10 years… The 10 people who most affected our lives from 2010 to 2019

The past 10 years have seen Ireland battle from post-recession lows to gender-equality highs, all the while battling housing and health crises, climate woes and more. Ten people emerged as central to some of the most important developments of the decade. Kim Bielenberg and John Meagher explain why.

Vicky Phelan

The woman who lifted lid on a health scandal

Her name now needs little introduction. She is seen as a heroine by many and someone who represents the very best of Ireland. But it’s likely Vicky Phelan wishes nobody outside her community in her native Limerick knew who she is, or could recognise her on the street

In a perfect world, Phelan would have simply got on with her life and the business of being a parent to two small children. It’s unlikely she would have felt compelled to write a book, never mind a bestseller. This year, Overcoming was hovering close to the top of the charts for weeks.

The 45-year-old is terminally ill with cervical cancer although she has been raging against the dying of the light for years. It was she who lifted the lid on what was one of the greatest political and medical scandals in Irish history – like hundreds of other women with cancer, she had initially been given the all-clear by the CervicalCheck screening process. But the system was deeply flawed and, unbeknownst to her, the cancer progressed beyond the treatment stage. By the time the error had been identified, Phelan and at least 200 other women faced a death sentence. Had the smear identified the illness, the chances are that the cancer would have been found in time.

Since first going public outside the steps of the Four Courts in April 2018, after being awarded €2.5m in compensation, Phelan has become a tireless champion for women who have suffered at the hands of the country’s creaking healthcare system.

She was a founding member of the CervicalCheck Patient Support Group, and has selflessly gone public with details about her personal life in the hope that medical and political systems will change. And all the while she’s been trying to raise her children, Amelia and Darragh, and prolonging her own life as best she can.

Phelan’s campaigning work is redolent of a decade in which Irish women stood up and shouted ‘Stop’. The 2012 death of Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar (profiled below) galvanised a new generation to seek the abortion rights here that tens of thousands of women had been denied.

Health Minister Simon Harris may have cheered the resounding vote in favour of abortion, but he – like many in the role before him – frequently struggled to get on top of the vast healthcare portfolio. Hospital waiting lists remain shamefully long – by European standards – and several areas, such as psychological services for children, are struggling to cope with demand.

If CervicalCheck was the greatest health scandal with a human cost, there was little confusion about what the most egregious financial scandal was. Costs of construction of the forthcoming National Children’s Hospital spiralled wildly out of control. Now set to open in 2023, the latest upwardly mobile estimate is at more than €1.7bn – more than three times the expected amount when the site was first identified at St James’s Hospital.

– JM

 

Brian Lenihan

The man who made biggest cutbacks in history of the State

 

At the start of the decade, Ireland’s economy was hitting rock bottom, and we lived under the regime of “the two Brians”.  It was a harsh period of austerity that was all the more painful, because it followed the spendthrift Celtic Tiger era.

As Minister for Finance and as the man charged with trying to remove us from the doldrums, Brian Lenihan was just as prominent as the Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

In January 2010, he continued with his onerous workload even though he had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

A bed was taken into the department so that he could occasionally rest. One of his advisers, economist Alan Ahearne, said: “He was actually in the office more, because it was harder for him to get out and about.”

Commenting on his own diagnosis, Lenihan said: “I won’t be gallivanting around, I will probably have more time to work at my desk.”

He used an old-style Nokia phone, and officials recall him ringing them while he was in the middle of chemotherapy or radiotherapy to discuss one of the State’s deep financial problems. He could sometimes be back at his desk within minutes of receiving treatment.

As he struggled to put the country back on an even keel, the Minister for Finance cut a Churchillian figure, forced to implement the most draconian cutbacks in the history of the State.

Ahearne later insisted Lenihan took the tough decisions that stabilised the country. Of the €28bn in cutbacks since 2008, €21bn were carried out by him.

In hindsight, many would question his judgment in earlier guaranteeing the debts of the banks, with losses to the State of many billions, but few doubted his courage.

While Cowen seemed to buckle under the pressure of office, Lenihan remained bullish.

The Fianna Fáil/Green government hit a low point in September 2010 when Brian Cowen gave an interview on Morning Ireland where he sounded under the weather. Simon Coveney said he sounded half way between drunk and hungover, which was flatly denied by the Taoiseach. Supporters said he was “hoarse”. Lenihan caused controversy in the following months when he seemed to suggest that the public shared the blame for the economic calamity after the years of Celtic Tiger excess: “Let’s be fair about it – we all partied.”

