From Oasis at Croke Park to that Coldplay kiss cam moment and from Netflix hit Adolescence to The Traitors Ireland, it's been an eventful year in entertainment. Here are some of our top stories of 2025.
January
Edna O'Brien gets her big-screen due
A celebration of the independent spirit, a fascinating study of hard-learned (and hard-earned) artistry, and a reminder that we are all mired in the utter messiness of life, Blue Road... gave the late Edna O'Brien her big-screen due and then some.
It is one of the best documentaries of 2025 and hits the genre's bullseye: leaves you wanting to know more about its subject. There'll be another rake of books to add to that list, too. Indeed, this is as good an examination of a complicated hero resisting the mindset and manacles of 20th-century Ireland as any work of fiction.
Co Clare-born O'Brien was a trailblazer who became a household name with her 1960 debut The Country Girls when, as she puts it, "literary success was a male preserve". Sure enough, all her books were banned here. Why stop there? There were burnings too... Narrated by Jessie Buckley from O'Brien's diaries and memoir, this film shows that you can be as tough as nails and vulnerable at the same time. As the song says, for each a road. Make sure you travel this one in the near future. Harry Guerin
March
Adolescence
The most talked about TV show of the year infuriated all the right people when it arrived on Netflix last March. Adolescence is the four-part drama that examines so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture, which has led to misogyny online and bullying using social media.
Adolescence features This Is England star Stephen Graham as Eddie Miller, the father of 13-year-old Jamie, played by Owen Cooper, who is arrested in connection with the death of a girl at his school.
We then follow father and son as they go through the investigation, which reveals some terrible things about the young boy.
It's a riveting drama about the toxicity of social media that engaged with the culture wars full-on and features some astonishing performances, especially from 15-year-old Cooper as Jamie, who goes through the best switchblade character change since Edward Norton in Primal Fear.
But what made Adolescence truly special was the creative and technical risks it took. There were impressive plot twists and each episode was shot in one take and presented in real time, an extraordinarily hard thing to pull off.
It earned praise from three-time Oscar-winner Daniel Day Lewis and prompted a global conversation around online safety, leading to praise from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
It also won all the awards - Cooper became the youngest male actor to win an Emmy, there were also three Emmys for Stephen Graham and one for his wife Hannah Walters, who co-created the show. Alan Corr
The irresistible rise of CMAT and Kingfishr
Irish music continues to go through a golden age and it was a huge year for folk rock act Kingfishr, who are the Mumford & Sons it's ok to like, and doyenne of Dunboyne CMAT - Ciara Mary Alice Thompson.
Kingfishr had a killer hit with Killeagh, an ode to bassist Eoin Fitzgibbon’s hometown and its hurlers. The song was No 1 in Ireland twice during the summer (including for eight weeks in a row), and in the days before Christmas, it returned to the top spot, no doubt propelled by their Toy Show appearance.
Their debut album, Halcyon, also returned to No 1 and since its release last August, it hasn’t left the Irish Top 5.
Kingfishr: 'We feel like we've grown up in public'
Meanwhile, CMAT has ascended to some sort of godhead, sorry, goddess-head. She wowed Glastonbury, and released her third album, Euro-Country, which was nominated for a Mercury Prize and is a strong contender for the Choice Music Prize Irish album of 2025.
There was even a mural of the 'Dunboyne Diana’ painted on a wall in her Co. Meath hometown.
Some commentators even suggested that she had a hand in Bertie Ahern not entering the presidential race after the title song of Euro-Country became a bit of an anthem and rallying point for its lyric - "All the big boys/All the Berties/All the envelopes, yeah, they hurt me." The song is about the financial crisis in 2008 and references the hardships people faced in the area where CMAT grew up.
Anybody who rhymes "Bertie" with "hurt me" is ok in my book and how can she go wrong when she has songs with titles like The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station? AC
July
THAT Coldplay kiss cam moment
In July, we got actual proof that there is something more embarrassing than going to a Coldplay concert - it's going to a Coldplay concert and being caught allegedly cheating on your partner.
This is the totes awks fate that befell a couple at the band’s gig in Boston when they were caught on a Jumbotron, a massive video screen used to display live footage, enjoying an amorous clinch. They quickly backed off - or consciously uncoupled, as it were - and Coldplay front man Chris Martin joshed that they were having an affair.
Digital detectives were soon on the case and it turned out the couple were a CEO and HR director of a tech company, and online speculation went into overdrive about whether they were cheating.
