Who would you choose as Ireland’s Person of the Year?

Before Christmas, Time Magazine in the United States picks a person who has a significant impact on global events. 

Yesterday, global superstar Taylor Swift was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2023 after her Eras tour smashed box office records.

The Time award aims to find the person who has had the most impact on global events each year – and the magazine is known for making some controversial choices.

After his election as US President in 2016, Donald Trump was picked and in 1938, Hitler received the accolade following his annexation of Austria.

But who would be Ireland’s person of the year?

This morning, Newstalk Breakfast presenter Ciara Kelly had a couple of candidates in mind.

“I think maybe Sinéad O’Connor,” she said. 

“I did also think of Johnny Sexton because I loved the whole of the Rugby World Cup and all of that. 

“I hopped on a plane and went off to see them.” 

The hearse carrying Sinead O'Connor's body passes by crowds of well-wishers and mourners lining the Bray seafront ahead of her funeral, 08-08-2023. Image: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews

Ciara said Sinéad’s death led her to reflect on O’Connor’s life and how radical she had seemed as a young woman. 

“I think [her dying] did create a huge amount of conversations among my generation - particularly among women of my generation - [about] whether or not she was ahead of her time, how he was viewed and all of that,” Ciara said. 

“That stayed with me for a while afterwards, so I think she’s someone who made me think this year.” 

'Rarely out of the news'

Co-presenter Shane Coleman had a few different candidates in mind, one of whom was Justice Minister Helen McEntee. 

“In terms of influencing the news, she was rarely out of the news headlines over the year,” he said. 

“Conor McGregor’s another person.” 

“It was perhaps not language that I would normally use.”

Justice Minister Helen McEntee responds to criticism of her use of the words ‘thugs and scumbags’ in the Dáil.#DublinRiots pic.twitter.com/vfxPJn0vr6

— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) November 30, 2023

Despite this, he thought there was a clear winner due to the “huge impact” he has had on RTÉ. 

“It’s got to be Ryan Tubridy, I think in terms of influence over the news and dominating the headlines,” he said. 

“The stuff was completely over the top but he dominated the headlines from early summer to pretty much a few weeks ago.”

Main image: Ryan Tubridy on set of The Late Late Show.