The year begins in September 2000 and ends with horrific inevitability in September 2001. The events of September 11th had such potency that any occurrence prior to them pales into insignificance. This year's Irish Times Book of the Year is particularly welcome, particularly valuable as a consequence. It enables us to have a record of the year as it was, not as it became in hindsight, after the World Trade Centre attack.
Visually the book is a delight, full of haunting images: the jubilation of Limerick Hurling fans; the dignity of John Bruton in defeat; ersatz nuns frolicking in the Bray Charities Sea Swim; a pair of runners left on a Mayo beach by Niall Murphy, aged five, who drowned with his sister Trisha, aged 15; a baby wearing a "Proud to be an Ulster Baby Prod" bib in attendance at an Orange Order march.
Michael Foley, in his article entitled 'What is Journalism?' writes: "In an increasingly predictable media world, where marketing people are replacing journalists, it is the very unpredictability of newspapers which makes them so compelling." The range and unpredictability of the selected writings in this book back up his thesis. Who will forget the groundbreaking series An Unhealthy State, written by Maev-Ann Wren, about the problems of the Irish health service? And if it weren't for this book, who will remember the story by Frank McNally about the court case fought over the ownership of a parrot who according to expert testimony was "quite vocal" and could sing a number of songs, including The Sash My Father Wore. Fintan O'Toole writing about poverty, Suzanne Breen on the burial of the last Enniskillen bomb victim, Tom Humphries on Roy Keane, are all examples of newspaper writing at its best. And it isn't just the professionals that get pride of place. Readers letters are included too. As everyone knows, the Letters Page contains prize nuggets of commentary from, and lively correspondence between, readers of a kind unique to The Irish Times.
At the end of the book there are photographs of the attack on the Twin Towers; the devastation and the wreckage; the pretty smiling face of Julianna Clifford-McCourt who died on board one of the planes. There are the eye-witness accounts by Conor O'Clery and Elaine Lafferty and 'A Love Letter to Manhattan' written by Nuala O'Faolain. The year begins. The year ends. In between the events of one year in our lives are captured lovingly and imaginatively in the pages of this book. Buy it.
Liz McManus TD for Co Wicklow is a former minister of State, Labour spokesperson on health and a creative writer