The moment also asked a lot of questions about our mass surveillance culture and personal privacy. This was perhaps the most viral entertainment story of the whole year, with the unintentional gotcha clip ricocheting all over social media. MORTO. AC
Cat Deeley and Patrick Kielty announce separation
In July, This Morning host Cat Deeley and Late Late Show presenter Patrick Kielty announced their shock separation after more that a decade of marriage.
They wed in September 2012 at a ceremony in Rome and have two children together.
They said in a joint statement to the PA news agency: "We have taken the decision to end our marriage and are now separated. There is no other party involved.
"We will continue to be united as loving parents to our children and would therefore kindly ask for our family privacy to be respected.
"There will be no further comment."
August
Oasis rock Croke Park
Who would have thought that Oasis' long-awaited reunion would be one of the most emotional and moving entertainment stories of the year? And yet here we are!
The infamously feuding Britpop icons put their differences aside to reunite for a rabidly received (and massively lucrative) reunion tour, kicking off on 4 July at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, the first live gig since the band split in 2009, and taking in two unforgettable nights at Croke Park on 16 and 17 August.
For fans, the joy of listening to, and bellowing along with, their evergreen hits was matched only by the delight at seeing Liam and Noel Gallagher mending old wounds as they appeared on stage together.
It’s clear these gigs were a powerful moment of collective catharsis for fans and the band members alike in those packed-to-the-gills stadiums. Sarah McIntyre
Read our review of Oasis at Croke Park
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce engagement
It may not be an overstatement to say that pop superstar Taylor Swift and NFL tight end Travis Kelce broke the internet with a joint Instagram post (36.7 million views and counting) announcing their engagement on 26 August after two years of dating.
The very cute carousel of photos showed the couple in a garden bursting with flowers as Kelce went down on one knee. The caption read: "Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married."
After some highly publicised, perhaps not-so-great relationships for the pop superstar, Swifties around the world rejoiced at the singer’s happy ending with a seemingly all-round nice guy. In a sweet bit of lore, the couple got together after Kelce announced on his New Heights podcast that he wanted to date Swift, after he failed to meet her when she performed at Arrowhead Stadium, home of his team, the Kansas City Chiefs.
We bet there’ll be plenty more swoon worthy romantic content for fans to enjoy when they tie the knot!
The Traitors Ireland
The massive global hit inevitably got an Irish version and nobody was surprised that it was pretty compulsive viewing when it aired over three weeks in August and September.
Hosted by Siobhan McSweeney of Derry Girls fame and filmed in Slane Castle, The Traitors Ireland was a huge success, which was very good news for RTÉ, who have been going through a bit of a time of late.
A star was born when Paudie Moloney, a retired prison guard from Limerick, who we will soon see hot footing it on DWTS, emerged as a real master of the dark arts. Winners Vanessa, Oyin and Kelley showed that being Faithful pays dividends, too. AC
October
Lily Allen delivers the final word in break-up albums
The divorce or break-up album has been a mainstay in pop music for decades, raw confessionals in which the likes of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac and Marvin Gaye have laid bare alleged marital and romantic betrayals.
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But Lily Allen's new album, West End Girl, was on another level. A savage takedown of her husband of five years, actor David Harbour, it tackles his alleged infidelities with blithe wit and pitchy putdowns. It was the break-up album as performance art.
Lily was never what you might call a trad wife and the lyrics on West End Girl, which have been analysed very closely by fans and journalists, suggest that she and Harbour had an open relationship - with some very strict rules.
However, the arrangement fell apart after Allen claimed she discovered texts from a woman, whom she names Madeline on the album, leading to Harbour and Allen separating about a year ago. On West End Girl, she chronicles the whole painful experience, with barbed lyrics about her sense of betrayal and hurt. Hell hath no fury etc.
Lily does her dirty laundry in public and comes up smelling of roses. AC
November
Christy books its place among the best Irish films
The feature debut of Cork director Brendan Canty - best known for the video for Hozier's Take Me to Church - is a slice-of-life story about a soon-to-turn-18 tearaway trying to find his way in the world after the worst of starts. Having been thrown out of his latest foster home, Christy (Daniel Power) moves in with his estranged brother Shane (Diarmuid Noyes) in Cork city.
That's the set-up; what unfolds thereafter proves to be a real workout for the heart as Christy reaches the crossroads of just who he is meant to be.
Temptations abound in writer Alan O'Gorman's script, but so too do the possibilities for real kinship and connection, beautifully conveyed by a great supporting ensemble that includes Emma Willis, Helen Behan, young Cork rapper Jamie Forde, and other members of The Kabin Studio, the team behind the breakout hit The Spark.
A Grand Prix winner at the Berlin International Film Festival and Best Irish Film at the Galway Film Fleadh, Christy is a beautiful homegrown drama that joined the best of company in 2025. HG
