With a new year just around the corner we’re in a reflective mood. Looking back at the past 12 months, we’ll go as far as declaring 2024 the year of the live blog.
In the jumble of stories making up the most-read lists on irishtimes.com in 2024, live online coverage of rolling stories makes up a significant proportion of the material. Four of the top 10 most-read stories overall this year, for instance, are live stories, spanning some of the big ticket political items you might expect, not to mention Clare’s one-point triumph over Cork at Croke Park to claim the county’s first hurling All-Ireland title since 2013.
The second most-read story overall concerns November’s general election, and it’s also a live blog. Despite coming late in the year, Election 2024 has predictably stamped itself all over the most-read tables, with the live story covering the first day of counting and summing up the day’s “winners and losers” attracting the most reader attention.
A little further down, another political live story from earlier in the year rounds off the top 10. Given how lively the political diary has been in the past 12 months, you’d be forgiven for forgetting we had a referendum in March: As it happened: Ireland votes No on family and care referendums.
An Irish cardiologist’s tips on how to ‘make purposeful changes in your life and see them through’
Ireland weather: New Year’s Eve set to be a washout with rain and cold forecast
Great Guinness heist: UK thieves steal truck carrying 35,000 pints
Leinster House usher killed while cycling was ‘a proud Cabra man’ dedicated to his family, funeral told
The top read story on the site this year, however, was perhaps less predictable. As with many stories that engage people the most, it was a personal story nestled at the core of a much broader issue – in this case, the use of lotteries to allocate places on high-demand university courses. Minister for Education Norma Foley’s decision to adjust Leaving Cert grades to come in line with those awarded in 2023 meant another year of bumper marks – and with it, higher demand on some top programmes. Practically, the move meant that even if a student achieved perfect marks, they weren’t guaranteed a place on any course. The story of one such student, from Co Wexford, became the most-read story on the website in 2024 at well north of half a million pageviews: ‘She couldn’t have done better’: Leaving Cert student with maximum points misses out on college course due to lottery.
Further down the overall list, stories of crime, personal tragedies, emigration, the deaths of prominent individuals and politics sit alongside the normal mix of columns, pop culture, sport and travel. Below is a list of the year’s top 10 stories by pageviews. A more detailed breakdown of our most-read stories will be published on Monday.
TOP 10 MOST-READ STORIES
- ‘She couldn’t have done better’: Leaving Cert student with maximum points misses out on college course due to lottery
- Election 2024 results: The winners and losers from day one of count
- Budget 2025 main points: Energy credits, bonus welfare payments, higher minimum wage and tax changes
- Dublin constituency: Left-wing candidates face dog fight for the last seat
- Ireland South: ‘It’s too big’ - Issues facing MEP candidates are as broad as the constituency
- Midlands-North-West: Battle for final seat could end with a small party making a breakthrough
- Woman (23) who died after dog attack at her home in Co Limerick named locally
- FT Clare 3-29 Cork 1-34 as it happened: Clare win All-Ireland hurling final
- Local and European election results: Fine Gael poised to be biggest party, Sinn Féin ‘disappointed’ and Independents make gains
- As it happened: Ireland votes No on family and care referendums
Meanwhile, this weekend our review of the year continues with Miriam Lord’s pithy take on a packed political agenda; our photographers choose their favourite images from the last 12 months, while Malachy Clerkin goes through an A to Z of the weirder sports stories, from Carlos Alcaraz’s escape from a bee invasion at Indian Wells to Raygun’s meme factory performance in the break dancing at the Olympic Games.
This week, we were also looking even further back with the release of the State papers, largely focusing on 1994, “a pivotal year for politicians, the Catholic Church and Anglo-Irish affairs”. We’ve wrapped up 10 of the most interesting revelations from the thousands of archive documents, from Mary Robinson being blocked from taking a UN role in 1993 to Ireland choosing discretion when Russian president Boris Yeltsin was “indisposed” when landing at Shannon Airport.
We also have an eye on the new year in our Weekend magazine with 25 ways to get the year off to a healthy start as well as a glance at the films to look forward to.
As always, there is much more on irishtimes.com, including rundowns of all the latest movies in our film reviews, tips for the best restaurants in our food section and all the latest in sport. There are plenty more articles exclusively available for Irish Times subscribers here.
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