{"id":253754,"date":"2025-12-27T08:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T08:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/253754\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T08:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T08:57:09","slug":"twenty-years-ago-the-irish-times-tried-to-predict-2025-it-got-quite-a-few-things-right-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/253754\/","title":{"rendered":"Twenty years ago, The Irish Times tried to predict 2025. It got quite a few things right \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In January 2005, The Irish Times published a \u201cfuture edition\u201d of its Saturday Magazine<\/a>, inviting specialist journalists and other experts to predict the world in 2025. <\/p>\n

So, did the year we have just had live up to the predictions made in the magazine? Partly. <\/p>\n

The contributors correctly foresaw a financial<\/a> crash, a global pandemic<\/a> and the growth of right-wing politics. They failed to predict the smartphone (then only 2.5 years away), the growth of online streaming or many of the technologies<\/a> \u2013 some old, some new \u2013 that have become part of everyday life: e-scooters, vaping and saunas.<\/p>\n

Reading back over that magazine today, it seems that certain things are easier to guess than others: economists are able to predict a lot by studying long-term demography; many climate patterns are foreseeable. And you can safely assume that political decision making will always be slow, that social class will never go away, and that people \u2013 given the choice \u2013 don\u2019t change their habits readily.<\/p>\n

Social and cultural change is harder to predict: fashion changes fast, new technologies emerge quickly and can have fast and far-reaching consequences.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the things our 2005 future edition got nearly right, and some things it got quite wrong.<\/p>\n

Things we got right in 2005Recession<\/p>\n

In 2005, the Celtic Tiger seemed in rude health, but terms like \u201cproperty crash\u201d and \u201csoft landing\u201d were already in circulation and appeared in an article on the future of our money, by then deputy business editor John McManus. \u201cA reversal of some sort looks inevitable,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt could be quite shocking for those in their 20s and 30s who have known nothing but the economic good times. They are likely to have the greatest personal debt.\u201d In the great recession that followed the 2008 financial crash, all generations faced hardships, but millennials born in the 1980s and early 1990s were hardest hit, suffering \u201cwealth scarring\u201d, \u201ccareer paralysis\u201d and \u201cdelayed life milestones\u201d.<\/p>\n

Right-wing politics<\/p>\n

Our 2005 development correspondent Paul Cullen predicted a \u201cfar-right backlash\u201d by 2025. If not 100 per cent accurate, his vision of 2025 certainly contained some elements that sound familiar. \u201cRace politics will be a common phenomenon as elements of the majority culture harvest votes by preying on growing insecurity in the population,\u201d he wrote. \u201cGrowing racial tensions will push minorities back into their own cultures, further tightening their isolation … Yes there will be examples of integration, interracial harmony and cultural fusion but these will take place at the margins.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople wear face masks on a bus in DUblin during the pandemic. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill A global pandemic<\/p>\n

Two writers \u2013 former health correspondent Dr Muiris Houston and former columnist Shane Hegarty \u2013 pointed out the likelihood that a global pandemic could strike and \u201ckill millions\u201d. Hegarty wrote that such an event \u201ccould destabilise economies, bring down governments, trigger wars and ruin your chances of getting that report to your boss by Monday\u201d. The death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic currently stands at more than seven million worldwide, and the pandemic had far-reaching consequences for our politics, our economies and our working lives. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Bird flu \u2018could very well become the next pandemic\u2019, says Irish virologistOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

WFH<\/p>\n

Some writers predicted the pandemic, but technology journalist Karlin Lillington predicted what may be its most lasting effect: hybrid working. In 2025, she wrote, \u201cyou don\u2019t need to go out to work daily since everything you need can be accessed from home via ultra-high-speed networks\u201d. She even foresaw the \u201ccamera-off\u201d habit. \u201cYou need to attend online conferences and meetings, but you could appear via an individualised virtual representation of yourself, like an avatar, then hang out in your pyjamas in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WorkingWorking from home: As predicted, it’s definitely a thing Things we got wrong in 2005Robot pets<\/p>\n

For every accurate technological prediction, two were wide of the mark. Karlin Lillington jumped the gun on domestic robots: \u201cMost middle-class homes will have a robot that can perform basic tasks, while they will also look after the infirm elderly and disabled. Many homes will opt for robot pets; so much easier than real-world animals.\u201d And while wearable technology is common, I still don\u2019t know anyone with the kind of subcutaneous microchips she predicted. \u201cPersonal microchips and sensors will be embedded under our skin enabling us to unlock our house, access personal data storage, match a name with a face. They will perform constant diagnostics on our bodies, sensing potential health problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Temperatures<\/p>\n

Most of the writing about climate change in the 2005 future edition was accurate. The late meteorologist and columnist Brendan McWilliams<\/a> estimated a 10cm sea level rise between 2000 and 2025 (it is 9.37cm). He also imagined annual scorching heatwaves across southern Europe (those in 2022, 2023 and 2025 led to tens of thousands of excess deaths). However, McWilliams overestimated the speed of temperature rises in Ireland, predicting that the average temperature would rise by one degree between 2000 and 2025 (in fact it has taken 120 years for the mean annual temperature to rise by around one degree). He also guessed that Ireland had seen its last white Christmas in 2004, yet snow covered the whole country on December 25th, 2010.<\/p>\n

Embarrassing Olympics<\/p>\n

Mary Hannigan let her satirical pen \u2013 and her imagination \u2013 loose on various areas of Irish sporting life. \u201cThe Irish rugby team, still smarting from defeat by Finland in the Seven Nations, put their miserable form down to the fact that they have no home to go to. The GAA is due to vote soon on whether or not to allow them into Croke Park \u2026 The report on Ireland\u2019s calamitous showing at the 2024 home Olympic Games isn\u2019t due out until 2033 but an early leak levels criticism at Olympic Council president Pat Hickey\u2019s decision to send 37 judo players and one pole vaulter.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Last 11 years have been hottest on record as \u2018alarming\u2019 weather streak continuesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Thankfully, these comical predictions didn\u2019t come to pass. Rugger came to Croker in 2007, and Ireland last won the Six Nations in 2024. The country won a record 10 Olympic medals the same year.<\/p>\n

\"DavinaDavina McCall, presenter of Stranded On Honeymoon Island. Photograph: BBC\/CPL Productions An ageing Davina<\/p>\n

Reality TV was the dominant popular entertainment of the early 21st century. Critic Donald Clarke correctly guessed that not only would it still be with us in 2025, but that Davina McCall would remain one of its figureheads. \u201cIt seems quite possible that in 2025, we will be enjoying a revival of reality TV fronted by that much-loved old biddy Davina McCall,\u201d he wrote. McCall presented Stranded on Honeymoon Island in 2025 but is no \u201cold biddy\u201d (would that term get past the subeditors today?), looking largely the same at 58 as she did in her 30s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In January 2005, The Irish Times published a \u201cfuture edition\u201d of its Saturday Magazine, inviting specialist journalists and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[64,35044,18,117,131668,2215,2357,19,17,9714,2212],"class_list":{"0":"post-253754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-covid-19","9":"tag-davina-mccall","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-escooters","13":"tag-for-you","14":"tag-hybrid-working","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-olympic-games","18":"tag-weekendreview"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115790705258149648","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}