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Time in the Republic of Ireland

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For time in Northern Ireland, see Time in the United Kingdom.

Time in Europe:
Light Blue Western European Time / Greenwich Mean Time (UTC)
Blue Western European Time / Greenwich Mean Time (UTC)
Western European Summer Time / British Summer Time / Irish Standard Time (UTC+1)
Red Central European Time (UTC+1)
Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)
Yellow Eastern European Time / Kaliningrad Time (UTC+2)
Ochre Eastern European Time (UTC+2)
Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)
Green Moscow Time / Turkey Time (UTC+3)
Turquoise Armenia Time / Azerbaijan Time / Georgia Time / Samara Time (UTC+4)
▉▉▉▉ Pale colours: Standard time observed all year
▉▉▉ Dark colours: Summer time observed

Ireland uses Irish Standard Time (IST, UTC+01:00; Irish: Am Caighdeánach Éireannach) in the summer months and Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+00:00; Irish: Meán-Am Greenwich) in the winter period.[1]

Roughly two-thirds of the Republic is located west of the 7.5°W meridian. Thus the local mean time in most of Ireland is closer to UTC-01:00 time than to GMT. The Standard Time Act 1968 legally established that "the time for general purposes in the State (to be known as standard time) shall be one hour in advance of Greenwich mean time throughout the year".[2] This act was amended by the Standard Time (Amendment) Act 1971, which legally established Greenwich Mean Time as a winter time period.[1] Ireland therefore operates one hour behind its statutory standard time during the winter period, and reverts to standard time in the summer months. This definition contrasts with the practice of other states in the European Union, which operate one hour ahead of their standard time during the summer period, but produces the same result. The net effect is that time in Ireland is the same as that in Portugal and the United Kingdom.

The instant of transition to and from daylight saving time is synchronised across Europe. In Ireland, winter time begins at 02:00 IST on the last Sunday in October (changing the clocks to 01:00 GMT), and ends at 01:00 GMT on the last Sunday in March (changing to 02:00 IST).[3][4]

The following table lists recent past and near-future starting and ending dates of Irish Standard Time or Irish Summer Time (use of DST beyond 2019 is under discussion, see below):

Year Start End
2021 28 March 31 October
2022 27 March 30 October
2023 26 March 29 October
2024 31 March 27 October
2025 30 March 26 October
2026 29 March 25 October
2027 28 March 31 October
2028 26 March 29 October

History

[edit]

Timeball on the ballast office is down. Dunsink time.

Leopold Bloom in Ulysses[5]

Time (Ireland) Act 1916

Before 1880, the legal time at any place in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was defined as local mean time, as held by the appeal in the 1858 court case of Curtis v. March.[6][7][8] The Statutes (Definition of Time) Act, 1880 defined Dublin Mean Time as the legal time for Ireland.[9] This was the local mean time at Dunsink Observatory outside Dublin, and was about 25 minutes 21 seconds behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which was defined by the same act to be the legal time for Great Britain.[7][9][10] After the Easter Rising, the time difference between Ireland and Britain was found inconvenient for telegraphic communication and the Time (Ireland) Act 1916 provided that Irish time would be the same as British time, from 2:00 am Dublin Mean Time on Sunday 1 October 1916.[7][11] Summer time (daylight saving time) had been introduced in May 1916 across the United Kingdom as a temporary efficiency measure for the First World War, and the changeover from Dublin time to Greenwich time was simultaneous with the changeover from summer time to winter time.[12] John Dillon opposed the first reading of the Time (Ireland) Bill for having been introduced without consultation of the Irish Parliamentary Party; he said the different time in Ireland "reminds us that we are coming into a strange country".[12][13] T. M. Healy opposed the second reading on the basis that "while the Daylight Saving Bill added to the length of your daylight, this Bill adds to the length of your darkness".[14]

After the Irish Free State became independent in 1922, subsequent developments tended to mirror those in the United Kingdom. This avoided having different times on either side of the border with Northern Ireland.[3][15] Summer time was provided on a one-off basis by acts in 1923 and 1924,[16][17] and then on an ongoing basis by the Summer Time Act, 1925.[18] The 1925 Act provided a default summer time period, which could be varied by ministerial order. Double summer time was considered but not introduced during the Emergency of World War II.[19][20] As a consequence, following the introduction of double summer time in the United Kingdom in 1940, time in Northern Ireland was one hour ahead of the Republic of Ireland throughout the year until the UK returned to GMT in the autumn of 1947.[21]

