It seems like only yesterday that I posted about being 20,000 days old. But actually it was a thousand days ago. When I was born on 26 April 1967, Lyndon Johnson was President of the USA; Harold Wilson was Prime Minister of the UK; Jack Lynch was Taoiseach; and Walter Hallstein was President of the European Commission. It was the day that Italy launched an earth satellite from an ocean platform, and Harry West was forced to resign as Northern Ireland’s Minister of Agriculture due to a corruption scandal. My birthday twins include the wrestler Glenn Jacobs aka Kane; the actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste; the former Estonian Minister of Finance and his twin brother; and the British Ambassador to Indonesia who incidentally was my college flatmate in our final year.
1,000 days: Tuesday 20 January 1970
I was two and three quarters, living in Belfast. The Troubles were going through a deceptive lull – the first violent deaths of the year in Northern Ireland would not be until June. The Biafrans had just lost the Nigerian civil war. The first commercial Boeing 747 took off the next day. Born that day: Mitch Benn.
(Between episodes 3 and 4 of Spearhead from Space.)
US President: Nixon
UK Prime Minister: Wilson
Taoiseach: Lynch Northern Ireland
Prime Minister: T O’Neill
President of the European Commission: Rey
2,000 days: Monday 16 October 1972
I was five and a half, attending primary school. The Troubles were in full flow with four people killed by the British Army that day, two IRA, two Loyalists, and Maze prison inmates starting a fire which caused serious damage. Congressman Hale Boggs died in a plane crash in Alaska (at least that’s what most people think; the wreckage was never found). The first episode of Emmerdale was broadcast.
US President: Nixon
UK Prime Minister: Heath
Taoiseach: Lynch
Northern Ireland Prime Minister: vacant
President of the European Commission: Mansholt
3,000 days: Sunday 13 July 1975
I was eight and a quarter. I remember being at my grandparents’ in Dublin later that week, watching the Apollo-Soyuz mission; possibly we were already there on the 13th, avoiding the Twelfth. Two people were killed in the Troubles that day, a Catholic teenager shot by the Army and a loyalist killed in in an internal feud. The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) process was nearing an end, with the Helsinki Accords signed on 1 August. Born that day: Alan Kelly, former leader of the Irish Labour Party.
US President: Ford
UK Prime Minister: Wilson
Taoiseach: Cosgrave
President of the European Commission: Ortoli
4,000 days: Saturday 8 April 1978
I was nearly eleven, in my last year at St Anne’s primary school. The IRA kidnapped and shot a Catholic man from Twinbrook that day; his body was not found until 2014. Star Wars had just won six Oscars, to four for Annie Hall. Monty Python and the Holy Grail was released the following day. (It seems not.)
US President: Carter
UK Prime Minister: Callaghan
Taoiseach: Lynch
President of the European Commission: Jenkins
5,000 days: Friday 2 January 1981
Weirdly enough, I remember actually working out that I was 5000 days old on that day. I was thirteen, still enjoying the Christmas holidays, in the third form at Rathmore Grammar School. We were in the lull between the two hunger strikes; the IRA killed a Castlewellan man the previous day. Jimmy Carter was preparing to hand over to Ronald Reagan. Greece had just joined the EEC.
(Episode 1 of Warrior’s Gate was broadcast the next day)
US President: Carter (just)
UK Prime Minister: Thatcher
Taoiseach: Haughey
President of the European Commission: Jenkins (in his last few days)
6,000 days: Thursday 29 September 1983
I was sixteen, in Lower Sixth at Rathmore Grammar School, with a long-distance girlfriend in England. The previous weekend 38 prisoners escaped from the Maze Prison, the biggest prison break in UK or Irish history. Neil Kinnock was about to be elected leader of the UK Labour Party.
