Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on their wedding dayKensington Palace Instagram
What were the top Irish news stories of 2018? What stories did IrishCentral readers care the most about in 2018?
From politics to DNA, from the royal wedding to Ireland’s scorcher of a heatwave, it was an eventful year. The following are IrishCentral’s 10 most-read news stories of the year.
1) Freddie Mercury’s Irish love Jim Hutton
Freddie Mercury and Jim Hutton
With the release of the Freddie Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” in November, interest in the late, Queen great frontman spiked and, along with it, interest in Jim Hutton, Mercury’s partner until his death in 1991. Before meeting Mercury, Hutton was a hairdresser in his hometown in County Carlow before moving to London.
On New Year's Day in 2010, Hutton died at the age of 60 from lung cancer, just three days shy of his 61st birthday. In 1990, Hutton was diagnosed with AIDS and dealt with it until his death. Hutton, who cared for Mercury during the singer’s battle with the same syndrome, said that it took him a year to break the news to Mercury that he too had been diagnosed with AIDS. In 1994, Hutton released a book entitled ‘Mercury and Me’, a memoir of his relationship with the famed singer. Within the book, Hutton shared details of his relationship with Mercury as well as some never before seen candid photos of both himself and Mercury together. In an interview given shortly after the book was released, Hutton discussed various reasons why he wanted the book to be written and how it helped him deal with his grief in the aftermath of Mercury’s death.
2) Brett Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook proved he was nasty to women
Brett Kavanaugh. Photo: Getty Images
One of the most contentious stories of 2018 was Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the US Supreme Court in spite of serious sexual assault allegations. After Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez came forward with their experiences, Kavanaugh’s yearbook from his high school, Georgetown Prep, was highly cited as a window of insight into his character at the time.
“His yearbook, filled with sexual innuendo, no matter how he tries to disguise it, tells a different story. His ambition was to drink 100 kegs, he used initials to display crude sexual memes. ‘FFFFF” initials are written at one point, shorthand for “find them, fool them, f...them and forget them.’
“Elsewhere, Kavanaugh talks about he is a “Renata alum.” Renata was a girl some of the boys clearly, including Kavanaugh, believed was of easy virtue. The boys posed in one picture as “Renata alumni,” including Kavanaugh, hinting, of course, they all had sex with her.”
3) Massive genetic study reveals the Irish have more Viking DNA than previously thought
A groundbreaking genetic study showed that the Viking invasions of Ireland made a lasting impression on Irish DNA. In January 2018, researchers at Trinity College Dublin also discovered 23 new genetic clusters in Ireland not previously identified, leading to the belief that we may have far more Viking and Norman ancestry than previously evidenced.
By comparing 1,000 Irish genomes with over 6,000 genomes from Britain and mainland Europe, genetic clusters within the west of Ireland, in particular, were discovered for the first time, leading the researchers to investigate if invasions from the Vikings and Normans to the east may have influenced genetics in that part of the country.
The genetics of the world’s estimated 80 million people who claim Irish heritage may now be more complicated than originally believed but research such as this could go some way to identifying if there are any specific traits or illnesses that are linked to these genetic clusters.
4) 15,000 illegal adoptions in Ireland, mothers told babies had died
Tressa Donnelly Reeves sought to locate her son for fifty years
One of the year’s most shocking stories, in May, the Chief Executive of children’s charity Barnardo's has claimed that as many as 15,000 children could have been illegally adopted in Ireland. “This was a crime against these people and their mothers. Mothers who were told that their babies had died,” Fergus Finlay told RTÉ’s radio show Morning Ireland.
The claim came after the Irish Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone revealed that the Irish child and family agency Tusla confirmed 126 cases of incorrectly registered births.
“I suspect every single adoption agency in the country is involved, that’s 150,000 babies, it would be amazing if at least ten percent of them were not illegal.”
“The bottom line is these people need their identity. They have a right to their background, who they are, where they came from. That trumps everything else,” Finlay added, stating that there now needs to be a thorough investigation sensitive to those involved.
“People have an absolute right to know.”
5) Harry and Meghan’s wedding hides a horrible truth for Catholics
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
An overlooked angle to the royal wedding definitely piqued readers’ interest: Meghan Markle had to be baptized and confirmed within the Church of England before she tied the knot with Prince Harry in May 2018.
As IrishCentral founder Niall O’Dowd wrote, “Behind all the glitz and glamour of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wedding lies an inconvenient truth. You can be Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or Atheist and become the King or Queen of England. You just can’t be Catholic.
Which is why any non-Catholic is ahead of the highest ranking royal Catholic, Lord Nicholas Windsor, the youngest son of the Duke and Duchess of Kent and a great-grandson of George V and who converted to Catholicism in 2001 when it comes to being monarch.
Under the terms of the 1701 Act of Settlement, Catholics are banned from succession to the throne. Until 2013 you could not marry a Catholic either if you were first in line to the throne. Some old-fashioned religious prejudice is at the heart of the Royal family.
6) Irish anger as Prince Harry lays claim to disputed Irish land and title, Unionists delighted
On the day of his marriage to Meghan Markle, Prince Harry became Baron of Kilkeel, an area in County Down long disputed as belonging to the Irish not the British. It was the site of the original Celtic Irish kingdom of Mourne.
The town of Kilkeel has a strong Unionist heritage. But while in 2001 the ward of Kilkeel Central was recorded as 69% Protestant (21% Catholic, 10% other), the ward of Kilkeel South was only 37% Protestant (55% Catholic, 7% other).
