IT HAS BEEN a year of high highs and low lows.
A year of political leadership struggles, of centenary celebrations, of industrial disputes, of homelessness, of controversies and of… novelty socks.
Here are a selection of some of the best news photographs from the year that was:
Former Taoiseach Enda Kenny was caught looking skyward for help during a jobs announcement in Dublin back in February. At the time, his leadership of the country was being questioned due to the fallout from the controversy around the treatment of garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe.
Bad luck, Enda – but it’s hard to avoid these kind of shots being taken.
UFC star Conor McGregor leaves Blanchardstown District Court in November where he was facing a speeding charge.
Deputy head of forecasting at Met Éireann Evelyn Cusack addresses the media at the National Emergency Coordination Centre in Dublin ahead of the arrival of ex-Hurricane Ophelia to Irish shores in October.
(From L to R) Michael Banks, Scott Masterson and Paul Murphy TD outside the Central Criminal Court in June after Murphy and five others were found not guilty of falsely imprisoning Joan Burton and her adviser Karen O’Connell during a protest in Jobstown in 2014.
A felled tree in Dublin in the wake of Storm Ophelia.
Galway senior manager Micheál Donoghue shares a tender moment with his father, Miko, and the Liam McCarthy Cup as the team arrives back in Ballinasloe after winning the All-Ireland senior hurling championship.
Former Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald leaves Government Buildings after announcing her resignation over how she handled issues related to Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe.
The coffin of Northern Ireland’s former deputy first minister and ex-IRA commander Martin McGuinness is carried up Barrack Street ahead of his funeral at St Columba’s Church Long Tower, in Derry in March.
Crowds during a wreath laying ceremony for the crew of the Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116, which went down off the coast of Mayo in March, resulting in the deaths of four crew members.
An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar meets with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Farmleigh in July. Note the novelty socks.
John Byrne – who has been homeless for 25 years and who was made famous when he saved a rabbit from the River Liffey – is pictured with his dog next to his tent on the Royal Canal in Dublin.
A mock customs checkpoint is seen in February as anti-Brexit campaigners hold a go-slow protest on the Irish border at Ravensdale to highlight concerns about its impact on trade.
An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar raises his hands in triumph as he is voted in as the the new leader of Fine Gael (and so, Taoiseach) by party members. Behind him, party rival Simon Coveney claps and looks on.
Seven-year-old Mateusz Kular, wearing a Spiderman schoolbag, waits for gardaí to finish examining the scene of a gangland shooting in Dublin city so that he and his mother can go home.
Gardaí digging at a site in Chapelizod in Dublin for in relation to the disappearance of Trevor Deely in 2000. A gun was discovered at the site but the search was later concluded without the discovery of any remains.
An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar with former Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald and the rest of the Cabinet as they sat down to their first meeting at Áras an Úachtaráin in June.
Campaigner Vera Twomey speaking to the media outside Leinster House in March. Twomey had elected to walk from her home in Cork to the Dáil in order to highlight the restrictions on her seven-year-old daughter Ava, who has a rare form of epilepsy, from accessing cannabis-based medication.
Apollo House supporters leaving the building in January after it was taken over throughout the Christmas period to use as housing for homeless people.
Garda Sergeant Maurice McCabe arriving at the Disclosures Tribunal in Dublin Castle, which was set up to examine allegations of a senior Garda smear campaign against him.
Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams by a portrait of the former DUP leader Rev Ian Paisley in the Great Hall, Stormont before speaking to the media after talks to restore a power sharing government collapsed.
Transport Minister Shane Ross prepares to board a Luas tram for the first Cross City testing in June.
Members from ROSA (Reproductive rights, against Oppression, Sexism & Austerity) dressed as Handmaids in costumes outside Leinster House Ahead of a ‘Handmaids’ lobby at the Dail to mark the first public meeting of the Dail Committee on the 8th Amendment in September.
A man looks at a tractor which has fallen into a river after a road collapsed in Iskaheen, County Donegal after heavy rain left a trail of destruction.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar arrives at Government Buildings in Dublin to attend an emergency cabinet meeting on Brexit early in December.
People watch a bonfire in the bogside area of Derry, which is traditionally torched on August 15 to mark a Catholic feast day celebrating the assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven, but in modern times the fire has become a source of contention and associated with anti-social behaviour.
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