US President: Reagan
UK Prime Minister: Thatcher
Taoiseach: Fitzgerald
President of the European Commission: Thorn
7,000 days: Wednesday 25 June 1986
I was nineteen, working on an archaeology site near Heilbronn in Germany, still with the same long-distance girlfriend. That evening West Germany beat France and Argentina beat Belgium in the World Cup semi-finals (Argentina won the final on Sunday). I actually remember that we had a barbecue at work the next day, lots of roast meat and beer. Born that day: Leonora Knatchbull (1986-1991) after whom the Leonora Children’s Cancer Fund was named.
US President: Reagan
UK Prime Minister: Thatcher
Taoiseach: Fitzgerald
President of the European Commission: Delors
8,000 days: Tuesday 21 March 1989
I was 21, single, preparing nervously for finals at Cambridge, and had just been elected Deputy President of the students union for the following year. The previous day, the IRA killed two policemen in south Armagh. Serbia was about to revoke Kosovo’s autonomy, as Communism crumbled across Eastern Europe. The People’s Action Movement won six of the eleven elected seats in the Assembly of St Kitts and Nevis. Dick Cheney became the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
US President: Reagan
UK Prime Minister: Thatcher
Taoiseach: Haughey
President of the European Commission: Delors
9,000 days: Monday 16 December 1991
I was 24, living in Belfast again and working as a researcher on the project that became my PhD, long-distancing with Anne, my future wife. The following day a Belfast bar manager was killed by a leading INLA man who had been thrown out of his bar. Kazakhstan declare independence from the Soviet Union, which was formally dissolved on Christmas Day (though functionally it had collapsed months before). The People’s National Movement won the election in Trinidad and Tobago.
US President: GHW Bush
UK Prime Minister: Major
Taoiseach: Haughey
President of the European Commission: Delors
10,000 days: Sunday 11 September 1994
I was 27, had been married to Anne for almost a year, in the middle of my PhD; I actually had a 10,000-day party that evening, having done the calculations in advance. We were in ceasefire time, with the IRA having announced theirs two weeks before, and the Loyalists preparing for theirs a month later. I was already active in the Alliance Party as the grandly titled Director of Elections. Frasier won four Emmys.
US President: Clinton
UK Prime Minister: Major
Taoiseach: Reynolds
President of the European Commission: Delors
11,000 days: Saturday 7 June 1997
I was 30, working in Bosnia, nervously ready for the arrival of B a couple of weeks later – I think we already knew by the 7th that Anne (who had stayed in Belfast) would have a Caesarian on the 19th. The Irish general election was the previous day, with Bertie Ahern placed to start his eleven-year term as Taoiseach. The IRA ceasefire was reinstated the following month.
US President: Clinton
UK Prime Minister: Blair
Taoiseach: Bruton (just)
President of the European Commission: Santer
12,000 days: Friday 3 March 2000
I was 32, working at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels; we were still getting to grips with B’s disability, and F was a happy seven months old. I think this was actually the weekend that I went to Szeged in Hungary to meet with the Serbian opposition. My first visit to Kosovo was later that month. The Northern Ireland Assembly had been suspended again. George W. Bush and Al Gore clinched their respective presidential nominations the following Tuesday. The Anguilla United Front won the election in, of all places, Anguilla.
US President: Clinton
UK Prime Minister: Blair
Taoiseach: Ahern
Northern Ireland First Minister: Trimble
Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister: Mallon
President of the European Commission: Prodi
13,000 days: Thursday 28 November 2002
I was 35, working for the International Crisis Group, expecting U’s arrival a few weeks later. We had just published a report on [North] Macedonia and NATO. Back in Northern Ireland, the Assembly had been suspended after Stormontgate the previous month, and did not come back for years. There were terrorist attacks in Mombasa, Soweto and Beit She’an.
US President: GW Bush
UK Prime Minister: Blair
Taoiseach: Ahern
President of the European Commission: Prodi
14,000 days: Wednesday 24 August 2005
I was 38, still working for the International Crisis Group, briefly at home between our holiday in Northern Ireland (including the 2005 Glasgow Worldcon) and a particularly fun trip to [North] Macedonia which started the following day. The USA was about to be hit by Hurricane Katrina. As part of the ongoing Northern Ireland choreography, the IRA had declared a permanent end to its campaign the previous month (which had also seen the 7/7 bombings in London).
