In a Word . . . Sky

This must be the only country in the world where the sky goes into hibernation. Come the autumn it disappears beneath its grey duvet and though storms with names from Alison to Zebedee may rage against the dying light, it – pointedly – refuses to wake up. As with birds in the wind, I have wondered just what the sky gets up to when it remains hidden up there.

Outrageously, our sky has even been known to hibernate – aestasinate? – in the summer too, proving – were proof needed – that it is easily the laziest sky on the planet.

Hiber, as of course you know, is the Latin word for winter, as aestas is its word for summer. Those clever Romans were on to our lazy sky all those centuries ago, which is why they never came here and dismissed this island as Hibernia – the land of winter.

It is said that absence makes the heart grow fonder, which may account for the average Irish person’s deep affection for the sky.

It is also why, despite our much vaunted imagination as a people – look at the great writers we’ve produced, for instance – we simply cannot understand those natives of other parts of the world who protest at being bored with the predictability that comes of an ever-present sky where they come from.

About a century ago, the infamous provost of Trinity College Dublin, Sir John Mahaffy, when asked by an advocate for women's rights what could possibly be the difference between a man and a woman, replied: "I can't conceive."

Or so it is claimed.

It is like that with Irish people when they are confronted by those bored with sky. The idea is quite beyond our imagination. Little else is.

So red sky at night may be shepherds’ delight, red sky in the morning may be shepherds’ warning, but if you’re Irish, sky of any colour is a wonder to behold, to be savoured, to be treasured, for when may we see such again?

Sometimes I wonder whether our national colour should really be blue.

Look at us on a clear summer’s day, full of the joys as we gaze upwards in rapt adoration. Such ecstasy.

Then, more than ever, seems it rich to die!

"Sky", believed to have originated in Middle English, is derived from Old Norse ský and is thought to have replaced Old English heofon (heaven).

[ inaword@irishtimes.com ]