All is changed utterly, for better or for worse

Being gay back in those years meant something entirely different from the modern usage of the word and that, for certain, was the truth at the time.

It should be stated clearly, for younger readers, that the bachelors enjoying themselves hugely in Ballybunion were in hot pursuit of romance in the merry Kerry town, but all were pursuing every comely female in town.

And there were many of those around, to enjoy the craic and the merrymaking and music in the Kingdom’s liveliest town.

I have friends to this day who met their wives in Ballybunion back then when being gay was something else altogether.

I never thought then that I’d see the day when our able Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, would be proudly and openly gay.

And that again is the pure truth.

And did any of you readers of my generation ever believe you would be hearing reliable media reports from the Vatican Synod, a few days ag,o stating that the Pope and his Cardinals were seriously and positively discussing admitting a significant number of married priests into parishes?

It’s expected especially in South America, where traditional priests from celibate backgrounds are becoming as scarce as hen’s teeth.

Will that trend come to us in Ireland soon, because our Catholic clergymen are already being stretched to their limits to keep their chapels manned?

What does the future hold for a small island which once sent thousands of Catholic missionaries all over the world?

Time alone will tell, as the bells in the belfries seem to toll more sadly, somehow, as the winter moves in again.

Who would have believed, just a few winters ago, that millions of mere schoolchildren, all over the world, are driven to take to the streets, instead of going to their schools, to hammer home the message that their futures are imminently at risk unless the world’s political leaders take urgent action to arrest the climate threats hitting the global headlines ever more frighteningly, by the minute and by the hour across all the time zones that record the escalating meltdowns across the Arctic and Antarctic?

Or who would have believed that a United Ireland could incredibly be closer to becoming a political reality than ever before?

That’s another potentially fascinating prospect related to our border, which has become a complexing international frontier due to John Bull’s inept handling of this Brexit business that we all hear too much about, as the noose tightens around Boris Johnson’s tousled throat.

It is impossible, really, to predict what will happen by the end of the month, but some of the proposals slowly emerging in the encounters between the negotiators on both sides of the Brexit divide are awesome.

The efforts to avoid a “hard” border alongside a No Deal Brexit may result in a situation where, without customs checks being established again on the island, the border will effectively disappear, albeit over a lengthy transition period.

The mechanics of the settlement are beyond my ken but, in real-life terms, for you and I and fellow travellers to and from the Six Counties, the Westminster bungling of the past three years is likely to achieve something which none of the IRA campaigns ever came close to.

This could easily develop into another amazing truth.

Again, time will tell.

Finally, during a week in which any budget provisions from Leinster House are again hedged around by the fear of a No Deal Brexit, and its consequences for all of us, is it not truly incredible that both Trump and Johnson are facing impeachment inquiries.

Investigations are going on in the far coast of the Wild Atlantic Way, and in Westminster, which I need not detail here, but which involve pole dancing (and likely to involve poll dancing too, before Christmas!).

Yes, one or both of Trump and Johnson might soon be in a position to qualify for a medical card! Remember where you read that prediction first...