I blame Famous Seamus.
Listening to the wireless this evening, I heard some medic chap being interviewed on 2RN. He began almost every statement with “So”. And his interviewer thus began several of her over-long questions. Other instances of this affliction have since come to my notice.
Clearly this is all Seamus Heaney’s fault. The first three lines of his translation of Beowulf are:
So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
We have heard of those princes’ heroic campaigns.
Still, it is no doubt gratifying that, er, so many folk are reading poetry.
Irish waterways history 