There were gasps of disbelief right across Europe when Lenihan revealed the cost of bailing out the Irish banking system – €50bn.

The State’s finances were to get a lot worse in the following months, and eventually Lenihan had to face the realities of a bailout from the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank – the Troika – and an even tougher programme of austerity.

Ministers went before the cameras to deny that a bailout was happening while negotiations over its implementation were in full swing.

With little end in sight to the banking crisis, Lenihan cut a forlorn figure when he flew to Brussels to sign a deal, which was seen as surrendering part of our sovereignty.

In an interview after he left office, he said: “I’ve a very vivid memory of going to Brussels to sign the agreement and being on my own at the airport and looking at the snow gradually thawing and thinking to myself, this is terrible. No Irish minister has ever had to do this before.”

As he put it himself: “I had fought the good fight and taken every measure possible to delay such an eventuality and now hell was at the gates.”

While some of his cabinet colleagues, including the Taoiseach, bowed out of politics completely when the election came in 2011, he fought the campaign.

It was the worst election result in Fianna Fáil’s history as the party lost 57 seats, but Lenihan was the only TD from the party to retain his seat in Dublin.

He died at his home in Strawberry Beds on June 10, 2011, with his wife Patricia and teenage children Tom and Clare at his bedside.

“He was imbued with hope, he was imbued with confidence and he was imbued with courage,” his friend Paul Gallagher said in the eulogy. “If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would not have believed such courage was possible.”

– KB

Maurice McCabe

The garda who did the State considerable service

 

At the start of the decade, Maurice McCabe was an unknown garda sergeant, but by the end, he was a household name who had left a lasting impact on our police force and the political system.

As a garda whistleblower, he exposed garda malpractice, particularly regarding the quashing of penalty points. As a result of his endeavours, he found himself the victim of unfounded smears.

Prior to this decade, McCabe had begun to raise concerns about deficiencies in investigations at his station Bailieborough, Co Cavan. He had also found himself accused of a sexual assault of a colleague’s daughter when she was a child, but the allegation proved to be unfounded.

In 2012, he lifted the lid on the penalty points controversy, claiming well-known personalities had had their points wiped. The Comptroller and Auditor General publishes a report into the penalty points scandal which backs up claims made by whistleblowers including McCabe.

But the Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan told the Public Accounts Committee that only two officers out of a force of 13,000 were making allegations. He said that “on a personal level” he thought it was “quite disgusting”.

Leo Varadkar, as Minister for Transport, called on Callinan to withdraw his “disgusting” comment. Days later, Callinan stepped down when a separate controversy arose over the taping of phonecalls at garda stations.

A report by barrister Seán Guerin claimed the Minister for Justice Alan Shatter failed to properly investigate matters raised by Sgt McCabe. The minister hotly disputed the findings, but stood down. Shatter later felt vindicated by a ruling by the Court of Appeal. Frances Fitzgerald moved to the Department of Justice. She promises a “new era of policing”. Nóirín O’Sullivan was appointed Garda Commissioner. Both women would later resign over issues linked to Sgt McCabe. By the time she stepped down, Fitzgerald had moved on to another cabinet post.

In 2018, McCabe was naturally relieved when the Disclosures Tribunal report by Mr Justice Peter Charleton gave him a resounding endorsement. The tribunal was damning about the former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan and former garda press officer Supt Dave Taylor, suggesting that they had a plan to spread the historic and unfounded sexual abuse allegation about him.

The judge said McCabe “was repulsively denigrated for being no more than a good citizen and police officer.”

In the report, Mr Justice Charleton said McCabe was “a genuine person who at all times has had the interests of the people of Ireland uppermost in his mind”.

The judge said McCabe had “done the State considerable service” in bringing matters within the force to the attention of the wider public. These included the scandal of penalty points being wiped out.

“He has done so not out of a desire to inflate his public profile, but out of a legitimate drive to ensure that the national police force serves the people through hard work and diligence,” the judge said. Charleton described McCabe as an officer of “exemplary character” and “admirable fortitude.”

Sgt McCabe announced soon after the publication of the report that he was retiring.