From 1968 standard time (GMT+01:00) was observed all year round, with no winter time change.[2] This was an experiment in the run-up to Ireland's 1973 accession to the EEC, and was undone in 1971.[1] In those years, time in Ireland was the same as in the six EEC countries, except in the summer in Italy, which switched to Central European Summer Time (CEST). One artefact of the 1968 legislation is that "standard time" legally refers to summer time;[2] the 1971 act defined a period of time in the winter as "winter time" during which the time observed would be GMT, leaving "standard time" unchanged.[1]

From the 1980s, the dates of switch between winter and summer time have been synchronised across the European Union.[3][22]

Orders

[edit]

The statutory instruments (SIs) that have been issued under the Standard Time Acts are listed below, in the format year/SI-number, and linking to the Irish Statute Database text of the SI. Except where stated, those issued up to 1967 (under the 1925 Act) were called "Summer Time Order <year>", while those issued from 1981 (under the 1971 Act) are "Winter Time Order <year>".

1926/(unnumbered), 1947/71, 1948/128, 1949/23, 1950/41, 1951/27, 1952/73, 1961/11, 1961/232 (Summer Time (No. 2) Order 1961), 1962/182, 1963/167, 1964/257, 1967/198, 1981/67, 1982/212, 1986/45, 1988/264, 1990/52, 1992/371, 1994/395, 1997/484, 2001/506

Possible changes

[edit]
See also: Summer time in Europe

Possible adjustments to the Irish practice were discussed by the Oireachtas joint committee on Justice, Defence and Equality in November 2011,[23] but the government stated it had no plans to change.[15] In November 2012, Tommy Broughan introduced a private member's bill to permit a three-year trial of advancing time by one hour, to CET in winter and CEST in summer.[24] Debate on the bill's second stage was adjourned on 5 July 2013, when Alan Shatter, the Minister for Justice and Equality, agreed to refer the matter to the joint committee for review, and suggested that it consult with the British parliament and devolved assemblies.[25][26] In July 2014, the joint committee issued an invitation for submissions on the bill.[27]

On 8 February 2018, the European Parliament voted to ask the European Commission to re-evaluate the principle of Summer Time in Europe.[28] After a web survey showing high support for not switching clocks twice annually (84 percent support in the EU overall; 88 percent in Ireland),[29] on 12 September 2018 the European Commission decided to propose that an end be put to seasonal clock changes (repealing Directive 2000/84/EC)[29] In order for this to be valid, the European Union legislative procedure must be followed, mainly that the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament must both approve the proposal. The United Kingdom left the EU on 31 January 2020 and, if the UK does not follow the reform and continues to operate summer/winter time, Northern Ireland will have a one-hour time difference for half the year either with the rest of Ireland or with the United Kingdom.[30] As this would add a further complication to the Irish border question,[30] it remains to be seen what action the Irish Government would take should this happen. The Department of Justice and Equality ran a consultation on seasonal clock changes in November 2018.[31] As of September 2018, the UK Government "has no plans" to end daylight saving.[32] In July 2019, the Minister for Justice and Equality announced that while there was support for ending daylight saving time, the proposal was not straightforward and Ireland would oppose the end of seasonal clock changes. The Justice Department announcement cited a "representative opinion poll" which revealed that "82% of public were not in favour of different time zones between Ireland and Northern Ireland".[33] At the same time, a report of an interdepartmental working group on the proposal was published, along with submissions to the consultation on seasonal clock changes.

Seán Kelly, MEP, has been lobbying to end the bi-annual clock change in the EU,[34] but is in favour of Ireland adopting year round summer time or Central European Time instead of its present, closer to solar time, Western European Time.[35]

Other laws

[edit]

Closing time in Irish public houses was half an hour later during summer time (23:30 instead of 23:00).[36] In 2000, the closing time hours were simplified by removing summer/winter time changes.[37] Between 1933 and 1961, lighting-up time was an hour before/after sunrise/sunset in summer-time, as opposed to half an hour in winter time.[38] Since 1961, it has been half an hour in all cases. A similar change in the definition of night for aviation was made in 1967.[39]

IANA time zone database

[edit]

