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review 2012

13 things we didn't know last year

Gangnam, Instagram, Mick Wallace’s tax dealings, and how amazing our athletes are.

AH, 2011. WHEN Gangnam Style didn’t exist, when you didn’t know your family members were reading erotic literature, and when bagels were simply for eating.

Here are 13 things we didn’t know last year.

What Gangnam is

(officialpsy/YouTube)

Turns out it is an up-market area of Seoul, and a Korean pop song about it, Gangnam Style became the biggest viral video ever. What was life like before ‘Hey, sexy lady.. ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh‘?

Who was reading erotic literature

50 Shades of Grey was a huge moment in popular literature, bringing as it did the phrase ‘BDSM’ out from the bedroom and onto the bus, into the handbag and at the dinner table. It was a simpler time before this.

How much we’d care about the Olympics and Paralympics

We knew our athletes were brilliant, we knew they’d do us proud, but we underestimated how proud we’d feel of every last one of them. And when they broke world records and won gold medals? Well, our hearts could have burst.

(RTE/YouTube)

(EmmaHarbison/YouTube)

What Instagram was

(collegehumor/YouTube)

Before 2011, we might have taken a snap of Christmas dinner on our phone, and a select few may even have taken it using Hipstagram. But this year, the world and its granny was taking photos of every last damned thing, applying a filter to it, and then sharing it online. Instagram had arrived.

How grumpy a cat could get

(Grumpy Cat/YouTube)

This cat sure is grumpy.

That a spacecraft could land on Mars

(Pic: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

The Mars Rover landed on Mars, and even took photos for us. Good robot.

That making a bagel shape in your head could be a ‘thing’

It became somewhat of a trend to insert a bagel shape into your forehead. For some people, at least.

How much Irish politics was like In the Thick of It

It turns out we had lots of gaffes and mishaps in this country worthy of a comedy sitcom.

That Mick Wallace had evaded paying tax

(Pic: Laura Hutton/PhotocallIreland)

The TD apologised to the Dáil for his company’s under-declaration of tax to the tune of €1.4 million, and pledged to use half of his Dáil salary to make repayments to Revenue.

Just how badly we’d do at Euro 2012

(RockLegend FortySix/YouTube)

Ouch.

But the fans still kept their cool.

(kylowawa12/YouTube)

If Obama was still going be President of the United States

(WSJDigitalNetwork/YouTube)

It was a tight race against Mitt Romney, but Obama won in the end.

The truth about what happened at Hillsborough

(ITVNews/YouTube)

The release of the Hillsborough documents made for chilling reading, shedding more light on the tragic events on 15 April 1989.

That the Government would legislate for the X Case ruling

Stephen O’Reilly and Rebecca Ryan joined approx 1000 outside Leinster House after the death of Savita Halappanavar. (Pic: Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

It took a tragic death of a woman in Galway, Savita Halappanavar, to bring the issue firmly back onto the public agenda, and the publication of the Expert Group report on the A, B, C vs Ireland put further pressure on the government to legislate for the 1992 X Case Supreme Court decision. In mid-December, they introduced new legislation allowing abortions to be carried out in Ireland in circumstances where the life of the mother is at risk, and where that risk can only be addressed by terminating the pregnancy.

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