– KB

 

Leo Varadkar

The man who kept the show on the road as Brexit loomed

 

At the start of the decade, Leo Varadkar had a reputation as one of the most right-wing politicians in Fine Gael.

During the decade, he moved closer to the centre ground politically, and this moderation helped him in his rapid political ascent to be leader of Fine Gael and Taoiseach.

Varadkar was fortunate in his timing as he succeeded Enda Kenny as Taoiseach in the middle of 2017, during a period of economic recovery.

Kenny, an old-school leader who was different in style, took over during the spring of 2011 when the country was in a state of bankruptcy.

Directed by the Troika, Kenny’s government had limited room for manoeuvre in its early period and had to make drastic cuts.

By the time Varadkar took over in June of 2017, the period of austerity was over and the economic recovery was well advanced. Unemployment had peaked at 16pc in 2012, but was down to 6pc by 2017.

With this economic fair wind, Varadkar’s government had much more leeway to increase public spending.

As the gay son of an Indian immigrant, Varadkar has had a more prominent global profile than most Irish leaders of recent memory.

The unfolding saga of Brexit brought him to the centre of the international stage, where he seemed be more sure-footed than his British counterparts, Theresa May and the bumbling Boris Johnson.

He became the first Taoiseach who was comfortable with social media, even if his online profile could be irksome at times.

Although he always had a talent for self-promotion, when he became Taoiseach there were many doubts about his man-management skills.

Political observers were sceptical about whether he could get along with his colleagues in Fine Gael, hold together a minority government propped up by Fianna Fáil in a precarious confidence-and-supply arrangement, and co-operate with a disparate group of independents.

In that respect, bar the odd hiccup, he has proved his doubters wrong and kept the ragtag minority government in power for much longer than most pundits had expected.

He may not have had the same ability to work a room as Enda Kenny, but Varadkar paid close attention to communicating with TDs and the party grassroots, as well as having cordial relations with independent ministers.

There were crises during his term as Taoiseach – from the Frances Fitzgerald resignation to the Cervical Smear scandal – but at times Leo seemed to somehow ride nonchalantly above it all.

The survival of the Government was one thing. His critics highlighted the paucity of actual achievements in key areas, apart from the sharp drop in unemployment and the victory in the abortion referendum.

After almost nine years in office, Fine Gael has not managed to solve the housing crisis. Homelessness remains as prevalent as ever, while sky-high house prices and rents have blighted the prospects of a generation and overshadowed more positive economic indicators.

When he came into office, promising to create a “republic of opportunity”, Varadkar described taking action on climate change as one of the “great international causes of our time”.

But environmental critics argue that aspirations have not been matched by actual achievements in this area. The Government postponed hikes in carbon taxes until this year, and measures to cut emissions have been slow to take shape.

In 2018, the State’s budgetary watchdog the Fiscal Advisory Council launched an unprecedented attack on his Government for “repeatedly” missing its own financial targets and for failing to manage the public finances in a prudent manner.

Some of Varadkar’s pet projects are years behind schedule and predictions about their cost have proved to be wide of the mark.

Back in 2016, as Minister for Health, Leo promised that “short of an asteroid hitting the planet”, the futuristic new National Children’s Hospital would be ready by 2020 at a cost of €650m.

The latest indications are that it will be open in 2023 at a cost of more than €1.7bn.

He has been fortunate to preside over the country at a time of economic growth. But the real test of his mettle is likely to come if there is an economic downturn in the coming months.

Having stuck around as leader of Fianna Fáil since 2011, Micheál Martin will have an opportunity to topple him in an election, as voters pass judgment on Varadkar and Fine Gael’s long period of government.

– KB

 

Panti Bliss

The man who led the conversation on the gay marriage referendum

 

Historians looking back at the latter stages of the 20th century and the first couple of decades of the 21st, may well isolate a timeline starting in 1993 and ending in 2015 that best illustrates how seismically Ireland changed. Up until 1993, homosexuality was treated as a criminal offence by law – despite the fact that on the other side of the Irish Sea, decriminalisation had come into effect in 1967.

Ireland lagged way behind, but finally decriminalisation happened here, too. Fast forward 22 years, and we became the first country in the world to bring in same-sex marriage after a referendum on the issue was put to the people. And the vote in favour of gay marriage was decisive.

