People of the Year - November

The year in people: November

Angela Merkel 'Germany's Margaret Thatcher'

After three weeks of negotiations following the federal elections, Angela Merkel was elected German Chancellor on 22 November by the Bundestag. The German federal elections had taken place on 18 September 2005, but neither the governing SDP nor Merkel's CDU won a majority of the seats in the Bundestag. The CDU were expected to easily win the election, but in the end they won just one per cent more votes and four more seats than the governing SDP.

Both Merkel and Gerhard Schroder claimed victory on election night. For the next three weeks negotiations took place between the parties. On 10 October the SDP and the CDU/CSU (Christian Social Union) formed a grand coalition with Merkel as the Chancellor. But it was on 22 November when the Bundestag voted her in that she became Germany's first female Chancellor. She was a surprise CDU representative – she is a Protestant, from east Germany and female. In order to win voters, who thought her "dowdy", Merkel had a makeover – cutting her hair and playing the Rolling Stones hit 'Angie' at her rallies.

She came to prominence five years ago during a CDU party scandal. There were allegations that bribes were paid for the supply of tanks to Saudi Arabia. As it emerged that Helmut Kohl was involved she was the first party member to publicly break rank – she subsequently became leader of the party in 2000.

As chancellor of a grand coalition she will not be able to implement any of her programme as planned, such as promises to cut taxes and loosen employment laws. As well as that the SDP got some of the powerful ministries – finance, labour and foreign affairs. But the coalition did agree on beginning economic reforms and rebuilding the trust of the US and other countries. Called Germany's Margaret Thatcher for her no-nonsense, analytical approach, her first foreign outing as Chancellor, to various European cities, was deemed a success.

Roy Keane More action off than on the pitch

This year saw Roy Keane wave goodbye to Manchester United, Ireland (for the second time), and arguably, top-level football. It also confirmed that, although the UK press had been reporting the demise of Keane since 2002, his power to sell their newspapers remained undiminished. On the field it wasn't a vintage year for Keane: terrific personal performances against Liverpool (twice), Arsenal and France confirmed he could still dominate big games, at least on occasion, but Ireland didn't make the World Cup and Man United were left rolling in the dust by Chelsea. Off the field it was one of the most dramatic Keane years yet.

There was a tunnel bust-up with Patrick Vieira that became an instant internet classic. Then a row with Alex Ferguson over standards of accommodation at the summer training camp in Portugal foreshadowed the final cataclysm, in which Keane attacked his team-mates in a TV interview, then blew up at coach Carlos Queiroz at the subsequent clear-the-air meeting – "Don't you talk to me about loyalty. You're the one who walked out to join Real Madrid. You're a fucking joke" – prompting Alex Ferguson, who himself has grown hyper-sensitive to criticism, to pull the plug on the dying relationship. The final leaving of Old Trafford was said to be "amicable", but when Keane was unveiled as a Celtic player the barbs aimed at his former club – "pushing your team-mates seems to be a problem in the modern game" – suggested otherwise.

Many expressed reservations about whether Keane would fit in at Celtic Park, not least manager Gordon Strachan, who privately admitted he didn't want him to sign at all. But Celtic win nearly all of their games, and it's losing that annoys Keane, so things should work out. Thirty five next August, Keane won't see another World Cup, but if there is any cosmic justice underpinning the workings of football, Celtic will get drawn against Man United in next season's Champions League.

Frank Connolly the perils of evasion

He was one of the best reporters of the last decade. He encouraged James Gogarty to go on the record. It was he who followed up leads on the antics of Donegal gardaí when no other journalist bothered. He made a significant error in reporting false corruption allegations concerning Bertie Ahern (arising from which Bertie Ahern behaved with extraordinary restraint) but that was a blemish in an otherwise impressive journalistic record.

He took leave for a week from the Sunday Business Post in April 2002 and it was alleged subsequently he had gone then to Colombia on a false passport in the company of IRA leader, Padraig Wilson, and his (Connolly's) brother Niall, who was later to become known as one of the Colombia Three. When, at first, these allegations were pout to him he refused to comment. Then he denied being in Colombia but refused to say where he was in the period in question but that discretion was not atypical of his disposition generally.

He had a fortuitous exit from the Sunday Business Post to Ireland on Sunday – the Post were unhappy with his evasiveness over the Colombia allegations – and somewhere along the way he got the idea of establishing an independently funded institute to investigate allegations of corruption in Irish society, not appreciating adequately how his evasiveness on the Colombia issue would compromise the work of such an institute.

He obtained €4m funding over five years from Atlantic Philanthropies, the body through whom the Irish-American billionaire, "Chuck" Feeney, channels his massive charitable bequests. Connolly then got a board together for the new Centre for Public Inquiry (CPI), including the former chairman of the Planning Tribunal and former judge, Feargus Flood.

The Centre got underway in early 2005 and published two reports, one on the Corrib Gas deal and the other on planning at Trim castle.

The Progressive Democrats were hostile, from the outset, to the idea of an independently funded agency that would inquire into allegations of corruption and malpractice in public life, for reasons they have not been able to explain (why, if CPI is unacceptable, is it ok for investigative newspapers/magazines to operate?). In September Michael McDowell, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, showed the Garda file on Frank Connolly and his alleged trip to Colombia to "Chuck" Feeney, intending to dissuade him from continuing to fund the CPI. McDowell then leaked a document from this file to the journalist who had written uncritically about him for over a decade, Sam Smyth of the Irish Independent. Finally McDowell used the occasion of a Dáil question to put on the Dáil record the information contained in the Garda file. He justified doing so because of the threat to the State Frank Connolly's conduct represented. No other Minister for Justice ever used Garda files for such purposes, even at time of far greater threat to the State than currently obtains.

Then Atlantic Philanthropies announced the withdrawal of its funding, leaving the CPI without resources from the end of 2005. Atlantic Philanthropies had previously indicated it would continue its funding if both Frank Connolly and Feargus Flood stood aside but the board decided not to accede to that request.

It now seems that Michael McDowell will have succeeded, through the previously abjured device of using Garda files for political purposes, in having the CPI closed down, the only independent and well-funded investigative agency in the State.