The IANA time zone database contains one zone for Ireland in the file zone.tab, named Europe/Dublin.[40]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d Standard Time (Amendment) Act, 1971
  2. ^ a b c Standard Time Act, 1968
  3. ^ a b c "Topical Issue Debate – Daylight Saving Time". Dáil Debates. 26 October 2011. p. 19.
  4. ^ "S.I. No. 506/2001 – Winter Time Order, 2001". 24 October 2001.
  5. ^ Joyce, James (1922). "Episode 8 - Lestrygonians". Ulysses.
  6. ^ Curtis v. March
  7. ^ a b c Dyson, Frank Watson (November 1916). "Standard time in Ireland". The Observatory. 39: 467–468. Bibcode:1916Obs....39..467D.
  8. ^ Whitrow, G. J. (1989). Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day. Oxford University Press. pp. 164–165. ISBN 9780192852113.
  9. ^ a b "1880: 43 & 44 Victoria c.9: An Act to remove doubts as to the meaning of Expressions relative to Time occurring in Acts of Parliament, deeds, and other legal instruments". Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 1880 – via statutes.org.uk.
  10. ^ Malone, David. "Dunsink and Timekeeping". Trinity College Dublin. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  11. ^ Time (Ireland) Act 1916 (6 & 7 Geo. 5. c. 45)
  12. ^ a b Shorten, Ben. "Here comes the summer: how Daylight Saving Time came to Ireland". Century Ireland. RTÉ. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
  13. ^ "Time (Ireland) Bill". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 1 August 1916. HC Deb vol 85 cc72–5. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
  14. ^ "Time (Ireland) Bill". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 17 August 1916. HC Deb vol 85 cc2222–36. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
  15. ^ a b Dáil debates Vol.760 No.3 p.342
  16. ^ Summer Time Act 1923 Archived 22 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine Irish Statute Book
  17. ^ Summer Time Act 1924 Archived 22 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine Irish Statute Book
  18. ^ "Summer Time Act 1925". Irish Statute Book. Ireland: Attorney General. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  19. ^ Dáil debates Vol.93 No.8 p.11 c.1021 Oireachtas
  20. ^ Kennedy, Michael J. (2008). Guarding neutral Ireland: the Coast Watching Service and military intelligence, 1939–1945. Four Courts Press. p. 144. ISBN 9781846820977.
  21. ^ Luke Sproule (30 March 2019). "Time zones: When Ireland had two". Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  22. ^ Seanad debates Vol.111 No.13 p.6 c.1212–14 Oireachtas
  23. ^ Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality (30 November 2011). "Autumn and Spring Time Adjustments: Discussion". Retrieved 18 August 2012.
  24. ^ "Brighter Evenings Bill 2012 -PMB- (Bill Number 96 of 2012)". Bills 1992–2012. Oireachtais. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
  25. ^ "Brighter Evenings Bill – Second Stage". Dáil debates. 5 July 2013. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
  26. ^ "Written Answer No.1096: Daylight Savings". Dáil debates. 18 September 2013. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
  27. ^ Oireachtas joint committee on Justice, Defence and Equality (28 July 2014). "Invitation for submissions – Brighter Evenings Bill" (Microsoft Word). Submissions. Oireachtas. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  28. ^ "EU Parliament Votes to Re-Evaluate DST in Europe". www.timeanddate.com.
  29. ^ a b "State of the Union 2018: Commission proposes to put an end to seasonal clock changes". European Commission (Press release). Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  30. ^ a b "EU daylight saving switch could leave Northern Ireland out of step with rest of UK". POLITICO. 22 October 2018. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
  31. ^ "Seasonal Clock Changes". Justice.ie. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
  32. ^ "Northern Ireland won't change time zone to suit the EU, say unionists". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. 1 September 2018. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
  33. ^ "Ireland to oppose ending of seasonal clock changes". www.justice.ie. 16 July 2019.
  34. ^ ""High time to end bi-annual clock change" – MEP Kelly - Seán Kelly". 24 March 2017. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
  35. ^ "Keep summer time year round: MEP Kelly - Seán Kelly". 26 March 2018. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
  36. ^ Intoxicating Liquor Act, 1988 §§25,26,28 Archived 22 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine; Intoxicating Liquor Act, 1995 §§4,5. Irish Statute Book.
  37. ^ Intoxicating Liquor Act, 2000 §§2. Irish Statute Book.
  38. ^ Road Traffic Act 1933 §3; repealed by Road Traffic Act 1961
  39. ^ S.I. No. 272/1967 — Air Navigation (Rules of the Air) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order, 1967
  40. ^ Europe (2020 edition) at the tz database. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Retrieved 20 May 2021.
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