Welcome back, Ed. 2017 got off to the best possible start for Ed Sheeran fans on Sunday when the singer confirmed that he will be releasing new material this year. And he’s not hanging around either, announcing (without actually saying a word) in a nine-second video on his Twitter account that new music will be […]

10 years ago

Marion Cotillard, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy and Frank Skinner were all on the couch and the still the Skibbereen brothers stole the show. People tend to use the last day of a year to reflect on all that’s gone over the previous 12 months and while 2016 was a year to forget for many, it […]

10 years ago

Dozens more are being treated in hospital and efforts to find the gunman are ongoing. At least 39 people have been killed after a man opened fire in a nightclub in Istanbul shortly after revellers had rang in the New Year. According to the BBC, the man, who is believed to have been dressed in […]

10 years ago

A discovery Sherlock himself would be proud of. 2017 won’t even be a day old by the time the new series begins, but the return of Sherlock is already shaping up to be one of the TV highlights of the year. It’s so popular that it hardly needs much promotion (the BBC are doing plenty […]

10 years ago

These helped boost procrastination levels no end in the last 12 months. 2016 wasn’t a great year for everybody but it was a pretty good one for Snapchat. Already a social media behemoth before the year started, it has grown bigger and better in the last year thanks to the introduction of, to name a […]

10 years ago

Well played. ‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get,’ the old saying goes and one customer of Feeleys Chippy in Belfast decided to test the limits of that theory when placing an order on Friday evening. So unwell that they were obviously unable to move off the couch, the unnamed customer in question decided to […]

10 years ago

“It was a great match. I’m very happy about it.” Manchester United secured a hard-earned 2-1 win over Middlesbrough on the last day of 2016, with late goals from Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba delivering a victory in a manner reminiscent of United teams under Sir Alex Ferguson, who was there to see it on […]

10 years ago

The man is one of 730 people arrested on suspicion of drink driving since a Christmas and New Year anti drink driving campaign was launched on December 1. There has been a 34% increase in the number of people arrested for drink driving this December compared to the same period in 2015, according to figures […]

10 years ago

Spectacular as always. Australia is one of the first places around the world to ring in the New Year and it’s consistently one of the best, particularly in its biggest city. Every year, thousands of people gather around Sydney’s iconic and breathtaking harbour to celebrate the start of a new year and this year was […]

10 years ago

“And now, we move onto liars.” Donald Trump didn’t reference Father Ted Crilly’s famous Golden Cleric speech in a New Year’s message to his Twitter followers, but the similarities between the two aren’t hard to find. Trump will officially be inaugurated as President of the United States on January 20 but rather than look ahead […]

10 years ago

“I will burn you. I will burn the heart out of you.” In case you’ve been hiding under a rock all Christmas and didn’t know, Sherlock returns to our screens for a fourth series on New Year’s Day and it’s safe to say it’s got a lot of people very excited indeed. There is, of […]

10 years ago

Finn was stolen from his owners’ garden on December 7. The owners of a dog in Monaghan have offered a reward of €5,000 for his return after he was stolen from their garden in Ballybay in Monaghan earlier this month. Finn, a 2-year old male boxer, was stolen from his garden in Ballybay on Wednesday, […]

10 years ago

It was a crap year, but you can’t say it wasn’t full of incident. So how well do you remember 2016? 12 months, 4 questions per month and ABSOLUTELY NO GOOGLING! Go…

10 years ago

How about Zlat? J-League Derek Wynne’s Sweeper System ensured that they would be top of the J-League table at Christmas time after some fairly average scoring in Gameweek 17, with only two teams in the top five breaking the 50-points barrier. All of the top five have, however, exceeded the 1,000 points barrier, with Michael […]

10 years ago

Very sad news. Rick Parfitt, guitarist with British rock band Status Quo, has died aged 68. Parfitt’s family and the band’s manager, Simon Porter, released a statement on Saturday, saying that Parfitt died in hospital in Marbella in Spain as a result of a severe infection having been admitted to hospital on Thursday evening following […]

10 years ago

“You’ll do nothin’.” It can be very awkward when you’re doing an impersonation of someone and all of a sudden they appear out of nowhere, but we don’t think a couple of gentlemen in Dublin minded it happening to them last night. Mark McGroarty and Paddy Lavelle were enjoying the Human Centred Movement Christmas Party on Friday […]

10 years ago

It’s been an amazing year. When Martin O’Neill looked forward to the year ahead at the start of 2016, he probably didn’t envision it going quite as well as it has done. Overall, the Euros was a more than satisfactory experience and it’s got even better since as we sit pretty at the top of […]