US President: GW Bush
UK Prime Minister: Blair
Taoiseach: Ahern
President of the European Commission: Barroso
15,000 days: Tuesday 20 May 2008
I was 41, working with Independent Diplomat, just back from a trip to Montenegro and Albania, and reading lots of Doctor Who books. B had moved out a few months before, and into the place where she now lives the previous month. Bertie Ahern had just stepped down as Taoiseach, followed by Brian Cowen, and Ian Paisley was about to step down as First Minister of Northern Ireland. Boris Johnson had just been elected Mayor of London.
(Between The Unicorn and the Wasp and Silence in the Library)
US President: GW Bush
UK Prime Minister: Brown
Taoiseach: Cowan
Northern Ireland First Minister: Paisley (just)
Northern Ireland
Deputy First Minister: McGuinness
President of the European Commission: Barroso
16,000 days: Monday 14 February 2011
I was 43, still working with Independent Diplomat, probably took the evening to celebrate Valentine’s Day with Anne. In Ireland, voters were preparing to give Fianna Fail a massive kicking, and across the Arab world governments were toppling; in Iran it was a ‘Day of Rage’ for protesters.
US President: Obama
UK Prime Minister: Cameron
Taoiseach: Cowan (just)
Northern Ireland First Minister: Robinson
Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister: McGuinness
President of the European Commission: Barroso
17,000 days: Sunday 10 November 2013
I was 46, at Novacon in Nottingham with F, having a damn good time. Still working with Independent Diplomat but actively looking. Preparing for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who two weeks later…
US President: Obama
UK Prime Minister: Cameron
Taoiseach: Kenny
Northern Ireland First Minister: Robinson
Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister: McGuinness
President of the European Commission: Barroso
18,000 days: Saturday 6 August 2016
I was 49, on holiday in Northern Ireland from my work at APCO, where I had been working for almost two years. The Rio Olympics were about to start. We went to Tyrella Beach and Downpatrick that day, and saw the Red Arrows fly overhead.
US President: Obama
UK Prime Minister: May
Taoiseach: Kenny
Northern Ireland First Minister: Foster
Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister: McGuinness
President of the European Commission: Juncker
19,000 days: Friday 3 May 2019
It was the week after my 52nd birthday, and I spent all day in the BBC TV studio in Belfast commenting on the results of the previous day’s local council elections. The next day I did more TV in the morning and went south to a Dublin Worldcon planning meeting in the afternoon. The Emperor of Japan had just abdicated. This is me exploring the green screen with the BBC’s Mark Simpson.
US President: Trump
UK Prime Minister: May
Taoiseach: Varadkar
President of the European Commission: Juncker
20,000 days: Thursday 27 January 2022
I was 54, in the plague times, still working at APCO. No travel that month outside Belgium, though that weekend I went to Antwerp to see the earliest surviving ceiling of Jan Christiaan Hansche. Russia was about to invade Ukraine. I wrote a blog post about being 20,000 days old.
US President: Biden
UK Prime Minister: Johnson
Taoiseach: Martin
Northern Ireland First Minister: Givan (remember him?)
Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister: Michelle O’Neill
President of the European Commission: von der Leyen
21,000 days: Wednesday 23 October 2024
Last Sunday (three days ago) was the tenth anniversary of my joining APCO. I’m having a party to celebrate that next week – let me know if you’d like to come and I somehow forgot to invite you. But it’s pleasing that it almost coincides with my 21,000th day on the planet.
US President: Biden
UK Prime Minister: Starmer
Taoiseach: Harris
Northern Ireland First Minister: Michelle O’Neill
Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister: Little-Pengelly
President of the European Commission: von der Leyen