Ireland

Summer time: Clocks go forward by one hour this weekend

Ireland to lose an hour’s sleep on Saturday night but gain longer evenings

Families enjoy the long evening light at dusk as they jump from Creevy Pier in Donegal Bay in July 2014. The clocks go forward this weekend. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien
Families enjoy the long evening light at dusk as they jump from Creevy Pier in Donegal Bay in July 2014. The clocks go forward this weekend. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien
Jade Wilson
Tue Mar 22 2022 - 12:31

The beginning of daylight saving time will take place this weekend as clocks are set to go forward by one hour.

Ireland will lose an hour's sleep on Saturday night due to the time change, which will take place at 1am on Sunday, March 27th .

Clocks go back across all EU member states on the last Sunday in October and forward on the last Sunday in March.

In 2019, the EU Parliament voted to stop daylight savings time from 2021 onwards, due to an EU-wide survey that showed 70 per cent of respondents wanted the practice to stop.

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However, this has been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

More than 16,000 people in Ireland also responded to a Department of Justice survey in 2019, with a majority in favour of abolishing a practice that was introduced in Ireland in 1916.

Changing the rules would lead to brighter winter evenings but would result in different time zones on either side of the Border.

For now, the change will go ahead with clocks going forward by 1am on Sunday, marking the beginning of “summer time”. Smartphones and other digital devices will change time automatically.