judge Henry Abbot ruled that the genetic mother of twins, carried by her sister as a surrogate, could be identified on the babies' birth certificates as their mother. This prompted a discussion on Talking Point, led by Susan Lohan from Adoption Ireland, about how a child’s right to its identity is lost in the absence of any statutory regulations for assisted reproduction.
Anonymous donors, surrogate mothers, and compliant friends—all help infertile couples have children. In the past, children were taken from bullied mothers for private adoption. Today they are created by consenting adults, but with no guarantees that the child will ever know their real parents. It opened my eyes to ethical issues very rarely discussed.
Tentative Recovery
Marc Coleman, The Marc Coleman Show
The biggest event for me is the tentative recovery taking hold in the economy, in jobs and in the property market. Just as it was hard to be a cautious voice in the boom it was hard to be an optimistic one in the depth of crisis. Now over 30,000 new jobs have been created in the last twelve months, exports are growing and both the government deficit and interest rates on government debt are falling. There are also over a third of a million more people in the country since the recession began. Excessive debt and taxation remain a crushing burden for most people, as does a high cost of living. But at least now there is a prospect of returning to normality and maybe even prosperity by 2020. Let’s hope so.
Greencastle sunrise, Co. Donegal. Photo: Flickr/ Andrew D. Hurley
This article originally appeared in Newstalk Magazine for iPad in November, for more details go here.
