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Tue 07 Jul 2007An Irishman's DiaryToday marks the traditional start of that dreaded period of summer known as the "dog days": so called because, around now, the dog star Sirius rises just before the sun in the northern hemisphere, making itself visible as the brightest star in the sky, writes Frank McNallyThe phenomenon is unlikely to worry us unduly in Ireland, where "summer" is a term meteorologists use to describe the annual peak in average rain temperatures. But it worried the ancient Romans (also the modern ones, as we'll see in a moment). And it was a source of major concern to the Greeks.