Dublin Opinion

Hugh Green has an interesting post about the current obsession with dates. I was going to add a comment but I ended up writing this instead. He says:

“I have a problem with dates. When I read history, I rarely remember the dates mentioned. In fact, I go out of my way not to remember them. For me, what happened and how it happened is a lot more important than when it happened. It seems to me that chronology only comes into it when you want to consider how or if two or more events were interrelated. Or if you are Columbo.”

Almost a decade ago I remember talking to a UCD History graduate, who had ambitions to become a secondary school teacher, about history and dates. She was complaining bitterly that the way they thought history in UCD in those days was all wrong. ‘They completely ignore dates’ she said.

I tried to argue that knowing dates was handy for a pub quiz but for the modern study of history it’s more important to be able to understand the variety of forces that bring about epoch defining events, such as the French Revolution. Dates are just tags in the markup language of history, I might have said if I’d known what a markup language was at the time. However, despite her peeved expression I droned on instead about how history was not just about battles, coronations or the time of day someone lopped a king’s head off.

But what do I know?

My mother, who is in her late seventies now, had a little turn a while back. She’s fine now, thanks very much for asking, but while thinking that she might have suffered a slight stroke the doctor gave her a short quiz. The questions were of the general knowledge variety, such as, who is the president of the USA at the moment, who’s Taoiseach, what year is it, what month? Etc.

But there were a number of history questions in there too. When was the bombing of Pearl Harbour? When did the Second World War end? When did the Pope visit Ireland? When was the Cuban Missile Crisis? When did Conor Cruise O’Brien abandon his Left credentials and follow his inherited Ascendancy instincts to become a Unionist?

Actually, that last one wasn’t one of the questions asked, but I’ve always been curious about it.

If the doctor was examining my mother today she’d probably ask for the year Bertie Ahern bought the house in Drumcondra from Martin Wall.

In the end though, my Mum, who doesn’t have a university education, was able to answer most correctly.

My sister and I were with her at the time and as we listened nervously I had to resist the temptation to whisper prompts - although I knew that to do so would defeat the purpose. I was relieved though. It meant that my mother’s mind was still functioning. My sister, However, as we left our mother in the capable hands of the nursing staff of Beaumont hospital, was a little perturbed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, “She got through with flying colours”

“It’s not her, she said, she’s fine, it’s me.”

“What? What’s wrong with you?”

“I couldn’t answer half those questions and I’ve just turned 40″.