Photographs of 2018: Politics

Irish Times picks of the year: From Mary Lou McDonald to Theresa May

Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Mary Lou McDonald on audience monitors during the Sinn Féin special ardfheis (above), at the RDS in Dublin in February, where she was confirmed as party leader, succeeding Gerry Adams.

President Michael D Higgins’s second-term inauguration, in November.

Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at a replica first World War trench in Cavan in October.

Photograph: Lorraine Teevan
Photograph: Lorraine Teevan

Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton at an event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement in April.

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Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before a United States Senate judiciary committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, in September. Despite allegations of sexual misconduct, Kavanaugh’s nomination was confirmed by the senate in October.

Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters
Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters

Minister Shane Ross at the July road-safety-review publication.

Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

As Ireland experiences an extreme housing shortage, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe greet local residents Rose O’Connor and her grandchildren Lily and Brandon O’Connor, during a visit to O’Devaney Gardens in Dublin 7 in October. The O’Devaney Gardens Project will see the demolition of existing housing blocks and the development of just under 700 social, affordable and private homes on the site.

Photograph: Gareth Chaney/Collins
Photograph: Gareth Chaney/Collins

British prime minister Theresa May dancing to Abba as she arrives on stage to make her keynote speech at the Conservative Party annual conference, in Birmingham, in October.

Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire