Once the Dáil (Irish Parliament) rises for its Summer break, the Irish media enters what is known as its “silly season”. Silly season is basically the period of time where the media give more space to otherwise irrelevant stories; all because there’s little else to talk about. This year’s season will run from the 6th of July to the 26th of September.
Interestingly enough, as the media geared up for the annual news-blight on Thursday, it was faced with not one but three big stories, any one of which they will likely be crying out for in the cold, lonely afternoons of August.
Story one: a stairwell collapses in the Natural History Museum in Dublin city, injuring 11.
Story two: 120 children need to be rescued in Dún Laoghaire after their boats capsize during a regatta.
Story three: A small plane misses the runway in Co. Galway, killing two and injuring five.
As well as these three, there’s also the on-going saga of the €105m (over 1 tonne) worth of cocaine found off the coast of Cork which reads a little like something out of a film.
In spite of these big stories being largely spent before silly season begins, this year promises to be slightly less silly than previous ones.
Both The Green Party and Progressive Democrats looking for new leaders; both of these stories should provide a few decent political moments and headlines in the coming weeks. As well as this the media will probably continue to pick at the strange marriage of Green and Fianna Fáil and try to highlight covert changes in policy from within each party as they compromise for power.
There’s also sure to be a few more surprise stories that pop up along the way, just like the four that dominated the Irish frontpages over the past week.