The images of 2020 will remain fresh in our minds long after this year has ended. Grief, loneliness, resilience and joy Covid-19 has tested us in ways we could scarcely have imagined just 12 months ago. Through it all, our photographers have chronicled these experiences, capturing the beauty, poignancy and inner strength of our nation.
Powerfully sad image of respect shown to fallen Garda Horkan
Mark Condren
I ll never forget the night of June 17, 2020. About 1am I was woken by a text: A Garda has been shot and is in a critical state. I was shocked that this has happened again, not just as a photojournalist, but being part of a family who has had a long tradition with An Garda Síochána. My dad Larry served as a sergeant for 37 years in Cork, as did my Uncle Sean in Dublin. My wife, asleep beside me in that early morning, is a serving garda in Dublin.
The post-Christmas sales are traditionally a wallet-opening exercise by shoppers hoping to purchase some luxury designer numbers that are normally outside their buying power.
Examples of designer goods reduced online at Brown Thomas include an Alexander McQueen long, double-breasted, notched-lapel wool coat, which is marked down from €3,924 to €2,354. A Balenciaga hourglass houndstooth coat is €995, down from €2,449.
Marks & Spencer Ireland confirmed that, “in line with Government guidelines”, they are postponing their Christmas/January sale.
Pulling on my fashion editor’s hat, I would point you in the direction of classic buys and good investments, from a cosy knit for now to sensible, comfortable boots to get us through the next few months and into spring.
Janine Briscoe (28) arrived from South Korea. I m hungry. I didn t take off my mask on the flights, not even to have something to eat, said Janine, who teaches English in a school in Seoul. Her mask is attached to a chain which means she can remove it without touching it and she can leave it hanging on the chain for a few moments rather that stuffing it unhygienically into a bag or a pocket. A mask has hardly left my face in months and I ll been staying masked in Ireland, said Janine, who underwent a test before flying and will be self-isolating while she awaits another test in Ireland on Christmas Eve. She said South Korea is one of the most successful countries in the world in battling Covid. On the day she left South Korea, there were 11 deaths out of a population of 51 million.
Karl Purdy of Coffeeangel
“I wanted to show just how good coffee can be,” he says. “A lot of effort goes into delivering that perfect cup.” It all starts with really good beans sourced from farmers in countries as diverse as Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia and Kenya and roasted days or weeks before being brewed to an exact ‘recipe’ in an increasingly large variety of ways.
Soon, Purdy had customers who came back time and time again. When he opened up a Coffeeangel van in the heart of Dublin’s financial district, business started to boom, but having been scarred in the restaurant trade, he was reluctant to open a bricks-and-mortar café. “Rents were very high back then,” he says. “It wasn’t until the financial crash came along and rents were much more affordable that I made that move.”