It was the breast of times.

Paul Quigley writes:

In an old cottage in an island off Mayo I found a copy of the Irish Independent, dated November 1, 1979. Was great fun to thumb through and see what was making the news then.

And of course the funniest thing is how little things have changed.

Of course the front page story is about a financial crisis, and we have the headline inside that AIB’s profits fell a full (shock, horror) 2 million pounds.

There’s an editorial on the skills gap – not enough people to work with computers, which are “the in-thing at the moment.” The editorial deplores inadequate second level education in computers. This is 33 years ago, and computing education in Irish schools remains poor. I wonder if we’ll still be deploring the state of IT education in another 33 years?

Another unchanging crisis – the WHO [World Health Organisation] were in town 33 years ago warning Ireland about its low levels of breastfeeding. Today, Ireland still has one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding in Europe, which has been linked to many health problems.Then-Minister for Health Charles Haughey didn’t get that one sorted then.

How many of the WHO recommendations have been implemented? Could they come to town with the same wish list again?