The telltale signs that spring has sprung in Ireland

Spring is finally here. I don’t mean the small amount of hot weather last Friday and

You see, after the long winter, nature had such pent-up energy, when there was any bit of warming at all, things happened quickly. It was like a building project held up by legal wrangles. Nature’s chippies and blocklayers had been playing cards and twiddling thumbs in the prefab and when they got the go ahead, all hell broke loose (It was a piece-work job). Tulips flowered so quickly they fell over, trees pulled muscles trying to get into leaf. There was a distinct lack of planning permission. Nature lost the run of itself.

And so did we. As Ireland grows less homogenous, we sometimes forget just how damn white we are as a whole. Nothing brings out the full glare of our whiteness like early heat. Released blinking into the sun like young calves, we bared our calves.