Ais for Aer Lingus. Look up, it's chaos. On 2 October the national airline was set free into the big, bad world of private enterprise. Within weeks, down swoops big, bad Mick O'Leary, threatening to drag the entity into the 21st century, kicking and screaming at employees as he went. All hell broke loose. Mick got rebuffed but now he has his claws firmly into the fuselage. Expect him to make more trouble next year.

Bis for Bertiegate. On 21 September, the story broke.

Bertie had got loans from friends, and gifts from strangers. The 20 millionaires who allegedly dug out eight grand for him in Manchester have never been located. And he tells us that he saved up 50 grand at home over six years when he didn't have a bank account.

When he opened one, he lodged the money in a nice, round figure. What a guy.

Naturally, his polls have gone through the roof since the controversy.

Cis for Compromise Rules.

It's all over now, bar the shouting. The Aussies came to Erin's isle in October intent on clattering and corrupting the innocent Gaels. All hell broke loose with a scatter in the first quarter of the second test, putting paid to the series.

Everybody was appalled that the Aussies would engage in such violence on a playing field. The GAA had never seen anything like it before. Well, not since a few weeks previously when talented young hurler Joe Canning got battered senseless in a county hurling final. Still, a stance had to be taken. There would be no more international rules series, not at least until such time as we figured out how to beat the Aussies.

Dis for Dublin Port Tunnel.

It opened as the year closed, way over budget and six months behind schedule.

Bertie Ahern commented on the begrudgers who said it couldn't be done. Paddy Power is opening a book on when the leaks will spring.

Eis for Easter 2006. The dead generations were hauled from the grave to pay tribute to Fianna Fail's election campaign on Easter Sunday.

The premise for the occasion was the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rebellion, and the army was shaken from its lethargic inaction to parade past the GPO. The only absentee was Gerry Adams, who knows a thing or two about heading up an army himself. He is understood to have been sore at Bertie's attempts to reclaim the Republican mantle in time for next year's election.

Fis for Farce, which is what the Love Ulster Rally turned out to be. In February a group of unionist heads came to Dublin to protest the death of thousands in the North, or something like that. The city was urged to gather round for a hug-in and love Ulster. Instead, a few lads saw the possibility for mayhem and all hell broke loose. (Hell will never be the same again after 2006. ) The streets were aflame, riots flared and spread like a property developer's paunch. In the most despicable act of wanton vandalism, the office of the Progressive Democrats was attacked.

Some people have no class.

Gis for Garda Siochana, set off on the road to reform.

Tribunal reports from Barr and Morris in 2006, allied with the arrival of Kathleen O'Toole to head up a garda authority, and the establishment of an ombudsman's office, made it a momentous year for the force. And to top it all, and put fear into the serious crims, the first recruits to the garda reserve stepped out in November.

His for Harney, Mary. In September, she stepped down as leader of the Progressive Democrats.

Many people said it was a sad day for the country. She said she was going to continue as minister for health.

Many people said it was a bad day for the country.

Iis for Iraq. The quagmire deepened as the year lengthened.

George Bush insists that the mayhem doesn't amount to civil war, and everybody agrees. A civil war is definable and possibly manageable. Iraq isn't. The much vaunted study group delivered its verdict in December, but the country continues to burn, as Bush fiddles with his spin.

Jis for John McGahern. A chronicler of rural Ireland and purveyor of stark, measured and lyrical writing, McGahern died on the last day of March.

He was particularly feted by the French and his passing marked the end of an era.

His life too was from another time, devoid of celebrity bells and whistles, and lived simply against the backdrop of the place he wrote about. A letter to the Irish Times on his death included a description from a man who used to encounter McGahern at marts in his native Leitrim.

"Everybody else comes here to look at the animals, McGahern comes to look at the people."

Kis for Keane. The curtain came down on the playing career of Ireland's most interesting sportsman in June. His knees couldn't take it no more. Then in September, the curtain came up on his new career as manager of Sunderland, where his employer is Niall 'Mother Teresa' Quinn.

Our man also buried the hatchet with Mick McCarthy in November. Next he'll want to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Football.

Lis for Litvinenko, Alexander.

The former KGB agent and harsh critic of Putin's Russia, died an agonising death after being poisoned by radiation in London, where he was exiled. Conspiracy theorists, and James Bond fanatics, had a field day. Putin said he was appalled by the murder, which presumably means he had nothing to do with it. Surely some mistake?