10 years ago

Isn’t this just lovely? It being the season of goodwill, Skibbereen Credit Union sought to give something back to the community this Christmas. More specifically, they sought to reward some of the people in the community responsible for selfless acts of kindness, people who were nominated by their fellow community members as part of the […]

10 years ago

What a brilliant gesture. The homelessness crisis in Ireland has been the subject of much-needed attention in recent weeks and particularly hits home at Christmas, when many won’t be lucky enough to spend it with their families and friends and with a roof over their heads. Thinking of those less fortunate at Christmas time, two […]

10 years ago

We still have our doubts. Ridiculous as the notion sounded when first floated, the idea of Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather going head to head just won’t go away. At various times over the last year or so, both McGregor and Mayweather have added fuel to the fire on social media, while McGregor obtaining a […]

10 years ago

This ought to help kill a few bored moments over the coming days. As if you weren’t already going to spend inordinate amounts of time sending snaps of your social activity over Christmas, Snapchat have ensured that we’ll all barely be off the app over the festive period. Included amongst all the special festive lenses […]

10 years ago

The Supermac’s flag is a dead giveaway. The weather across the water has been as bad as it has been here in the last couple of days and with Storm Conor likely to have a greater impact in Scotland that it will here, it seems they haven’t seen the worst of it yet. Adverse weather […]

10 years ago

Not so much a white Christmas but a wild Christmas. Met Éireann have issued a weather warning for five counties in the west of Ireland as high winds and heavy rain from Storm Barbara continue to make their presence felt across the country. A status yellow wind warning was issued for Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo […]

10 years ago

The votes are in… Thousands of you took to the polls to salute the men who, individually or as part of a collective, provided some glimmer of light in what has been a pretty gloomy 12 months. There were plenty of categories across a variety of different fields, but it did give us scope to […]

10 years ago

Storm Barbara is making its presence felt. Video footage recorded on Friday afternoon showed a window fly loose from Facebook headquarters in Grand Canal Dock in Dublin. The footage, filmed by Emily Savage and subsequently posted on Twitter, showed the fourth floor window come loose as the effects of Storm Barbara were being felt in […]

10 years ago

Storm Conor would like to take this chance to apologise to absolutely nobody. Storm Barbara is only getting started and already a successor has been named and is poised to inflict further misery on Ireland and the UK over the Christmas period. With wind warnings in effect until 6pm this evening and further wind and […]

10 years ago

We think there’s something in our eye. We know what you’re thinking already. At this stage, you’ve seen enough videos of Irish people surprising their families by coming home for Christmas to easily last you into next Christmas and beyond. That said, it would take a heart of stone not to be in some way […]

10 years ago

“When you have a voice like yours, you may want to consider being more responsible with promoting bullying, especially given what’s going on in the world today.” Avril Lavigne has jumped to the defence of her former husband Chad Kroeger and his band Nickelback after Mark Zuckerberg poked fun at them in a recent video […]

10 years ago

The suspect, Anis Amri, was reportedly shot dead in a shootout in Milan. Anis Amri, the 24-year old suspected of the attack on the Christmas markets in Berlin which killed 12 people earlier this week, has reportedly been shot dead in Milan. A security source told Reuters that Amri had been killed in a shootout […]

10 years ago

She goes by the name of Mannion, Teresa Mannion. This time last year, Storm Frank was wreaking havoc across Ireland and by the looks of things outside this morning, it seems as if Storm Barbara is intent on having a similar effect this time around. No sane person would want to stand out in pouring […]

10 years ago

It was Storm Frank last Christmas; now it’s Barbara’s turn. Ireland is set to be hit by winds of up to 120 km/h as Storm Barbara makes its presence felt in the coming days. Following Irish Ferries cancelling six crossings between Dublin and Holyhead on Friday, Met Éireann and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) have […]

10 years ago

You simply can’t escape them. The fact that Irish people like to wear their GAA county jerseys abroad is hardly an astonishing revelation, but for some reason, Mayo people appear to do so more often than people from any other county. Truth be told, even the furthest-flung corners of the world are familiar with the […]

10 years ago

Faith in humanity restored. If we’re being honest, all of us have woken up after a night out with one or two regrets; we’re only human after all. One customer visiting Rearden’s Bar in Cork city felt so badly about a fairly minor indiscretion on Monday night, however, that they felt they had to do […]

