I began this series with my Hymns: 1980 Memories post, so this is the 38th in the series 😀.
I think of 2018 as quite a dull year. I felt that way about some years in my earlier life, but I eventually grew to like them more. Perhaps your early years always seem more magical as you get older. I was probably more content in 2018 than I was in 1978, but a duller person too 😀.
In 2018, I spent a good bit of time listening to Gerry Rafferty’s City to City album, which was released in 1978, when I was too much of a punk rocker to listen to it. Even if I don’t bond with 21st Century music much, I have a huge catalogue of 20th Century music to discover.
I spent much of 2018 upskilling on LinkedIn Learning. I think I was quite obsessed about learning. It’s much more fun when you control your own learning.
Worship songs of 2018 included the following:
These are all sung in the church that I attend now, but I didn’t know any of them back in 2018.
So, what else do I remember about 2018? Pope Francis visited Ireland. It was interesting how it differed so much from the 1979 visit of John Paul II. Ireland had been much more excited back then. But even in 1979, religion was very much about social pressure. I didn’t get the sense that people generally believed it, though some did. In 2018, there was much more public negativity towards religion, and Catholicism in particular. I’d like to think that evangelical churches would grow in Ireland, but despite some growth, they are still quite small. And in 2018 the people of Ireland voted for more liberal abortion laws. 48,000 abortions have taken place since then. Even before that, some people used to go to the UK for abortions.
Perhaps the most famous evangelical of the 20th Century was Billy Graham.
He passed into glory in 2018, aged 99. Many of us were a little critical of him for various reasons. But he was very well respected. I almost saw him visit Westminster Chapel in London in 1983, but the meeting was cancelled.
But I have heard of many people who came to Christ in his meetings. Microsoft Copilot said that 2.2 million people responded to his altar calls at crusades, publicly committing their lives to Christ. Most people in my circles were a little cautious about public crusades, where people might be moved emotionally to walk forward and commit themselves to Christ. Surely, it’s better for them to investigate and come to Christ when they are truly ready. I suppose some might have been swayed emotionally, but in the New Testament, we have many examples of people being converted without thinking long and hard about it. And people do spend much time thinking about God, how they fall short, and how they need his mercy even before they come across the message of the gospel.
It was awful hearing about Nigeria where 110 girls went missing, presumed kidnapped by Boko Haram after an attack on a school in Dapchi, Yobe state. It’s hard to believe that such evil exists. 1 John 5:19 says that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. I remember David Pawson saying that the death and resurrection of Jesus could be compared to D-Day in World War II. It was then that the defeat of the Nazis was inevitable, but it still took time. We need to wait until the return of Jesus for evil to be decisively defeated. In the meantime, we do see much evidence of good around the world, including in Nigeria. We must not forget that the majority of Muslims do not support organizations such as Boko Haram. Few Irish people supported Irish terrorists when I was growing up, but you would get the odd few who thought it made them “big men” if they expressed support or sympathy with the IRA. Perhaps it’s the same in Islam.
In 2018, I also remember discovering Ken Burn’s documentary on Vietnam. I’d like to watch that again. I grew up hearing about Vietnam on the news, but never knew much about it. I remember a Christian couple from Vietnam turning up in our fellowship in Tipperary one Sunday. And we had Vietnamese boat people in Cork way back around 1978 – a time when the only refugees were those from the Northern Ireland conflict – apart from the Vietnamese boat people.
I remember purchasing Trouble in Mind on Kindle, a book about Bob Dylan’s gospel years after watching this documentary on YouTube. I immensely enjoyed both.
And I bought a new graphics card and got big into the Forza Horizon 4 driving game. It’s fab. You can even switch on a classical music soundtrack. You can also rewind if you make a mistake. What a pity that real life isn’t like that 😀.
We didn’t really go on any holidays in 2018, but we did go on some day trips in Country Clare and Waterford – and we went to John F. Kennedy Memorial Park near New Ross in Wexford. And we studied the pastoral epistles in our fellowship in Tipperary and did another Christianity Explained series.
Anyway, here are some music, events, and films/TV shows that would have formed the background to 2018. I don’t necessarily endorse all the songs or films 😀.
Perhaps my favourite is Never Enough. I didn’t actually hear that until 2023 – which shows how out of touch I am with pop music nowadays. I see 2018 as a particularly bad year. I like some songs from the years since but very little from 2018.
10 Songs of 2018
- Get Out of Your Own Way – U2
- Never Enough – Greatest Showman
- Shotgun – George Ezra
- God’s Plan – Drake
- 2002 – Anne-Marie
- No Tears Left to Cry – Arianna Grande
- Four Out of Five – Arctic Monkeys
- Promises – Calvin Harris and Sam Smith
- Sweet But Psycho – Ava Max
- Nothing Breaks Like a Heart – Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus
10 Movies or TV Shows of 2018
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Black Panther
- A Star Is Born
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Incredibles 2
- Roma
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout
- Green Book
- Derry Girls (UK TV show)
Some News Events from 2018
- Brexit turmoil – UK Prime Minister Theresa May faced repeated challenges over her Brexit deal.
- North Korea–US summit – Donald Trump met Kim Jong-un in Singapore (June), the first-ever meeting between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader.
- French protests – The “Yellow Vest” movement erupted in France over fuel taxes and inequality.
- Rohingya genocide – Systematic campaign of violence, mass killings, rape, and forced displacement carried out by Myanmar’s military (Tatmadaw) against the Rohingya Muslim minority
- Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi killed – His murder inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul sparked global outrage.
- Ethiopia peace deal – Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a historic peace agreement, ending decades of conflict.
- Parkland school shooting – 17 killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida (February), sparking youth-led gun control activism.
- Royal wedding – Prince Harry married Meghan Markle (May), watched by millions worldwide.
- Thai cave rescue – 12 boys and their soccer coach were rescued after being trapped for 18 days.
- Facebook scandal – Cambridge Analytica data breach raised concerns about privacy and social media influence.
- Salisbury Novichok Attack – Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with a nerve agent, sparking international tensions
- Repeal of the Eighth Amendment – In May, Ireland voted overwhelmingly (66.4%) to legalize abortion, a historic social change
Some Famous People Who Passed Away in 2018
- Stephen Hawking – Theoretical physicist, author of A Brief History of Time
- Aretha Franklin – Legendary soul singer, “Queen of Soul”
- George H.W. Bush – 41st President of the United States
- Burt Reynolds – Actor, star of Smokey and the Bandit
- Dolores O’Riordan – Lead singer of The Cranberries (from Limerick)
- Joe Jackson – Talent manager, father of Michael Jackson
- Sonny Knowles – Irish musician
- Charles Aznavour – Singer
- Montserrat Caballé – Singer
- Bunny Carr – Irish TV Presenter – I met him in Cork in 1980
Hibernia Gospel 