Time's a curious thing

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

There’s a stretch in the day. It’s bright now before 07.30 and there is still light in the sky after 18.00. At least so is the state of play on the east coast. In Kerry it’s 10 minutes later in the morning, but then the Kingdom has those extra few minutes of daylight in the evening.

The first day my father came home from work in the daylight my mother would be ecstatic. He would arrive home at 4.45pm and the fact that it was bright was a topic of animated discussion between my parents. 

I was reminded of my mother’s ecstasy when I was cycling home from work some days ago. I spotted snowdrops in the garden of St Luke’s Hospital in Dublin’s Rathgar.

Things are beginning to happen all around us. It might be cold; the dark is still in the dominant position in the 24 hours but it too is being slowly but surely pushed aside.

I’m an early riser, most weekdays I’m up at 06.00. Three weeks ago I got something of a shock when I left the house to be greeted by a surprise brightness. It was that blue moon that people were talking about. There was a cloudless sky and the power of the blue moon significantly brightened the darkness. For a second or two my imagination ran away with me and I thought spring was happening faster than usual.

Of course it wasn’t. All through February we are daily gaining approximately an extra four minutes of daylight.

On February 8 MEPs voted to call on the EU Commission to propose ending the twice-yearly switch between summer and winter time.

The resolution won approval at a vote held at the parliament in Strasbourg. It would mean the ending of Daylight Saving Time.

If the European Parliament proposition is adopted does that mean that we would be an hour behind Northern Ireland during the summer? It sounds daft, then again doesn’t everything to do with Brexit sound insular and regressive?

Up to 1916 Ireland was 25 minutes behind the UK and when the times were synchronised, Countess Markievicz was among those who objected to the change.

In 1968 Ireland adopted Summer Time the whole year round and that system stayed in place until 1971.

Time is an interesting concept. A minute is always 60 seconds, a year 365 days when it’s not a leap year and yet the older we get it would appear time goes faster. 

February 12 was the anniversary of my mother’s death. She died in her 79^th year 30 years ago and I find myself saying: ‘where has the time gone?’ It has been going so quickly for me that I regularly jump from 1999 to 2010, skipping an entire decade.

It’s an old cliché but like all clichés it’s true – ‘time stops for no one’. Nor does it.

All we have is the now. It’s wise to make the best of it, especially in these the first days of spring. 

There’s magic right in front of our eyes and it’s such a pity that so often we take for granted what’s familiar. We all go chasing rainbows in the sky. A silly practice.

Look out for the first daffodils. These are the best of days, with everything to look forward to.

Whatever about the shenanigans of the hands of the clock and how we move them, let the beauty of nature seep into our veins and relish every moment of it.

Darwin said: ‘A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.’