Sir, – Like many people, Seán Leake (October 28th), seems to be under the erroneous impression that the clocks are adjusted “back an hour” in winter in order to increase the amount of daylight in the early mornings.
In fact, the opposite is true. The “normal” time zone in Ireland and the UK is Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is observed from the end of October until the end of March. Daylight Saving Time results in clocks being adjusted forward by an hour in the other six months of the year. Its intended purpose is to “move” an hour of daylight from the early hours of the morning, when most people are sleeping, to the evening.
In effect, Mr Leake is proposing to adopt Daylight Saving Time all year round. That would mean sunrise would occur at about 10am in the west of Ireland during December. The reality is, Ireland just doesn’t get much daylight during the winter – there can be as little as seven hours between sunrise and sunset – and that problem can’t be solved by adjusting the clocks.
If it is of any comfort, here in Queensland, Australia, we get plenty of daylight all year round, yet it’s still always dark before 7pm, and bright for a few hours during the middle of the night! It’s under those circumstances that adjusting the clocks could be very useful, but sadly not many here share Mr Leake’s perspective! – Yours, etc,