Mis for Mid-term elections, USA. The empire struck back. After six years of high-grade spin, expertly peddled, the American people finally cottoned on to the fact that George Bush is a buffoon.

Republican candidates asked him not to appear on a platform with them.

Democratic candidates couldn't get enough of him. On the night of his party's defeat in both senate and congress, he declared "we got whupped".

Nis for Northern Ireland.

2006 saw the entity in familiar mode, on the cusp of something historic, while tottering on the brink of something awful. Ian Paisley was the man of the year up there, issuing the words, "definitely maybe", instead of the same old, same old, just saying no.

Ois for O'Gara, Noel. He fought the law and the law won. In January, the Westmeath businessman bought salubrious Dartmouth Square from a landed English gent, and declared he was going to develop it. The well-heeled denizens kicked up blue murder, and reached for the nearest barrister. There was a standoff when Noel started parking cars in there, and among those manning the barricades was the minister for justice.

In the end, the courts came down on the side of the denizens. Next year, the fightback begins. Justice in the name of property rights will prevail.

Pis for Pinochet. The old criminal finally croaked, but once again he beat the law and laughed in the face of the ghosts of the disappeared.

Apart from his thuggery and murder, Pinochet allowed Chile to be used as a laboratory for neo-liberal economics, and thus drew plaudits from the USA. His great ally was Margaret Thatcher, who must have been green with envy at the ease with which the old gangster could deal with trade unions.

Qis for Question.We pause here on our romp through the last 12 months to ask you to reflect for a moment on the year. How was it for you?

Ris for Ryder Cup. The hype knew no bounds as a golfing trophy arrived on the shores of the KClub. Then the Dublinermagazine got down and dirty with Tiger's wife and all hell broke loose. On the course, the fare was fair to middling, with Europe taking the trophy with some ease. The emotion was reserved for Darren Clarke (RIGHT), making his first major appearance since the death of his wife Heather a few months previously.

Sis for SSIA.

Charlie McCreevy's bribe to the electorate began to mature in May. The exuberance it engendered in otherwise sensible folk was best illustrated by the radio advertisement that asked:

"What now for you and your SSIA?" Truly, we have come a long way, b aby.

Tfor Tribunals.

They haven't gone away, you know. The year closed out with the delivery of Moriarty's first report into Charlie Haughey's finances. Six months previously, on a cold June day, Bertie Ahern spoke with passion at the graveside about his friend, whom he called " a patriot to his fingertips".

Moriarty's report detailed all the pockets in which those fingertips dipped through Haughey's career. He hoovered up the equivalent of 45m in today's money, doing the state some service, but mainly just doing the state.

Uis for U2. Trousers and taxes. Bono wanted his trousers back from former stylist Lola Cashman and in October he endured the steely inquisition of John Rogers SC for his troubles. He got his trousers and then he and the lads moved one of their operations to Holland to save 15m in tax, which they would have been obliged to cough up for the first time in their 25 year career. He's some boyo is our Bono, telling off Bertie because he says Ireland isn't paying its fair share to the third world.

Vis for Valued adding, the raison d'etre of citizens these days. 2006 saw the economy steam ahead with record this and record that and an increasing propensity to know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

The economic year was topped off by Brian Cowen's budget which purported to have something for everybody in the audience, but owed more to smoke and mirrors. All looks bright as we head into the election year, when the prevailing slogan is expected to be, "it's the stamp duty, stupid." Or so some would have you believe.

Wis for World Cup. The Italians crept quietly into the final before overcoming the old men of France in a starstudded July night in Berlin. Zinedine Zidane said goodbye to a glittering career that night with a headbutt to the chest of lippy Italian defender Materazzi.

Why Zizou didn't give him a proper clatter will forever remain a mystery.

Xis the spot that used to mark the missing ball in Spot The Ball competitions. There were no spot the ball competitions in any newspaper in 2006, just as there hasn't been for the last 20 years. It's a crying shame.

Yis for You're A Star, the celebrity variety. John Aldridge brightened up a gloomy July on the box with his appalling performances on the show, marked only by his warm personality, which in the end won it for him. He suffered greatly to do his bit for charity, in the form of Temple Street Hospital, but few questions were raised as to why an exfootballer has to croak his way through a show to provide for a hospital which any progressive country would have properly equipped as a matter of course.

Zfor Zappone, Katherine, and her partner Anne Louise Gilligan. Two brave women who were willing to expose their private lives to the glare of publicity to pursue their belief that the state should recognise their marriage. In December, they lost their High Court action.