The Irish Country Living team, in anticipation of the start of the “Stay and Spend” initiative, have put together a four-page review on Irish getaways. We hope to feature more local businesses over the course of the initiative. These small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need all the help and support they can get. As I write, the counties featured are unaffected by COVID-19 restrictions. However, with some counties again in lockdown, and others heading for these tighter restrictions, the scheme is to be reviewed.
One such business that supports a small town in a big way is McNean House in Blacklion. I am not sure if you remember; but back at Ploughing 2018, I beat Katherine O’Leary and Ciara Leahy in the Irish Country Living cooking competition with my bacon rice. Neven picked the winner (I am assured this was not a sympathy vote) and I won a night in McNean House. Fast forward two years and I finally made it to Cavan. With his new book just launched, I sat down with Neven, and his wife and business partner Amelda, for this week’s cover story . I also ate one of the best meals of my life.
Although the Government might be encouraging us out to spend, a number of counties are now close to the COVID-19 level-3 status of Dublin and Donegal. A county which just emerged from the last localised lockdown is also mentioned, so is it a different group, factory, university, or cohort of people, that are causing the problem? Or is it that “punishment”, as it is perceived, does not act as a deterrent in the longer term? Or do we even know?
Reading the measures that will come into play across the five levels under the new National Framework for living with COVID-19, I fear for the impact that ‘this’ may have on the people of this country. And by “this”, I mean the uncertainty.
No one is immune to the impact of the virus. But we are all individuals, younger and older, and therefore we cannot be easily put into boxes. The following comment was made to me the other day. “I’m 63! I know I have a time to go yet but I am still 63 and I have lost six months of my life and I am not losing another six months.” The gentlemen in question is not alone in feeling this way.
I, like everyone else, was looking forward to the interaction with my fellow students. But this is not to be
I heard veteran broadcaster Mike Murphy and veteran news reporter Charlie Bird, both in their 70s, expressing what could only be described as anger at the prospect of being told to cocoon again. We all know people a long way north of 70 that would be in better health and physically fitter than people decades younger than them. Where are we going, if those supposedly most at risk are kicking for touch?
I started a college night course this week. I, like everyone else, was looking forward to the interaction with my fellow students. But this is not to be, in the short term anyway. And I get that. Minister Harris commented that colleges being assigned a level 3 status was “grounded on the experience in other jurisdictions where there were significant increases in coronavirus cases once third-level colleges opened”. This annoyed me, as this comment made me feel as if this information was already known. And that I am being conditioned! That three weeks will turn into three months and then who knows? Will “real” students rebel? I’ll say it again; I fear the impact of the uncertainty.