When we started this series we were looking back at, among other things, an event that brought Irish people together like no other since Italia ’90.
This week, we’re still together, but under much sadder circumstances.
Monday, 15th June
We had written a section about Ed Sheeran being sound (again) and reaction to Game of Thrones, but it all seems a bit trite now so we move on…
Tuesday, 16th June
When the news came through it didn’t seem real, did it? These kinds of things always happened to other people, never to the Irish, never a tragedy on this scale.
Six Irish students were killed when a balcony in Berkeley, California, collapsed. Seven others were badly injured.
Nobody could believe it.
The news just got worse as the death of the sixth victim was announced; the J1 community coming together to mourn the losses of Niccolai Schuster, Eoghan Culligan, Eimear Walsh, Olivia Burke, Ashley Donohoe and Lorcán Miller.
It was one of the bleakest days in the country’s history, everybody was affected whether they were connected to the families of the victims or not.
Wednesday, 17th June
There was a lot of anger at the New York Times’ misguided coverage of events in Berkeley, with their various apologies ranging from the truly contrite to the downright inept.
A shop in Galway refused to stock The Star because of the tabloid’s front page, which crossed well over the boundaries of good taste.
We took a moment to send our thoughts to the victims’ families, as a lot of us know people affected either directly or indirectly by the tragedy.
Thursday, 18th June
John Giles was not a happy camper after finding out that he had been dropped for last weekend’s Ireland v Scotland match. Frankly, given the state of our second half performance, we think he was blessed but on Thursday rumours surfaced that he might be making the move over to TV3.
We featured RTÉ’s closing montage from their news report on the Berkeley victims, and while it was very tastefully done it was also quite tough going.
The New York Times’ mea culpa continued as they published critical letters aimed at their second day coverage of the tragedy, which you can read here.
Friday, 19th June
Harry Potter author JK Rowling sent a personal message to Clodagh Cogley, injured in Berkeley and using her audio books to get through the toughest ordeal of her life.
We also found out that the GAA will pay their tribute to the victims and those left injured during this weekend’s Championship action, while people shared their stories of how Aer Lingus went above and beyond (sorry for the unintentional pun) to help people in their time of biggest need.
Read these to show how it’s not all about taking your money.
Elsewhere, Roy Keane somehow got away with being a bit mean to a taxi driver – proper order – and Colin Farrell spoke to Jimmy Fallon about the Marriage Referendum and what it meant to him personally.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
