WELL, IT’S CERTAINLY been a year of strange times, tough times, and all the in between. But even though 2024 had plenty of moments that made people gasp and despair around the globe, there were some positive moments too. So let’s take some time to remember a few reasons to be cheerful about the year that was in Ireland.
What a start to the year: watching our own Cillian Murphy win his first Oscar for Best Actor. It was all down to his role as J Robert Oppenheimer in the latest Christopher Nolan blockbuster, and boy was the country excited. Murphy also brought some other great news to us this year when it was announced that he and his wife, artist Yvonne McGuinness, had in Dingle.
The actor’s performance in Small Things Like These also earned further positive reviews, and has been performing well at the box office across Ireland and in the UK. He’s reportedly taking some time off from acting, but we do have the Peaky Blinders film to look forward to on Netflix (where he co-stars with Barry Keoghan). This year, the fact the Olympics were on in Paris meant that Irish viewers didn’t have to tune in at 3am to watch the games.
This meant many communal moments as 133 athletes took part across 16 sports in the Olympics, and 35 across six sports in the Paralympics. There were so many highlights, from Daniel Wiffen, Kellie Harrington, Fintan McCarthy, Paul O’Donovan and Rhys McClenaghan taking home golds, to cheering on our women’s 4 x 400 relay team as they narrowly miss.
