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2010: Reasons to be cheerful? Part two...

The second third of the year was just as short on silver linings...

May
Picasso: yours for $106.5m
The Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund agree on 2 May to a €110bn bailout package which involves sharp Greek austerity measures. It is also the day that Labour overtakes Fianna Fáil in the Irish public’s estimation, according to a poll published by the Sunday Business Post.
A Picasso (Nude, Green Leaves and Bust) sets a new world record on 4 May when it sells in New York at auction for US$106.5m.
It probably won’t surprise anyone who’s witnessed closing time on a Friday night to hear that on 7 May, scientists conducting the Neanderthal genome project announce that they have sequenced enough of the Neanderthal genome to suggest that Neanderthals and humans may have interbred.
In a taste of things to come in Ireland, several people are injured by gardaí during a protest against the bank bailouts in Dublin on 11 May. Demonstrators had attempted to storm Leinster House.
The UK’s first coalition since the wartime National Government is formed on 12 May between the Tories and the Lib Dems.
The Mavi Marmara: part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
In a statement of the bleeding obvious on 13 May, Taoiseach Brian Cowen admits for the first time that “domestic vulnerabilities” have brought Ireland’s banking system to the brink of collapse. He adds that those engaged in fraud will be investigated by the gardaí. We remain to be convinced...
Still in Ireland, Fianna Fáil continues to frustrate democracy when, on 26 May, it defeats by 72–68 a Fine Gael motion proposing that by-elections be held within six months of a vacancy arising in a constituency. Seats in Donegal South-West, Waterford and Dublin South remain empty.
Nine peace activists are killed on 31 May when Israeli commandos storm the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish-led vessel travelling with humanitarian aid as part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. The attack, which takes place in international waters, is aimed at thwarting the Freedom Flotilla’s attempts to break the Gaza blockade.


June
Ethnic riots in Kyrgyzstan between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks result in the deaths of hundreds on 9 June.
The 2010 Fifa World Cup kicks off in South Africa on 11 June.
Bloody Sunday 1972: only in 2010 does the truth emerge
The Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday is finally released on 15 June and confirms that the civilians targeted by British paratroopers in 1972 were wrongly killed. The British Prime Minister David Cameron issued an apology – saying the deaths that occurred that day were “unjustified and unjustifiable”. No action will be taken however against anyone involved.
Ireland’s bank guarantee scheme is extended by the European Commission on 29 June to cover the rest of 2010.

July
Norn Iron's July high spirits....
The start of the month marks the handover of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from Spain to Belgium.
On 11 July 2010 the World Cup Final is held at Soccer City, Johannesburg and Spain defeats the Netherlands 1–0, with an extra time goal by Andrés Iniesta. The same day also sees Louth in their first Leinster football final for fifty years; the Wee County is controversially beaten to the title in injury time by neighbours and perennial rivals Meath.
Legend: Higgins
July wouldn’t be the same without trouble in ‘Norn Iron’ and this year didn’t disappoint. On 12 July, the annual coat-trailing celebrations of the Battle of the Boyne turn violent, with police injured after hundreds take part in riots in the Nationalist area of Ardoyne in Belfast.
Wikileaks is back in the news this month. On July 25, the online whistleblower leaks to the public over 90,000 internal reports about the United States-led involvement in the War in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.
On the same day, snooker legend Alex Higgins is found dead in his Belfast flat, having succumbed to throat cancer after a protracted illness. Thus ends the story of the Hurricane...
There was some good news if you happened to be Irish...On 26 July Dublin is named a UNESCO World City of Literature; the Fair City being only the fourth in the world to earn the title.
The monsoon in Pakistan hits the headlines on July 29. Heavy monsoon rains begin to cause widespread flooding in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
August
Initial estimates on 2 August suggest that more than 1,600 have been killed, and more than one million are displaced by torrential flooding following monsoon rains in Pakistan.
New York planning authorities open a can of worms on 4 August when they give their approval to the construction of a mosque and Muslim community centre a couple of blocks away from Ground Zero. The move provokes widespread public debate and protests in the US.
In Chile on 5 August comes the news that 33 miners are trapped beneath the Copiapó copper mine after a roof caves in. The men – 32 Chileans and a Bolivian – are feared dead until they get a message to the surface a full 17 days after the collapse.
Mick Lally in the Druid production
of The Well of the Saints
Bizarrely, Taoiseach Brian Cowen is ranked as one of the world’s ten most respected leaders by Newsweek on 16 August, being praised for “prescribing harsh medicine” in the tough economic climate. Bet they regret that one now...
It’s that Wikileaks story again...On 21 August, Swedish prosecutors drop rape charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange just hours after arresting him in absentia, calling the charges against him “unfounded”.
Anglo Irish Bank announces financial results for the first half of 2010 on 31 August. The €8.2bn losses were the largest in Irish corporate history. What a bunch of bankers...
Druid Theatre co-founder Mick Lally, dies at 64. Lally, a true giant of Irish performing arts, is best known for his role as Miley Byrne in Irish soap Glenroe.
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