AS EACH YEAR draws to a close, we pull together a list of the most-read articles on TheJournal.ie.
There’s usually a couple of surprises, but then you can probably guess what virus features heavily.
The list reveals a particularly disparate range of pieces. They either represent the biggest stories, the information you – our readers – wanted to seek out, or the stories that struck a chord.
Here’s the top 10 most read – thank you for reading.
Cast your mind back to 29 February when the first known case of Covid-19 was confirmed in Ireland. There was rightly huge interest in this story as the country had been anxiously waiting for the virus to be confirmed in the Republic after the first case in Northern Ireland was confirmed days prior.
At the time the only information released was that it was a male in the east of the country who had travelled to Ireland from an area in Italy where coronavirus had been detected.
The story we knew would dominate 2020 was the US election, and naturally, we all followed the results very closely.
Hundreds of thousands of you checked in on this handy resource, put together by TheJournal.ie team, which shows states and electoral votes taken by each candidate.
As you’re well aware by now, Joe Biden passed the magic 270 votes needed to become the 46th president of the United States.
Now back to Ireland’s first case of Covid-19. A north Dublin school with 400 pupils announced on 1 March that it was closing for two weeks after confirming one of its students to be the first known case.
There was a lot of fuss at the time when health officials refused to name the school. But as is the case now, patient confidentiality is respected in all outbreaks.
The sheer volume of Covid-19 news from March onwards was a lot for anyone to take in. In an effort to condense the details of the Irish and global lockdowns, cases, and travel bans TheJournal.ie compiled a main points piece every day.
There was a lot of interest in this one from 16 March when the government advised pubs across the State to close their doors for a fortnight to ensure that social distancing guidelines are followed. Some fortnight.
Back on 16 August when pubs could open if they served food, one Dublin bar found itself at the centre of a media firestorm after footage was shared online of customers and staff not adhering to Covid-19 guidelines.
The footage from an organised brunch at Berlin D2 showed customers who were not social-distancing and a barman pouring drinks into people’s mouths, to the dismay of public health officials and fellow publicans. The footage prompted gardaí to formally objected to the bar retaining its licence.
The daily updates from the Department of Health are part of the fabric of our daily lives now. But on 12 March they were new and scary.
That evening it was confirmed that there were now 70 known cases in the country.
That same morning, the country stepped up its response to the coronavirus, moving into the ‘delay’ phase of dealing with Covid-19 as then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar made his dramatic announcement from Washington.
Back on 14 October, when Ireland was in Level 3, new restrictions were announced advising people not to visit other households indoors or in their gardens.
There was an obvious interest as readers tried to keep up with the ever-changing government advice.
At the time, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the move was due to “poor application or adherence to the measures” in the areas of home visiting, sports training and events, and people going into the workplace when they “could and should work from home”, as well as “slippage” in areas such as retail.
When the HSE released the information on where the coronavirus had struck in Ireland on 18 March, people were naturally curious.
At the time, there were only 366 cases in the country.
As Ireland’s cases continued to rise, on 27 March then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced a two-week long stay-at-home order for everyone.
Cocooning was also introduced for over-70s and the medically vulnerable as they were advised not to venture outside their home or garden – a concept that was later criticised by older people’s charities.
Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan voiced his concern at the escalating case numbers on 10 October.
Holohan said he was “very worried about the numbers we are seeing and how quickly they are deteriorating”, as Ireland began seeing daily case figures similar to April.
As we know, cases continued to rise and nationwide Level 5 restrictions were imposed on 19 October.
And just for completion, here’s the rest of the top 20:
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