While the likes of David Norris had led the campaign for decriminalisation, a different generation of gay men and women were at the forefront of agitating for change in the early part of this decade. And arguably the most vocal was Rory O’Neill whose Panti Bliss drag queen persona had already made him celebrated in Dublin’s gay community.

But now it was the flamboyantly attired and ever articulate Panti who was leading a national conversation. The message was clear: why shouldn’t gay people enjoy the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts? It was a mantra that connected with an Ireland that had long thrown off the shackles of religious oppression.

The biggest moment in the campaign took place in February 2014, when Panti delivered an impassioned ‘Noble Call’ speech from the stage of the Abbey Theatre following a performance of James Plunkett’s politically charged The Risen People. She spoke eloquently about the years of oppression that members of the LGBT community had been forced to endure in Ireland – and were still suffering from.

The speech, which was quickly uploaded on to YouTube, went viral with 200,000 views in the first few days and it connected with audiences because Panti illustrated that much of that oppression was seemingly slight and yet, cumulatively, those barbs could have a profound effect.

It was a decade in which many oppressed people in society stood up to be heard. Women like Ailbhe Smyth and Orla O’Connor fought hard for abortion rights, while the unjust discrepancy between salaries earned by men and women was a constant theme. The Travelling community, too, found voice in figureheads like Martin Collins and John Connors. More recently, the rights of trans people has become part of the national conversation.

While nobody would argue that discrimination has been eradicated, it seems fair to suggest that as we enter the third decade of this century, Ireland is a more tolerant, inclusive place than it was as the 2010s were about to begin.

– JM

 

Katie Taylor

The woman who smashed down the barriers forwomen’s sport

 

It remains, perhaps, the most beloved Irish sporting moment of the decade. The occasion was the 2012 Olympics – which was staged with remarkable aplomb by London – and the venue was the ExCeL Arena in the east end of the city. It was there on a balmy August day that boxer Katie Taylor became Olympic champion and earned Ireland’s first gold medal since the three achieved by Michelle Smith de Bruin, the controversial swimmer whose career ended in a doping ban.

The Irish took to the Bray native like few other sporting figures. There was something about her sense of humility and the sheer hard work that she had put in that made her the nation’s sweetheart. And when she was adjudged the winner after the toughest of lightweight finals against Russian Sofya Ochigava, the relief and joy etched on her face was mirrored by many of those watching.

Taylor had come to the public’s attention years before. She was the quietly spoken kid who had been gifted at many sports, but boxing became her obsession from an early age. Her story was irresistible: she was trying to compete in a traditional male sport by training in a run-down gym with her father, Pete, acting as a coach.

Somehow, Taylor persevered and it was in part thanks to her efforts that women’s boxing was granted Olympic status in 2012 for the first time. It was fitting that the then 26-year-old should be the one to stand on the top podium and savour the moment when the national anthem was played for her.

But it wasn’t just her gifts in the boxing ring that made Taylor a sportsperson completely different from the norm: in a decade in which outward signs of Christian faith seemed to diminish ever more in this country, the Co Wicklow fighter never shirked from announcing her love of God. And, in her finest hour, many were struck by her deep sense of faith. Taylor, an evangelical Christian, is a regular church goer at St Mark’s in the heart of Dublin.

And she needed that faith when things didn’t go to plan. If the 2012 Olympics had been a fantasy come true, the next one, Rio 2016, was nothing short of a nightmare. Taylor and her father had fallen out for personal reasons in the months leading up to the tournament and her confidence seemed to nosedive. With new coaches in her corner, Taylor could not revive the all-conquering achievements of her early career and she crashed out early, failing to medal.

She cut a devastated figure when the cameras came in close at the end and the country seemed to mourn as one. Had that been the end of Taylor’s career, history would, rightly, have judged her most kindly. After all, she had racked up such a haul of medals that, at one stage, it looked as though she was unbeatable.

And, yet, the Katie Taylor story was simply entering a whole new chapter. It was always her dream to fight professionally and although some questioned the sense of a 30-year-old veteran stepping into a brutal new realm, Taylor had absolute faith in her own abilities. Her extraordinary drive in the face of adversity was captured in Katie, the fly-on-the-wall documentary made by Ross Whitaker.

Taylor did indeed go on to deliver one great result after the next in the pro ranks and she has ended the decade as light welterweight world champion, having been a two-weight world champion for much of this year.

