Éire – Apocalypse Now

I went for a walk around the neighbourhood today, to ward off the inevitable cabin fever that shall eventually set in. As I walked past one house I could hear music pour out from an open window.

“Ah , ha, ha, ha stayin alive, stayin alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha stayin alive”

I can only imagine whoever was playing that song had only but optomistic intentions, yet was bitterly unaware of how mocking that song sounded from the outside. It threw me into an extistential crisis, is this it? Have we reached the end? I looked around the neighbourhood and I might as well have been Cillian Murphy in 28 days later. Not a soul was to be seen. The Bee Gees will have to be cancelled for a limited period of time, I jest of course.

In a slightly sureal twist Claire Byrne live was presented live from Claires own garden shed last night! She has symptoms and is currently in self isolation. The mere image of a rather shaken looking Claire stood in front of the bright wooden panels of her shed epitomises this bizaree scenario we are living through. It does feel like we are living through a war of sorts.

A war which may be won eventually by cutting out non essential social interactions of any kind. It is therefore a great pity that retail shops remain open, open yet barren of any customers. Not only are the staff at risk inside the shop, the enitre country is at risk with these open wounds bleeding. Shut the shops and the bleeding will be stopped the wound will be sealed. It is the great greed of the buisnessmen and women that leave these shops open until the they are eventually forced to close. It just goes to show how little they care about the health of the staff that run the show for them and bring in the money.

Croke park as of today has been turned into a testing centre. The country is expected to have 1,300 cases of Covid 19 by the end of the week. There are currently 223 cases of Covid 19 in the Republic. Cases are set to rise by 30% with an estimated 15,000 cases by the end of the month. On a slightly positive note a three billion euro spending package has been injected into the Irish economy, the country has not hit the iceberg and sunk just yet.

Even Trump now admits everything is quite bad and America might be headed for a recession. If Trump is saying things are bad, one things for sure, things are in a terrible state.

There is still no government in Ireland which isn’t necessarily bad. No ones trying to score political points at the moment, everyones just trying to do whats right for the country. This notion of a possible rotating Taoiseach sounds like a terrible idea to me.

There are no parades on the streets but mini virtual parades are taking place online on Twitter. Families are putting up videos of heartwarming DIY family parades and some are quite funny it’s for sure worth looking up for the day that’s in it.

The real saints today are the doctors, nurses, gardai, politicians and civil servants that are putting in crazy hours to manage as best they can this crisis.

Twould be nice if Saint Patrick came back and banished the virus, if he scuttered the snakes out sure can’t he compel Corna to feck off.