Hours of work at the museum
The Irish Museum of Time has 600 clocks to change on March 31 as summertime begins
SUMMERTIME officially begins this weekend when clocks, watches and mobile phones should be put forward by one hour.
It means Ireland switches from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) to Central European Time (CET) for the summer months.
The Irish Museum of Time in Co Waterford yesterday began preparations to spring forward.
An army of staff must change the time on over 600 of its clocks.
A spokesperson for the museum of clocks said: “As the clocks go forward by one hour at 1am on March 31, a team of staff and volunteers at the Irish Museum of Time is busy preparing to take shifts changing the time on over 600 clocks.
Rosemary Ryan, acting curator of Waterford Treasures Museums, said: “The process of changing the time on each clock is a slow and steady one.
“We only have two people working on changing the time on the pieces at any given moment.
“Some of the clocks have certain little quirks when you wind them, so it’s an exercise of patience.”
She said: “Some of the clocks are eight-day clocks, so about 25 will already have been wound and changed.
“Anyway, as Einstein said, ‘The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion’.
“Or as Douglas Adams added, ‘Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so’.”
We will lose an hour in bed but the move also signals longer days and the newly brighter evenings will help the adjustment to the clock change, according to experts.
Calls have mounted in recent years not to put clocks back during winter to reduce energy costs by conserving electricity, cut road accidents and boost tourism.
Ireland adopted this policy briefly for three years from 1969 to 1971.
Since then, Irish time has been set to GMT in winter and GMT+1 in summer on the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October.
Many reasons have been given for the first clock change, which was first proposed nearly 130 years ago.
New Zealanders claim George Hudson came up with the idea in 1895 to give him more time for hobbies after work.
In Britain, it is claimed that wealthy golfer William Willett proposed it in 1908 when he was annoyed at having to leave the course at dusk.
It is Willett – the great-great grandfather of Coldplay singer Chris Martin (47) – who is said to have inspired British MP Winston Churchill’s support.
To reduce the demand for scarce coal, Churchill moved the clocks forward by two hours when he was Britain’s prime minister during World War II.
The European Parliament voted in March 2019 to end the practice to reduce the demand for coal.
It was because of this 2019 vote that Dail TD Roisin Shortall proposed in October 2020 that Ireland should adopt the move a year early.
She proposed keeping summer time so people could enjoy brighter evenings to help cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The vote of March 2019 was not
approved in the end amid the global health emergency by EU member states and the European Council.
Under the proposals, member states have a right to decide on their own time zone – so there could be multiple zones in the EU.
With the UK now out of the EU, it means, if adopted, Ireland could be in a different time zone to the North.
A 2018 survey by the Department of Justice found that 82 per cent of people would oppose having a different time zone to the
North.
They said this was because it could mean that pubs on either side of the border might all close at, for example, 11pm but at an hour apart.
Calls to scrap the hour change have been building momentum for years.
Research as far back as the 1960s showed lighter evenings reduced the number of road deaths.
It was calculated in 2010, that around half a million tonnes of carbon emissions could be saved by not putting the clocks back as thousands of homes and businesses and sports venues used less electricity.
Employment bosses say the early dark evenings make people depressed, worried about accidents, and more likely to stay at home, all of which results in reduced productivity at work.
Tourism bosses claim an extra hour of light would benefit tourists.
Clocks go forward by one hour from 1am to 2am this coming Sunday,
March 31.
They are scheduled to fall back again later this year at 2am on Sunday,
October 27.