Her success has helped to increase both the prominence of and participation levels in women’s sport. In the space of 10 years, the sea change has been extraordinary. This year marked a record 56,000 crowd at the All-Ireland Ladies’ Gaelic Football Final, beating records set in the previous two years. The women’s hockey team got to the finals of the World Championships last year and have booked their place in the Tokyo Olympics next year. The ladies’ soccer team have also been pulling in ever larger crowds with one of them, Stephanie Roche, earning a Puskás nomination for European goal of the year.

The ever-humble Taylor would not wish to take credit for helping to increase the profile of any of those sports, but she certainly played her part. And, now, at 33, she is showing no signs of wanting to hang up her gloves any time soon.

– JM

 

Donald Trump

The businessman who astounded even himself to win White House

 

Few would have predicted at the start of the decade that the businessman and television personality Donald Trump would become President of the United States

In 2015, when he announced that he was running, he was considered a joke candidate. But the joke candidate in a field of 17 Republicans won the nomination, and ended up winning the US presidency in November 2016 when he stood against Hillary Clinton.

There was shock across the world that a rampant narcissist with so little relevant experience for the top job had won through, and even Trump himself and his backers were reported to be dumbfounded as the result emerged.

Steve Bannon, the right-wing ideologue who became his adviser in the White House, said he saw Trump suddenly morph from “a disbelieving Trump and then into a horrified Trump”.

The billionaire property tycoon, from the start, vowed to “Make America Great Again”. As expected, once installed as president he unleashed chaos, with an order banning travel to the US from several Muslim-majority countries. He indulged racist white supremacists, and in the summer of 2017 responded in an alarming way to a march by right-wing extremists in Charlottesville, Virginia that led to the death of a counterprotester.

Trump defended the racist marchers, saying that there were “very fine people on both sides”.

He shook the foundations of global trade, slapping steep tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of goods from the EU, Canada, Mexico and China. Those affected responded in kind, retaliating with levies on thousands of US products.

In the White House, the new president often retreated to his bedroom in the evening, where he had three televisions installed and liked to dine on cheeseburgers, according to the book Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff.

According to Wolff, Trump found the White House to be vexing and even a little scary.

“If he was not having his 6.30 dinner with Steve Bannon, then, more to his liking, he was in bed by that time with a cheeseburger, watching his three screens and making phone calls – the phone was his true contact point with the world – to a small group of friends, who charted his rising and falling levels of agitation through the evening…”

In another book, Fear, Bob Woodward describes a “nervous breakdown” in the administration, with senior officials even grabbing official papers from the president’s desk so he couldn’t see or sign them.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told colleagues that he thought the president was “unhinged”, the book claims.

At one meeting, Kelly said of Trump: “He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown.”

Trump’s national security team was shaken by his lack of knowledge about world affairs.

Defence Secretary Jim Mattis was alarmed by his behaviour, telling close associates after one meeting that the president acted like – and had the understanding of – “a fifth- or sixth-grader”.

The disturbing portrait of Trump in the book appeared to be confirmed by an anonymous article by a member of the Trump administration in the New York Times.

According to the insider account, meetings with Trump veered off topic and off the rails, he engaged in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions.

According to the article, members of the Cabinet even considered invoking the 25th amendment, which could initiate the removal of a president “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office”.

And of course, Trump added to the mayhem with his stream of idiotic or undiplomatic comments on Twitter, including abuse of his former Secretary of State: “Mike Pompeo is doing a great job, I am very proud of him. His predecessor, Rex Tillerson, didn’t have the mental capacity needed. He was dumb as a rock and I couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. He was lazy as hell….”

He had more time for North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un, who was dubbed ‘Little Rocket Man’: “North Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong-un, will become a great economic powerhouse. He may surprise some but he won’t surprise me, because I have gotten to know him and fully understand how capable he is. North Korea will become a different kind of rocket – an economic one!”

– KB

 

Aylan Kurdi

The boy who captured the true human cost of refugee crisis

 

The image is so heartbreaking it can be difficult to look at. It depicts a small boy, lying face-down on a beach while the waves lap gently around him. His hands are by his side. It could well have been the way he slept, but this child had drowned – yet another desperate refugee who perished trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean. The date was September 2, 2015.

His identity was soon revealed. Aylan Kurdi, three years old and a Syrian native of ethnic Kurdish background. Many of the media reports anglicised his first name to Alan, and it stuck.

