SEARCH Journal

YOU CAN be fairly certain that something significant is going on in the world when the German language comes up with a new word to describe what is happening. Although the immediate occasion for coining the word Zeitenwende (historical turning point) was the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it nevertheless sums up the hinge moment that many countries and institutions around the world are stepping into. In another context I had described the build-up to this moment here in Ireland as “a time between times”; those moments of decision and also of turmoil which give birth to a new age. It will have continuities with the old age, but it will also have the strangeness of the future.