The Rambler Rambles through 2025

The Rambler  Rambles Through the Year 2025 Photo Courtown Woods by Mick O Callaghan

At my age of 78 years, I have acquired a certain perspective on life and living, whether I want it or not. I have lived long enough to know that every year is exceptional. Looking back on the year just gone, I find myself agreeing,2025 was an exceptional year remembered for war and disasters. The world continued its uneasy balancing act. Wars already underway in Ukraine and Gaza did not conclude, and new tensions appeared where old ones had merely been smouldering in other parts of the world. I am old enough now to notice how often history repeats itself with borders disputed, power asserted by authoritarian leaders, with ordinary people paying the price of wars with their lives and many people are compulsory refugees. We learn about these wars, trouble spots and major accidents nowadays in graphic detail quickly. The news arrives instantly via the internet, often as it happening. It makes our world a very small place

Politics, worldwide and closer to home in Britain, France and in other European countries, remain fraught. There is a sharpness to public debate, with very defined left and right-thinking groups performing in their governing theatres, which I find unsettling. Disagreement has always existed but contempt for opponents seems more common in today’s discourse. Debate now becomes an orchestrated performance from prepared scripts even in the hallowed chamber that is Dail Eireann. Outrage is now part of every press conference. It happens so often that it has become a habit. Compromise is something constantly lacking in today’s world. The Russian attitude to Ukraine and to peace negotiations in general is one great example. Democratic voices have been quiet for too long in this world we inhabit. We hear too much of the authoritarian autocratic voices now while they keep the democratic process suppressed in their own countries.

Here in Ireland, the year gone by was exceptional enough with a new president being elected. The cost of living got higher and impacted on everyone, especially on those least able to afford it. I see people buying lesser amounts of home heating oil. Younger people are putting plans for settling down in life on hold. Housing remains a national problem which is talked about endlessly by politicians and political commentators, The supply of affordable housing is improving very slowly, if at all. More government, local authority and private funding is needed in 2026 and beyond to solve it.

And yet despite rising costs I notice some acts of decency that never make the headlines. Recently I was walking up the Main Street in Gorey when I saw a man emerging from Pettitt’s Supermarket with a large breakfast roll, which he handed quietly to a man who was seeking alms on the footpath and then he was gone. The roll was instantly devoured. On another day a lady stopped and spoke to a man who slept in a doorway and handed him a new sleeping bag. After a brief chat she continued on her way. These quiet charitable acts happen every day and night on our streets and villages. Communities rally on a regular basis to appeals in time of tragedy through GoFundMe and other appeals for help. Volunteers show up at times of flooding or storms and offer physical and financial help. People help, not because it was easy, but because it was needed at that moment in time. Government departments move more slowly and that is why so many community groups step in to bridge the gap in local tragedies.

Much of my own year was measured in walks. Walking in Courtown Woods has been one of the great steadying pleasures of my life. There is something about being among trees that asks very little of you. You walk, you breathe in fresh air, and you notice nature with all its seasonal arboreal changes. The light filters softly through the branches of trees at different stages with the changing seasonal light changes. The sound underfoot is so soft and calming particularly in autumn with the leafy carpet on paths and trails. I sense that the world, at least here, is healthier than in the polluted urban streetscape atmosphere of Gorey town.

The peace and calm of Courtown Woods was disturbed by rough seas, heavy rain,

flooding and storm damage in 2025. Trees were uprooted and blown down causing major devastation. Paths and trails were blocked, damaged and changed utterly leaving gaps where familiar tree shapes grew majestically. It’s strange how attached one becomes to trees and favourite trails without quite realising it. You mourn a fallen tree in much the same way you mourn a closed shop in your locality where change is often permanent. I reflect on the loss quietly, and with no great drama, but it lingers on in my memory bank. Still, the woods though changed will endure.  New saplings and trees will be planted and growth will come. They will mature into adult trees as they have done for generations. It always does. Nature has a longer time frame than we humans do.

Socially, I sense a world a little frayed at the edges. We are more connected than ever, and yet oddly alone. Conversations happen online while face-to-face ones feel rarer, I notice it in cafés, where silence sits among glowing screens, and on buses and trains where eyes meet less often than they once did while passengers’ eyes are glued to phone screens. People don’t seem to read physical newspapers anymore.

I notice while rambling through Gorey streets that ordinary life is still alive and well. When I visit shops there is bit of chat at the counter. We talk about the weather, the cost of living, who’s gone where, who died, where were you last night, have you any plans for the week ahead etc. None of it is too profound, but it is all important, nonetheless. Those small exchanges are excellent for our social communication.

Meanwhile technology marches on, as it always does, with little regard for our readiness. Artificial intelligence became the topic of the year. Some speak of it with excitement, others with fear. I remember similar worries about books, radio, television, calculators, computers and the internet. Each time the tools changed us and each time, we adapted, not perfectly, but enough to struggle through the vast tentacles of the internet web. As for myself, the year saw my latest book of prose and poetry "A Natural Story teller" finished and due for publication in February 2026. I now have fewer ambitions on my wish list, and I am grateful to many people who helped me achieve my goals and desires thus far in life.

 Good diet allied to forest and beach walks are an important part of my daily health routine. I continue doing crosswords, puzzles, reading researching and writing prose and poetry. I am a member of Wordsmiths Writing group and we meet every Friday from 2 to 4 pm in Gorey Library. This is very worthwhile for my continuing mental wellbeing. My slower pace in life nowadays, that initially felt like loss now feels like privilege. Time, I’ve discovered, is not something you manage when you are young. It is something you learn to value in later life when you realise it is limited and finite.

So, I end the year 2025 neither optimistic nor pessimistic. I can only hope for continued good health for myself ,family and friends. I wish for peace in our time in the world’s trouble spots. The world has been here before during and post World Wars One and Two, in addition to many other wars and tragedies which occurred during our lives. The present generation of people are more frightened, more security and scam conscious. There are certainly more divided opinions and people are far more uncertain about their own and the world’s future. If there is one thing age has taught me, it is that history does not move in straight lines. Neither do people but they endure. They adapt, they accept immigration and emigration and life, though changed utterly for us all, continues from generation to generation. We hope for peace worldwide in the not-too-distant future.Here’s to the year ahead in 2026.May it be better for us all. May we all be healthier, wiser and happier agus guím go mbeimíd go léir beo ag and am seo arís.Finally let us remember that progress, like rambling, is best done one careful step at a time. Thank you for following my blog on www.aramblersblog.com  in 2025.                        

Slán go fóill.                                                                  Mick O Callaghan, Eanair 2026