When do clocks change in Ireland as 8pm sunsets just around the corner

Beer garden season is back as the grand stretch in the evening returns to Ireland this month.

We can expect sunny mornings, warmer weather and 8pm sunsets soon all following the Spring Equinox earlier this week. On Wednesday, the sun started moving north of the equator – meaning many countries in the Northern Hemisphere can look forward to more daylight and higher temps as summer approaches.

It’s the dawn of a new season in astronomical calendars and this shift means our clocks are changing soon. We’ll be losing an hour between 1 am and 2 am On Sunday, March 31 – giving us our first late-evening sunset and, sadly, one hour less in bed.

Weather expect Alan O’Reilly, who runs the Carlow Weather account on X (formerly Twitter) said: “Days as long as nights from today with 12 hours daylight. By the end of month sunset is after 8pm as clocks spring forward an hour.”

The charts say the sun will set later and later over the coming days, and by next Sunday it will be at 8pm. If you’ve got a smartphone, it will automatically update to the correct time on Sunday, March 31. But remember, you’ll need to manually change any decorative clocks.

If you’re already dreaming of having some nice cool pints in the evening sunshine, then we recommend you check out our list of some of the best beer gardens and pub terraces on Leeside.

It’s not just us in Ireland who enjoy this summertime change – all EU member states do the same. The idea behind it is to make the most of natural light as the Earth travels around the sun.

In 2019, the EU voted to end Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanently after 2021. This decision was based on an EU-wide survey which showed that most people would prefer not to use DST.

This change was supposed to happen in spring 2021, but it was delayed because of the Covid pandemic and hasn’t been looked at again yet. Later this year, our clocks are set to go back one hour on Sunday October 27.