The Gist: Cartoon Year In Review
Allan Cavanagh's cartoon round up on some of the Gist's biggest stories from the year, (together with some words from Simon).
Ireland's Internet Age Rating
Few stories will ever match the sheer number of memorable phrases provided by the Coimisiún na Meán's plan to age-gate the internet. From the "Porn User Register" of Coimisiún na Meán go off the rails and Coimisiún na Mean is Big Mad to "absolutely mega-scale bonkers" while covering the eventual not-quite implementation of the planned code in A Free Speech The Gist was your number one source of soundbite-inflected info on obscure regulatory action.
Playing House
Housing is a difficult, society-wide problem. Which was why it was so surprising that Paschal Donoghoe so easily alienated voters when responding to a homeless woman on live TV during the election: "I know it's a very complex argument to make regarding why I'm saying there should not be a complete ban on evictions. The reason for that is that I want more landlords. I want more private landlords".
Regrettable Neighbour Events
While trying not to look was sometimes the best way to deal with our neighbours to the left and to the right, it was difficult to completely fail to cover the UK and US elections. But the arc of history was not the fun kind. We went from enjoying sequential Tory self humiliations or flickers of hope in the Brat Summer to facing up the Winter reality of the Labour party being led by "an underbaked batch loaf in a pair of glasses" and the US electing just The Worst, provoking Mourning in America.
A Minority Retort
This year, Fine Gael pushed hard to bring in live facial recognition through CCTV and bodycams attached to Gardaí. This provoked one of the rare examples of your Gisting author having to go out in public and appear before the Oireachatas Justice Committee as a part of a chorus of counterpoint to Drew Harris' lobbying efforts.
The Mudguard Meltdown
The year ended with an election where the Green Party was consumed by voter ire, after becoming the larger Government parties' answer to many of their own voters complaints. No facial recognition done? The Greens made them stop. Climate action? The Greens made them do it. New number on your Dublin Bus? The Greens. Humiliatingly bad referendum results? The Greens. (actually, on that one...).
