To turn or not to turn - do we still need ‘daylight savings’ time?

At the end of this month the clocks will change.
Or rather, we will change them. It’s the time of year when we … wait do we put the clocks forward or turn them back? Now we’re all repeating in our heads: ‘spring forward, fall back.’
So at this time of the year we turn the clocks back. (Or live with the wrong time on the clock in our cars until the clocks change again in the spring…)

It’s officially called ‘daylight savings’ time. Saving daylight. What an interesting concept. We’re not saving it like we (try) to save money in a bank; we can’t fill a jar with daylight to be opened at night (as much as that would help with the current cost of electricity); and we’re not galloping in like a fairytale prince to save daylight from the evil night time.
So why ‘save’ daylight?

Like many practices in Ireland, daylight savings was introduced by the British government. In May 1916, when, to be fair, Irish society was a bit preoccupied with the aftermath of the Easter Rising. It came after a long, and interesting, debate in society that had gone on for many years.

Cossack Day marked with music by Ukrainian community in Kilkenny

One of the first to suggest it was the American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin who said it would be a way of saving money on candles! But it was a long running campaign, stretching over seven years, by an English building contractor named William Willet, that seems to have swung the debate. His main argument was that the change would give workers extra leisure time in the evenings. He published at least 19 pamphlets in favour of his idea.

But it took five attempts to get a bill through the Westminster Parliament, and when it finally did it was because of World War 1 and every attempt being made to save the Exchequer money. (Daylight savings had also been introduced by Germany the year before).
It was meant to be temporary, but more than a century later we’re still changing our clocks twice a year.
But will we be doing it for much longer?

In recent years there has been a lot of debate about the need for daylight savings, in fact in 2019 the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to scrap it altogether, but left the final move to individual states. It should have been abolished in 2021, but, like many, many things in the last few years, it was put on hold because of the Covid pandemic.

Skeletal remains found by farmer in Kilkenny likely to be from Bronze Age

Before the European vote there was a lot of public consultation that was overwhelmingly in favour of scrapping daylight savings time. Another public poll in Ireland showed two thirds of people were in favour of abandoning the twice-yearly change.
It’s not just a European debate. Last March the US Senate passed a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent. From 2023 there will be no clock changing.

With the ongoing energy crisis there are again calls to keep ‘summer time’ here in Ireland.
Cork Senator Tim Lombard recently said the tradition should be abandoned to help take the pressure off the energy grid between the peak hours of 5pm and 7pm. We would have darker mornings but lighter evenings.

The fascinating (and slightly gross) reason why these sloped structures in Kilkenny exist!

Interestingly, Mr Willet, back in the early 20th century, argued for daylight savings saying it would be good for our health, saying: “While daylight surrounds us, cheerfulness reigns, anxieties press less heavily, and courage is bred for the struggle of life.”
Move on a century and opponents of daylight savings say it does exactly the opposite - that changing times disrupt our circadian rhythm leading to cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory immune diseases and hypertension as well as sleep deprivation, lack of concentration, increased risk of accidents, lower life satisfaction and potentially suicide rates.

Of course if we do decide to scrap daylight savings it could mean that for six months out of every year 26 Irish counties will have a different time zone to the other six in Northern Ireland… but that’s a whole other can of worms to open!
Until a final decision is made remember your clocks will go back one hour at 2am on Sunday, October 30. Don’t be the family that forgets and turns up to mass or a match just as everyone else is leaving…