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TO PARAPHRASE A line from Fight Club: Over a long enough time-line, we all get a little depressed by the news occasionally.
At home and around the world, the last 12 months certainly had their fair share of death, destruction, pestilence and corruption. And twerking.
Fortunately, like the the waterskiing squirrel from Anchorman, there were also occasional moments like this to put a smile on our faces…
[Image: VisitInishowen via Twitter]
Spotted on the Inishowen Penninsula at the height of the heatwave this July. In fact it was a bumper year for camels in unusual places.
[Image: John Callaghan]
This photo was one of 20 picked by the Irish Farmers Journal to show how Ireland was ‘owning the heatwave’. Check out the rest here.
[Image: Jimi's Barber Shop/Facebook]
He spends so much time here, Ireland’s Bruce Springsteen fans were thrilled to see The Boss finally take up Irish citizenship.
[Image: Mac Innes Photography]
Michael Noonan looks like he’d much rather murder whatever PR person thought of this stunt rather than devour the perfectly delicious pizza he’s being presented with.
This was part of a campaign to keep the 9 per cent VAT rate for the hospitality sector. The role of the pizza may have been marginal, but the campaign worked.
While we’re on the subject of hungry politicians…
[Image: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland]
[Image: Defence Forces Press]
In addition to taking on taking on the Defence Forces at ping pong (and winning) Alan Shatter also had his 1990 romance novel re-printed in 2013. No-one saw that coming did they?
[Image: Jeannine Masset and Rudi Schamhart]
Alive and well and living in Dingle. Evergreen Kerry dolphin Fungi is showing no signs of slowing down, and continues to draw huge crowds of interested humans. He had great fun with a couple of same-species visitors too back in November.
And while we’re in Kerry…
Main Street in Waterville, back in March.
It’s times like this that we’re hoping there’s no-one from outside Ireland looking at this website. Let’s keep this one between ourselves, shall we?
[Image: Gemma Sherlock]
Taken at Barley Hill, near Kingscourt in Co Cavan back in January. Apparently the roads in the area are — how should we put this? ‘In shite’.
[Image: Ronan Lee]
The gardaí were already pretty busy back in October during a particularly wet spell of weather. The fact that aquatic birds started wandering out of the Dodder, unable to tell the difference between their habitual environment and, say, the vicinity of a Range Rover on Anglesea Road, didn’t make their lives any easier.
[Image: Carlow Pan Celtic International Festival]
Determination. And ringlets.
From the launch of the Carlow Pan Celtic International Festival back in March.
[Image: C Kortenhorst/Twitter. See cksolutions.ie]
No comment needed, we think.
[Image: Annie Leibovitz /Vogue]
Vogue magazine's depiction of Ireland had us all cracking up. They also introduced the world to the notion of 'mountain goat as winter accessory'. Why right now, there are probably hipsters wandering around downtown Portland dressed exactly like Adam Driver in this photo.
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