Another year of NFB has come and gone, and so it’s time for my annual top ten run-down.
A blog’s top ten is indicative of its overall content, obviously, and NFB is no exception at all. This was a year that, for the majority, I found myself in employment. My time to write was subsequently lowered. NFB fell into a schedule that I was able to keep to, with sport related material on Monday’s, Ireland’s Wars on Wednesday’s and usually film reviews or something similar on Friday’s. The top ten 2013 posts are reflective of this.
Film reviews completely dominate the list, coming close to being the whole thing. So, rather than simply list them out, I thought I’d make two lists, one for reviews, and one for others.
Reviews
A few of these have been popular for obvious reasons. Welcome To The Punch was little reviewed across the critical world, relatively speaking, and the post for The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty was published weeks before the films general release, since I got into a preview screening. It was only natural, for those reasons, that the two posts would be popular with people looking for reviews on search engines.
As for the others, I can only posit that people are drawn, in some cases, towards a comprehensive approach, and a deeper discussion of films than you find in most reviews.
10. Review: Rush
7. Review: Star Trek Into Darkness
3. Review: Silver Linings Playbook
2. Review: The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty
1. Review: Welcome To The Punch
Others
Some expected, some not so expected. Let’s run through the best of the rest.
10. Revolutionary Remembrance: In The Name Of The Republic
Who doesn’t like a good critiquing? And this was a harsh one, I’ll admit, but Eunan O’Halpin’s documentary was one of the worst I’ve ever seen for any piece of media covering the Irish revolutionary period.
9. The Seanad Referendum: Why I’m Voting “Yes”
I put my case out, that’s all. The defeat was so, so disappointing, especially given the complete unlikelihood of real reform. Senator Zappone, on the day of the vote, said a “No” decision “means radical Seanad reform by Christmas”. It’s one week late and counting, with the movement she helped spearhead now content to keep talking it out. Contemptible, but it’s too late now.
8. Constitutional Convention: Role Of Women And Women In Politics
Essentially a follow up to my previous posts on gender quotas. Doing a bit on “ccven” was interesting enough, even if the actual forum was so impotent.
7. Syria, Libya And The Endor Problem
Glad something like this made it in. Libya is a complex issue, as is the aftermath of the Arab Spring in general, but it’s always enjoyable to try and tie those problems into something more well known in popular culture.
6. Ireland’s Wars: COIN In The Nine Years War
I do like talking COIN, and 16th century COIN is a bit of niche topic, I think it is fair to say. Little has been done on the insurgency warfare of the native Irish, and the attempts of English authorities to counter it, so it was nice to offer some basic thoughts of my own.
5. Revolutionary Remembrance: Options For Ship Names (That Aren’t Poets)
Popular thanks to some linking from Irish military forums, even if the rallying cry contained within went largely unheard.
4. Ireland’s Wars: The Sack Of Baltimore
A little known event in Irish history, so writing about it was a real delight, as was researching it. The idea of Islamic pirates assaulting the Irish coast seems so crazy to us today, but it really happened, and the story is fascinating.
3. Revolutionary Remembrance: Kilmichael, And A Rebuttal To The Southern Star
Ah, Kilmichael. This minor controversy on the site of one of the Irish revolutionary period’s most famous moments created some great discussion in different places, and this was my offering, a direct response to some inane commentary coming out of a local Cork newspaper.
2. Ireland’s Wars: The Siege Of Dunboy And O’Sullivan’s March
Interesting that this one was so high. Maybe it’s because the siege and the resulting march is just something that isn’t really written about much in a modern context, but people just seemed to flock to this post. It’s a harrowing story of course, one well worth educating yourself about, and I was happy to contribute, in any way, to that process.
1. Ireland’s Wars: A Summary Of The Nine Years Wars
People like to learn about wars, and in the case of Ireland, the Nine Years War is certainly one with an absence of modern material written on it. I wrote a hell of a lot on the conflict from 2012 onwards, but this single post was probably the best single bit of writing out of all of that.
And so, on to 2014. And a happy New Year to you all. NFB will probably be back on Friday, and will resume its previous posting schedule the following week. Until then.
Never Felt Better 
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