He was one of thousands who died trying to make their way to a better land, but this was the image and Alan’s was the name that captured the true human cost – and it offered a reminder to those of us in wealthy Ireland about how lucky we were when it came to the geographic roll of the dice. We may have a myriad of problems when it comes to housing and healthcare, but none of us have to climb aboard an overcrowded raft or take our chances hiding in the back of an articulated lorry as it hurtles down Europe’s motorways.

Ireland played its part in helping with the refugee crisis and our naval services rescued many stricken people in the Mediterranean. Vessels like the LÉ Eithne became part of the vernacular of the era and there was a steady increase in the numbers seeking asylum here.

But desperate people can be gold dust to criminals and as the decade wore on, there was a disturbing increase in the volume of people-trafficking. It was especially sobering this year, especially when 39 people – many of them from China – literally froze to death in the back of a refrigerated lorry. The grim discovery was made shortly after arrival in the UK and the Northern Irish driver plus several of his associates await their fate.

It was a decade in which Ireland’s Direct Provision system – established 20 years ago this year – was found to be creaking at the seams. If some looked away before, it was difficult to ignore the fact that people were often left years in limbo, with a pittance in state support and legally unable to get work to support themselves.

Some refused to look away – initiatives like the Sanctuary Runners reached out the hand of friendship and helped humanise the statistics – and political pressure mounted on the Fine Gael-led government to improve the situation.

But there was an ugly upsurge in racism this decade, too, one that seemed to steadily increase after the election of Trump and the vote for Brexit. Peter Casey came second in the 2018 Presidential election, his popularity apparently boosted by a hardline stance on Travellers.

Elsewhere, self-styled ‘patriots’ started to stoke up fear of a ‘Great Replacement’ – the alt-right term for the way immigrants are “taking over” the country they make their new home. They refused to engage with what they termed the ‘lamestream’ media and instead posted hate-filled videos from their living rooms.

As a result, there have been calls for hate crime legislation to be introduced and for Twitter and Facebook to de-platform them. The social media giants have been slow to act and the ‘patriots’ have been vocal in espousing their right to free speech. A curious phenomenon of the growth of racist invective is how its chief exponents have pushed hard for a return to a theocratic state, to an Ireland where abortion and gay rights don’t exist.

Despite their social-media screeds, there is little evidence that such figures are appealing to anyone outside the most disaffected in society. But incidences of racism have appeared to be on the way up – and a mixed-race couple who appeared in a Lidl advert felt compelled to move to the UK such was the hostility directed their way on social media.

– JM

 

Savita Halappanavar

The woman whose death led to historic abortion referendum

 

The hotly contested debate over whether Ireland should remove its constitutional ban on abortion dominated the decade.

As campaigners celebrated a historic referendum vote to change strict abortion laws in May 2018, they remembered a figure who had become iconic as a result of her tragic death six years earlier.

Savita Halappanavar, a dentist, and her husband Praveen, an engineer, were living in Galway in 2012 and preparing for the birth of their first child.

That all changed when, 17 weeks into her pregnancy, Savita went to University Hospital Galway with back pain and doctors said she was having a miscarriage.

She became gravely ill and died on October 28 after contracting sepsis.

Savita’s husband Praveen said that she had requested a termination, but was denied it because the baby’s heart was still beating. She was told it was not possible because Ireland was “a Catholic country”.

Within days of her passing, vigils and protests were organised across the country. Thousands of people lit candles, held photographs of Savita with the words “Never again” and “She had a heartbeat, too” written beside her face and demanded that the government take action.

Professor Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, who led a HSE investigation into the death of Savita, told an Oireachtas committee: “If she had a termination in the first days as requested, she would not have had sepsis.”

The tragedy brought to the forefront the Eighth Amendment to the constitution, which gave equal status to the life of the mother and the life of the unborn.

Pro-choice campaigners had been campaigning for its removal from Bunreacht na hÉireann for years, while others fiercely defended it in a way that was just as trenchant.

The case of Savita made headlines around the world and galvanised pro-choice campaigners into action.

The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act was signed into law in 2013, legalising abortion when doctors deem that a woman’s life is at risk due to medical complications or if she is at risk of attempting suicide.

In 2017, the Citizens’ Assembly recommended that the Eighth Amendment be replaced or amended, and that a provision should be made in the Constitution to allow the Oireachtas to legislate for abortion.

