It is there in every breath. We are often too busy, too distracted, too worried, to notice. The pause.
I found it last week. On the straight horizon of the Irish Sea from the back of Dún Laoghaire pier. Where the bright blue winter sky, missing all the wet grey week, met the indigo wind-dappled sea.
I felt it last night in the yoga class I dragged my tired self to on a dreary Dublin night. The prana or life force. The space where breath is gone and before life comes in again. Legs asquat and arms asunder. The mind goes blank, allows the body to go deeper, to take your brain by surprise, stretching farther than self-doubt thinks you can.
It comes every time I board a flight away from Ireland and arrive in the unfamiliar, with new sounds and strange smells in the air. The pause. From expectations, from history, from boxed-in identity. A freedom to be.
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This liberation on leaving Ireland is something our Abroad writers regularly reflect on, as Dominican Republic-based Patricia Lyons writes of departing Dublin in the 1980s. "Ireland was stifling. I knew instinctively there was another life out there for me."
In Ireland, this period from the crazy Christmas frenzy to the new year reset is its own pause. When you don’t honestly know the day of the week and wonder when mince pies and Roses will no longer be an acceptable breakfast. Lost in time with those you love. It’s my first Christmas time, since my lovely December baby was born eight years ago, not working at the centre of the news cycle, an unrelenting master that not even festivities can stop.
This pause from life’s chaos was found by New York resident Molly Muldoon on a return visit to Ballaghderreen. Here she found space away from the city that never sleeps: “I strolled back out the road to Knocknacunny, wanting to finish the night as I started; reliving my youth with a walk of solitude back home under a blanket of bright stars.”
New Year’s Eve brings the biggest pause of all, binding the past and present together, like a portal. For those of us who have lost, this space in between makes room for a grief sneak-attack.
Last New Year’s Eve, the whizzing fireworks reflected in the dark water of Scotsman’s Bay, across the sea from Howth. The senses assaulted by explosions, reigniting the childlike awe of the crowds. Like the meeting of sweetness and salt. The tears come. They are globular, uninvited, unstoppable, as I left my late sparkly sister behind in 2024. She was never to know what 2025 would bring.
For Irish people abroad, grieving has an extra edge. Sydney-based Co Cork native Carol O’Donovan writes about mourning both of her parents in recent years: “The grief was crippling. It must be hard to grieve parents while seeing memories of them round every corner, but it is a different kind of hard to grieve your people in a world that never knew they existed.”
Catch-up: Ireland in December
Dublin’s Metrolink delay averted:
The multibillion 19km MetroLink from Swords (and Dublin Airport) to Ranelagh is set to proceed. Dartmouth Square residents, who took a legal challenge, are set to accept an offer from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to buy their homes. This is expected to facilitate the early development of the line, first proposed over a quarter of a century ago.
Rogue drones in Dublin Bay
The visit of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to Dublin this month saw unidentified drones spotted close to his flight path while a no-fly-zone was in place, and a “dark vessel” in Dublin Bay that appeared to be trying to hide its location. Investigations are continuing. It comes in advance of Ireland hosting the EU presidency next year.
Death of architect Hugh Wallace
The sudden death of the architect and TV presenter at the age of 68 brought an extraordinary outpouring of affection from the many fans of his RTÉ shows Home of the Year and The Great House Revival.
Wallace’s appearance was itself a flourish of personality, made all the more engaging by his smiley character and jolly comments, according to his obituary
Tubridy gets married and moves to YouTube
One of the most read stories of the month was about the marriage of former Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy to clinical psychologist Dr Clare Kambamettu in the west of Ireland. The broadcaster also announced change in his professional life, as he is stepping down from his midmorning slot on Virgin Radio in the UK and will host a new YouTube show.
Farewell to fashion designer
Paul Costelloe, who died at 80 in London after a short illness, was one of Ireland’s most high-profile fashion designers and founder of one of the UK’s most long-standing independent fashion brands. He was best known in the UK for dressing Princess Diana until her death in 1997.
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