All written in the stars for us if only we could figure it out

Country Living with Francis Farragher

What does come over us all at times? There, I was last week, checking out some background to a story when up flashed a message on the screen that read: “Check out your own horoscope for the next year?” Of course, it should have been ignored but human nature being what it is and with personal curiosity never quite being satisfied, I clicked in to view all hopes, aspirations, good and bad points, before merrily going on my way with this useless cache of waffle being pored over for a time and then dispensed with it . . . well, until the next one flashes up before me on the screen.

Now, I know that all quiz boffins would be able to roll out the star signs for each segment of the year off the tip of their tongues, but apart from knowing my own (Gemini), and maybe that of a couple of family members, I’d be under pressure to pin down on the calendar a Capricorn, an Aries or a Scorpio. But yet it’s a curiosity that tends not to go away.

Most star sign guides will give you about six positives to extrapolate from your relationship with the constellations but only about half as many negatives, so the leaning on this one is to err on the sign of good news for the reader, or in some cases the subscriber, where astrology can be turned into a little money-spinner.

Some of the richest hacks (a slang name for newspaper writers) in UK journalism back the years were not the most thorough and revealing of investigative reporters, but instead were astrologers who developed cult followings among large swathes of the population. Some of the UK tabloid owners nearly ‘broke the bank’ to sign over popular astrologers from rival papers. Now, who could have predicted that when the first papers started to roll off the presses.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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