People of the Year - May

The year in people: May

Crazy Frog has the world hopping

A ding ding ding ding dididing ding bing bing pscht

Dorhrm bom bom bedom bem bom bedom bom bum ba ba bom bom

Bouuuum bom bom bedahm, Bom be barbedarm bedabedabeda

Bbrrrrrrimm bbrrrrramm bbbrrrrrrrrrrraammmmmm ddddddraammm

Bah bah baah baah ba wheeeeee-eeeee-eeee!

An anthropomorphic frog with a white helmet, confusing genitalia and exhaust fumes coming out of his behind took over the charts in May. "Crazy Frog" was the marketing title for a mobile phone ringtone that earned a record-breaking €20 million for its creators, German company Jamba!. At its height, the TV ad campaign for the ringtone ran up to three times an hour. It featured the sound of 17 year old Daniel Malmedahl doing an impression of his moped – a sound that he posted on a website in 1997 and which was discovered by cartoonist Erik Wernquist. The animator created the aforementioned amphibian, calling it "The Annoying Thing"; Jamba!, in turn, decided to sell it as a ringtone under the name "Crazy Frog".

After the huge success of the ad campaign, Jamba! teamed up with German dance duo Bass Bumpers to release a single that mixed the Crazy Frog sound with 1980s classic 'Axel F'. It reached the number one spot in the UK, Australia and most of Europe. The song even managed to keep Coldplay's comeback single, 'Speed of Sound' off the top. Chris Martin said: "We don't like the frog and it brings me out in hives... That that little thing should have its legs chopped off and I'd like to eat them in a restaurant."

Jose MoUrinho unlovely chelsea

When the special one arrived in 2004, those who had grown bored of the Fergie/Wenger duopoly could briefly dream that the league was about to get a lot more interesting. José was new and exciting, but it turned out he was too good at his job for it to last. As his unlovely Chelsea team ground opponent after opponent into the dust with its unique brand of underdog football played by some of the most talented players in the world, José grabbed the limelight with a series of boorish outbursts. Swedish referee Anders Frisk was hounded into early retirement after sending off Didier Drogba in Barcelona. Mourinho got a two-match UEFA ban, but no Chelsea player has been sent off since. Mourinho jumped up and told the Liverpool bench to "stop crying" after Michael Essien nearly took off Didi Hamann's leg. Essien got a two-match UEFA ban, but now inspires gurglings of fear in the bowels of every opponent.

The low point came after Arsene Wenger announced a principled critique of Chelsea's "financial doping", pointing out that it was unfair for one team to be able to spend more than all the other teams put together. Stung by the suggestion that his stunning success owed anything to the £120 million Roman Abramovich had given him to spend on players, José labelled Wenger a "sad voyeur". The term seemed to play on the vile rumour campaign that accompanied the Arsenal manager's opening weeks in English football back in autumn 1996. Mourinho professed astonishment when he "discovered" this and wrote Arsene a Christmas card containing a brief apology. When Wenger failed to fall on his knees and thank José for this, Mourinho refused to shake hands with him and castigated him in the media. Meanwhile Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-0, while their fans serenaded the Gunners manager with "Wenger is a paedophile" and "have you ever seen Wenger with a bird". As Wenger's biographer Myles Palmer has noted, five continents will throw a party if Chelsea lose to Barcelona in the Champions League next spring.

MichaelMcDowell - Much talk, little action, aside from the deportation of mothers without their children

In January there was controversy over Michael McDowell's holiday home on the Shannon. Also in that month he proposed electronic tagging for miscreants. In February he said (again) legislation on the media was due in weeks and someone fired a shot at his holiday home. Michael McDowell knew for certain that the IRA was responsible for the Northern Bank robbery of the previous December and that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness knew of this in advance (this is almost certainly untrue, as will emerge early in 2006).

On 27 May he issued a statement supporting the gardaí who shot two youths involved in a post office robbery in Lusk, Co Dublin. One of these youths was armed, the other was not armed. Meanwhile he had done nothing at all about the recommendations of the first report of the Morris Tribunal published in 2004 and several of the gardaí severely criticised in that report continued to serve in the force (as some of them still do). Neither had McDowell arranged for the report even to be debated in the Dail.

In June he said he was introducing provisions providing for anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) in the face of expert opinion that they would worsen the problem of youth alienation. Also in June he got into controversy over his proposal to introduce café bars. Backbench Fianna Fail TDs put paid to that. On 23 June he promised a media bill in the autumn.

In July he promised to change the in-camera rules governing proceedings in the Family Courts. Nothing has happened. On 12 August he promised legislation to establish the office of a legal ombudsman. Nothing happened. On 16 September he promised a reform of the licensing laws, allowing restaurants more latitude to serve alcoholic drinks. Nothing happened. On 13 October he promised to establish a Garda reserve force. Nothing happened. On 24 October he promised media legislation by Christmas. Nothing happened. On 28 October he promised legislation on fireworks. Nothing happened. On 22 November he promised new anti-crime laws in 2006.

However he deported mothers without their children and he did arrange for the purchase of lands in north Dublin for an enormous sum. He also became the first Minister for Justice ever to disclose the contents of a Garda file on a citizen; he did so first to a foreign national, then, secretly, to a journalist, and then in the form of a written answer to a Dail question. He claimed the Centre for Public Inquiry, whose director was Frank Connolly, who allegedly had an involvement with the IRA, was a threat to the security and authority of the State. He failed to explain how this could be so.

Meanwhile his colleagues in the Progressive Democrats have expressed dismay at his conduct generally – although they are supportive of him on the Frank Connolly affair. Relations with Mary Harney have remained strained and with Liz O'Donnell positively hostile.