Opinion
Tricks of the light as our dark days arrive
Country Living with Francis Farragher
We’re freewheeling towards Christmas at a frantic pace over recent weeks with the days seemingly slipping by like seconds and there is really very little we can do about it. ‘Go with the flow’ is probably the best policy to adopt but it seems to be quite impossible not to get caught in the stampede that precedes the biggest festival of the year in the western world.
While Christmas Day is the focal point of the season for nearly everyone, next Sunday, December 21, marks the very peak of the colder season when the winter solstice occurs and we have what we term the ‘shortest day of the year’.
If we enjoyed an absolutely clear day here in Galway, we would still only receive just about 7 hours and 30 minutes of sunshine with our great solar radiator not rising until around the 8.49 mark next Sunday morning, while it will disappear from our skies again just before 4.20 that evening.
The significance of this time of year was not lost on communities dating back through the centuries and even the millenniums as we can gauge from our own backdoor and the Newgrange site in Co. Meath, whose construction goes back to about 3,200BC, even predating places like Stonehenge in England and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.
The Newbridge site has been classified as a passage tomb, but now many archaeologists and historians regard it as much more than that. Many people classify it as an ancient temple that has now acquired a mystique all of its own based on religious, ceremonial and spiritual factors.
However the real attraction of Newgrange is its roof-box that only allows the light from the rising sun of the winter solstice to light up the inner chamber during the period from December 19 to December 23.
Only when the angle of the sun is at its lowest will the chamber light up so 5,000 years ago, science and civilisation were obviously well advanced in Boyne Valley country. When the chamber lit up, the local elders knew that the deepest point of winter had been reached, with a new year of light ready to begin.
Of course our cloudy skies often spoil the fun for the lucky group of people who manage to get into the chamber but maybe some brighter interludes this weekend might coincide with the sunrises from Friday through to Sunday.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Inside Track with John McIntyre
WELL, is anyone out there tempted to back Galway to pull off the All-Ireland hurling and football double for the first time ever? In nearly 43 years at the Tribune, the thought has never crossed my mind before until now.
Given that the hurlers have only won five All-Ireland senior titles and the footballers have captured the Sam Maguire Cup on just nine occasions, it is asking a bit much for the county’s two elite teams to finally click in the same year.
It’s only happened once before that the Galway hurlers and footballers have both reached the All-Ireland final in the same year. In 2001, Noel Lane’s troops came up short against Tipperary, but John O’Mahony’s charges delivered silverware against Meath.
For those of you tempted to splash the cash on the prospect of an historic double maroon triumph, odds of around 25/1 are being quoted, with Padraic Joyce’s team (around 4/1) rated to have the better chance of going all the way. Boylesports have the hurlers chalked up at 13/2 for ultimate glory.
All we can say for the moment is that both teams are still standing. The footballers have been the more impressive, without hitting top gear in their recent victories over Tyrone and Westmeath. Their bench is stronger, while there is a great mix of strength, quality, and athleticism in their squad.
Given that they were only four points short against Kerry in last year’s All-Ireland and that margin flattered Jack O’Connor’s team, Galway’s reputation as serious challengers is already proven. Cian Hernon, John Maher, Peter Cooke, and Ian Burke have increased their options since; Johnny McGrath has emerged as a tight and mobile corner-back; while most of their seasoned performers remain in good form.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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World of Politics with Harry McGee
Leo Varadkar once said that he would retire from politics at the age of 50. When he said it, my reaction was: ‘nah, that’s not possible, he’s never going to do that.”
But politics has changed. What was once seen as a profession for life – or as long as you survived – is no longer that.
A slew of Fine Gael TDs – all male – have announced they will not be standing in the next election. What raised eyebrows was that many of them were in their forties and early fifties; mid-career politicians. The impression you got from them was that Covid had made them re-evaluate their lives after spending far more time at home. And the life of a TD with the constant travelling and time demands no longer accorded with their desire to have a better work-life balance.
The cynicism of the public (and the snake pit that is social media) were also factors.
Last Saturday, my colleague Miriam Lord had a fascinating column in the Irish Times where she raised the possibility that some of the most senior figures in Fine Gael such as Simon Coveney and Paschal Donohoe might not remain in politics until they are entitled to a free bus pass.
And she wondered too if Leo Varadkar himself might do a Jacinta Ardern on it and leave politics entirely.
Miriam wrote: “Now questions are being asked about Varadkar’s zest for the Taoiseach’s job the second time round as party colleagues bail out and some close supporters peel away. The ceaseless, debilitating abuse on social media can’t help either – and that’s not going to improve any time soon.
“A two-term Taoiseach and only 44 years old, Leo has a big future ahead of him. But is it with Fine Gael?”
Coveney came out quickly in the Irish Examiner on Tuesday to say that he has no intention of retiring any time soon and will stand in the next election.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
It was back in the early days of the technological revolution in newsrooms when one intrepid sports reporter found that the keyboard of his computer worked no more.
No matter how hard he thumped them, the keys simply wouldn’t depress, and the little green cursor remained pulsing but stationary on his screen.
This was back in the eighties – many years before the smoking ban – and the man, in fairness, had plied his trade for years in a very different environment…sweaty, smoky rooms characterised by the clang of typewriter carriages being catapulted with force from left to right as you moved onto another line.
Now he was adjusting to a world of virtual silence, punctuated by little more than the odd cry of exasperation as the dammed machines didn’t do what you wanted them to – or the story vanished before your very eyes because someone tripped over the cable and cut the power.
Computerisation was in its infancy and the first step forward often seemed to really amount to two steps in the other direction – because for all of the novelty, you never lost a story from a typewriter, even if the end result was a series of shredded paragraphs held together with little more than hope and glue.
The early computers were really just electronic typewriters with screens; search engines were a dream away and apps weren’t even thought of in Science Fiction movies.
But this was the era of new technology and there was no turning back – even when you could no longer work the keyboard.
So, in order to get back to his opus, our sports hack – long since gone to his eternal reward – sought the urgent assistance of the in-house computer whizzkid who duly arrived with the tools of his trade.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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