10 years ago

“You’re some eejit if you think you can swap a Double Decker for a Curly Wurly, Darren.” With just three days to go until Christmas Day, families all over Ireland are looking forward to the rare opportunity to spend some blissful time together in each other’s company. Of course, it only takes a few hours […]

10 years ago

What a fantastic and touching idea. Earlier this month, you might have heard about the very special lights display in the town of Glenties in Donegal this Christmas. After struggling to come up with the funds for the Christmas lights display in the town, local businesses in the community came up with an initiative known […]

10 years ago

Our hearts go out to those of you unfortunate enough to have ever had to deal with such a crippling ailment. Stay strong, brave soldiers. As Christmas arrives, we can expect to see a significant increase in Irish cases of the deadly disease, which has (somehow) yet to account for a single life, but […]

10 years ago

From petrified with terror to delirious with joy in the space of about five seconds. One of the best sights of the festive season is seeing families reuniting with a loved one who has made the journey home from abroad for Christmas. It’s even better when some family members are completely unprepared for their arrival […]

10 years ago

The response was interesting to say the least. One of RTÉ’s most hyped offerings of the festive season, Carrick on Stag, documenting the antics that regularly take place on stag and hen parties in arguably the stag capital of Ireland, aired on RTÉ 2 last night. It was filmed over, as the programme’s blurb described, […]

10 years ago

The original video, posted to Twitter, has been retweeted over 750,000 times. Delta Air Lines have issued a statement in response to a video that went viral on Wednesday of a man claiming to have been kicked off one of their flights for speaking Arabic to his friend and to his mother over the phone. […]

10 years ago

Proof, as if it was needed, that Seamus Coleman is an absolute champ. 11-year old Will McKenzie is a massive Everton fan. In April of this year, his father, Stephen, sadly passed away at the age of 52. Best friends as well as father and son, they travelled to Everton games together and Stephen’s death […]

10 years ago

If you haven’t gotten in the festive sprit just yet, then this should do the trick. “‘Fairytale of New York’? Sure I’ve heard that a million times already,” we hear ye cry. But ye haven’t heard it like it was sang by some of Ireland’s best known musicians during the Christmas Ruby sessions at Doyle’s […]

10 years ago

Irish people coming home for Christmas could be affected. Six Irish Ferries crossings between Dublin and Holyhead have been cancelled this Friday, December 23, due to adverse weather conditions on the Irish Sea. The 08:45, 10:45 and 14:30 sailings from Dublin to Holyhead and the 11:50, 16:45 and 17:15 sailings from Holyhead to Dublin have […]

10 years ago

Most importantly, it’s all for a great cause. You may well be among a growing number of people sick to death with the very mention of the words ‘12 pubs’ at this stage, but it’s far more tolerable when there’s a charitable element involved. In Ballinasloe this Friday, for the second year in succession, a […]

10 years ago

A certain election and a certain President-elect feature quite prominently. Let’s face it, 2016 has been a bit of a shitty year. So shitty has it been, in fact, that if we could re-write a lot of what happened in the last 12 months, we would do so in a heartbeat. It won’t have had […]

10 years ago

Start putting the dates in your festive diary. We’re now only four days away from Christmas and while we’re sure many of you will remain professional right up until you’re officially on holidays, others have unofficially clocked off and are thinking about all the movies they’re going to watch over the next week or so. […]

10 years ago

Is your profession on the list? We hate to be the cause of concern about your future in the run-up to Christmas, so apologies in advance to anyone whose livelihood is intrinsically linked with any of the professions included in the list below. The list, the 10 most endangered jobs of 2016, was put together […]

10 years ago

It is the third time that complaints have been upheld in respect of coverage on D’Arcy’s programme of the topic of Irish law in respect of abortion. The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) is to issue RTÉ with a warning over the coverage of the topic of abortion on the Ray D’Arcy show on Radio […]

10 years ago

The meals will be distributed by 300 volunteers in Dublin on the day. Christmas dinner is the one meal every year that most of us look forward to more than most, but it’s often not so simple for those without a roof over their heads and those less fortunate in Ireland. In light of the […]

10 years ago

2016 might have been crap in a general sense, but there was certainly welcome relief to be found in a sporting sense. Having already focussed specifically on football, rugby and GAA, this category seeks to honour those who excelled in fields and arenas outside of that big three, such as the Olympics (excluding all administrative […]

10 years ago

Worthy contenders all, but only one can get your vote. The JOE Men of the Year awards are mostly about individuals, but many of those individuals shone as part of a collective and it would be remiss of us not to acknowledge some of the outstanding team efforts of 2016. It was hard to narrow […]

10 years ago