Look Back 2002 & 2003

2002

VILLAIN

The trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevicbegan at the UN War Crimes tribunal in the Hague in February. The charges included genocide and crimes against humanity in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia in the 1990s. He was also accused of ordering the deportation of 800,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo in 1999. The trial went on to last five years, ending when Milosevic died in his cell Hague in March 2006.

HERO/VILLAIN

Not since the civil war has the nation been so divided. When Roy Keanewas (a) sent home from Saipan by manager Mick McCarthy or (b) wilfully defected from the training camp (tick where appropriate, depending on your view), his refusal to play in the World Cup on the Republic of Ireland side was seen by some as a brave stand against mediocrity but by others as the cowardly act of a traitor. Even now, opinions are polarised, and even mention of the word Saipan can start a row.

CHANGE

On January 1st, amid scenes of fanfare, the eurowas introduced as the new currency, initially among the 12 countries of the euro zone. The transition from punts to the colourful and smaller new notes and coins went smoothly, thanks to a massive public information campaign. Among the measures taken to get the £1=€1.27 equation into our heads was the delivery of a euro calculator to 1.4 million homes. In the early weeks, consumers were suspicious that retailers had used the changeover to hike up prices - Italians, who had seen price tags change from thousands of lira to a couple of euro, might have felt differently.

ELECTION

It was a busy year at the pollsfor Irish voters. In March the Abortion Referendum was narrowly defeated by 50.42 per cent to 49.48 per cent; in May Fianna Fáil were voted back into government, backed by a massive advertising budget; and the electorate finally voted the way the government wanted when, having rejected the Nice Treaty the previous year, it voted for it in October.

DISASTER

Unusual weather patterns and floods in central Europe and Asia gave a clear message about the impact of global warming.The worst floods in 100 years ravaged Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Hundreds of people died, thousands were evacuated and the clean-up bill was estimated to be more than €13 billion.

In China, a summer of flooding displaced nearly 2 million people, with thousands dead, and in November floods in Dublin and surrounding counties occurred.

TRAGEDY

Four men and one teenage boy died when the fishing trawler Pisces  sank off the Co Wexford coast at Fethard-on-Sea in July. Three generations of the same family, New Ross undertaker Jim Cooney (60), his son-in-law Seamus "Seamie" Doyle (33) and grandson Mark Doyle (13) were among the dead. Two friends of the family, John Cullen and Martin Roche, were also killed.

Look Back 2003

VILLAIN

In March, American missiles bombed Baghdad, marking the start of a US-led campaign to topple the dictator Saddam Husseinand to uncover the so-called weapons of mass destruction. British, US and Australian ground troops entered Iraq from the south and by April Hussein's control of Baghdad was broken. The iconic image of the toppling of his statue (left) was zipped around the world. In December, Operation Red Dawn (named after an action movie) captured Hussein in Tikrit.

HEROES

The biggest sporting event in the world this year, the Special Olympicstook place in Ireland in June. The opening ceremony in Croke Park was the most star-studded evening Dublin has ever seen with global celebrities from Muhammad Ali and Nelson Mandela to U2, Jon Bon Jovi on stage for an uplifting event beamed to 100 million people around the world. The real heroes were the 7,000 athletes from 160 countries who took part, their families and the 35,000 volunteers who made it happen.

OUTBREAK

In February, an American businessman was admitted to hospital in Hanoi and subsequently died of a highly contagious disease named Sars(Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). By March, World Health Organisation doctor Carlo Urbani, who first reported the disease to the WHO, also died. Between November and May, Sars infected an estimated 8,500 people in 30 countries, killing more than 800. It spread as far as Toronto, killing 41 people in Canada.

BREAKTHROUGH

In April, scientists working on the Human Genome Projectannounced that their work was complete, having marked 99 per cent of the human genome sequence. Less than three years after finishing the first draft of the three billion letters that make up human DNA, and two years earlier than expected, the international group of scientists said identification of the set of instructions on how humans develop and function is done, and the completed sequence will help scientists identify the 25,000-30,000 genes in humans.

TRAGEDY

In a televised tragedy watched by millions, the Columbiaspace shuttlebroke up on re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board. The shuttle was travelling at 18 times the speed of sound, 60km above Texas, when disaster struck. A failure of the heat-resistant tiles that covered the craft was blamed, as the incident occurred at the exact moment the heat of re-entry was at its maximum.