Kilkeel sits within the administrative area of Newry and Mourne, which is recorded in the 2001 census as being 80.6% Catholic. The fact that Harry would be claiming absentee landlord rights over a portion of Ireland did not go well with Irish Catholics.
The historical kings of Mourne were of the tribe of the McMahons, who came from Cremorne (Crioch Mughdoorna). It was ruled over by Colla Nais, King of Ireland A.D. 323-326, and the people were called the Mughdoorna.
The British secured possession of the district shortly after their arrival and their two chief strongholds were Dundrum Castle in the north and Green Castle in the south. But their occupation was not altogether peaceful. The mountain fastnesses were a sure refuge to the restless Irish, who several times cut up their forces and destroyed their castles.
7) 90-year-old Ethel Kennedy goes on hunger strike over Trump’s immigration policy
Ethel Kennedy. Photo: RFK Human Rights Twitter
In June, 90-year-old Ethel Kennedy generated lots of buzz when she joined a hunger strike to protest the Trump Administration’s anti-immigrant policies. Ethel, the widow of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, stood with the immigrant families facing President Trump’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy at the Mexican border by fasting for 24 hours in protest. Ethel Kennedy joined with 50 other members of the Kennedy family, including her daughter Kerry Kennedy, President of RFK Human Rights; and her grandson Congressman Joe Kennedy III and pledged to donate the money she would have spent on food to charity organizations working on the grounds to protect families.
RFK Human Rights, which Ethel Kennedy founded in memory of her husband, joined with La Unión Del Pueblo Entero, the Texas Civil Rights Project, and Neta to establish Break Bread Not Families, a 24-hour fast and prayer chain that ran for 24 days in support of the 2,400 children separated from their parents because of Trump’s hardline policies.
“We want to find a way for people who can’t go down to the border to actually do something themselves at home that is concrete and creates change, and this is what we’re calling on them to do,” Ethel’s daughter Kerry Kennedy told the Boston Globe.
8) Joe Biden is the candidate Donald Trump most fears in 2020
Joe Biden. Photo: RollingNews.ie
In July, key political analyst Mike Allen of Axios.com revealed that Irish American Joe Biden is the candidate Donald Trump most fears as an opponent in the 2020 election. Biden’s street cred with white working-class voters gives Trump nightmares as he feels no other Democratic candidate has anything like the rapport Biden has.
Biden, though a former senator from Delaware, was born in Scranton Pennsylvania where his dad was a car salesman. Pennsylvania is a must win for Trump and Biden would be a very tough opponent.
Republican sources old Allen “ Pennsylvania, where Trump campaigned frequently and fervently in 2016, will be the toughest to hold of all the battleground states that put him in office.
"There's a reason Pennsylvania had eluded Republican presidential candidates as long as it did," said GOP operative Josh Holmes, president of the Cavalry LLC issue management firm.
"You need a combination of a really effective campaign, a perfect message, and a good environment. Trump had it in 2016 but Biden could well spoil the party in 2020.
9) Ireland braces for hottest day on record
In June, temperatures in Ireland soared to the highest in 40 years in a massive heatwave. In late June, it got so hot that it looked likely the record would be broken, so bookies stopped taking bets on whether the mercury would reach historic levels. That's right, it got so hot that you could no longer take bets on the weather.
The previous highest point ever was on June 26, 1887, when temperatures soared to 92F (33.3 C) within the grounds of Kilkenny Castle. Like June 2018, June 1887 was particularly hot and dry in Ireland, particularly in the south-east of the country. According to records, just 5mm of rain was recorded in Kilkenny during that month.
With signs that Ireland was about to hit a new record-breaking temperature, Irish bookies Paddy Power suspended bets after being inundated with wagers over the past week at 10/1 for mercury levels to hit a new high.
A spokesperson for the bookmakers said: “Punters are either trying to pull a stroke or they’ve got sunstroke.
"Either way, we’ve had to pull the plug on this market due to the volume of bets we’ve seen on Ireland sizzling its way past all previously known records. If Met Eireann announces a weather warning, it will herald a nationwide race to the nearest beach."
While the record was not broken, beaches were certainly frequented!
10) Guinness’ first US brewery in 60 years opens its doors
Guinness Open Gate Brewery and Barrel House
The Guinness Open Gate Brewery & Barrel House opened its doors on August 3 in Halethorp, Maryland, just outside of Baltimore.
It is the home of Guinness Blonde, along with new Guinness beers created for the U.S. market. The creation of a world-class brewery, barrelhouse and visitor center, and development of packaging and warehousing operations have generated more than 200 jobs and represents an investment by Diageo, Guinness' parent company, of approximately $90 million in the Maryland project.
The Guinness brewery and restaurant is located on a 62-acre site, which formerly housed a Seagram’s bottling plant. Diageo already owned the property, using it for bottling and aging Captain Morgan rum products.
The first part of the brewery's name takes inspiration from the Guinness Open Gate Brewery in Dublin – where the company has experimented in beer for more than a century.
The second part of the name, "Barrel House," is a nod to the long history of Guinness brewers maturing beer in wood barrels, a tradition this new brewery intends to continue. In addition, the space was once home to a historic whiskey distillery, so the site already boasts a venerable heritage of barrel-aging.
What stories most captured your interest in 2018? Let us know in the comment section or on Facebook.