In a report on the issue, an Oireachtas committee recommended that the Eighth Amendment should be repealed, and that terminations should be allowed up to 12 weeks of pregnancy “with no restriction as to reason, provided that it is availed of through a GP-led service delivered in a clinical context”.

After much debate, on May 25, 2018 voters were asked if they want the Eighth Amendment to be repealed.

The vote followed a campaign in which dozens of Irish people told intensely personal stories about crisis pregnancy, including fatal foetal abnormality.

Stories of women who had to travel for abortions seemed to strike a chord with the public.

The country voted by 66.4pc to 33.6pc to remove the amendment, with over two million votes cast. The vote among young people was particularly striking – 88pc of young people aged 18 to 24 voted Yes.

The support for Yes outside Dublin signalled a massive change in social attitudes. Every county apart from Donegal voted to remove the amendment in a referendum that was seen as another crushing blow to the authority of the Catholic Church.

The Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran was ridiculed when he warned that those voting Yes in the Eighth Amendment referendum on abortion had committed “a sin” and should consider going to confession.

For many people across Ireland, Savita’s name was on their mind as the final tally was called out at Dublin Castle.

After the referendum result was announced, thousands of pro-choice activists laid flowers and heartfelt messages beside the mural of Savita’s face, intertwined with the word ‘Yes’.

The Dublin mural had become a focal point of remembrance, a place for many to share both apologies and thanks.

Savita’s father Andanappa Yalagi said he had “no words to express his gratitude to the people of Ireland”.

“We’ve got justice for Savita. What happened to her will not happen to any other family,” he said.

After decades of controversy, the law permitting abortion in Ireland came into effect on January 1, 2019.

– KB

 

Greta Thunberg

The girl who turned tide of opinion on climate change

 

Around the time the 2010s were dawning, Greta Thunberg had pressing concerns on her mind: her seventh birthday. It is hard to believe that someone who was just beginning primary school in her native Sweden 10 years ago would go on to make such a remarkable contribution to the conversation on climate change – and what must be done to safeguard our future and that of our children.

Thunberg turns 17 on January 3 but she had to do a lot of growing up in 2019. This was the year in which she became a global figure, a source of inspiration for millions of children and adults alike but also one of derision and mockery for that band of people who believe concerns about our climate are exaggerated.

The Swede cut through the bluster to plead with governments around the world to take stock of the damage that has already been done to the environment and to enact change that would ensure the preservation of the planet’s rich biodiversity.

But while many leaders rushed to praise the teen, the climate change denier in the White House continued to plough a lone and ultra sceptical furrow. Rather than endorse the Paris Climate Agreement, President Donald Trump is planning to remove the US from the accord. It’s a threat that has caused much despair among climate activists in America and overseas.

This year, it was reported that while there has been a slowdown in the amount of greenhouse gases being released into the environment, the planet is a long way off track in order to meet previously established goals.

Ireland has a long way to go, too with a damning UN report published this month highlighting the fact that Ireland’s track record was among the lowest in the EU.

Agencies such as the Irish Wildlife Trust have been highly critical of the Government’s handling of the issue and accused senior politicians of failing to act on their words. There was consternation earlier this year when the Government pledged to make the climate emergency a priority while also announcing its plans to import fracked gas.

But 10 years is a long time when it comes to public opinion, and it is clear that many people feel far greater responsibility towards the environment now than they did at the start of the decade.

The Irish electric car population may still be small, but it has been growing significantly over the past 24 months. Recycling agencies say there is far greater engagement than there was. Single-use plastics are being looked down on now in a way that was unthinkable a generation ago – the mass of plastic rubbish in our rivers and oceans, highlighted by David Attenborough and others, had quite an impact on our behaviour.

Even micro-beads, those tiny bits of plastics found in cosmetics and other goods are being phased out – and not before time. It is estimated that most of the saltwater fish we eat has ingested plastic via micro-beads.

There have been signs of late that the Irish public want change. After spending most of the decade in the margins, the Greens made big gains in the local, European and by-elections. Some believe that the party could achieve double digit Dáil seats in next year’s General Election.

But just how far are the public willing to go – and to be taxed – in order to illustrate their green credentials? Irish people, collectively, went on a journey of enlightenment in the 2010s, but the real work is only just beginning. Just ask Greta Thunberg.

– JM

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