One Year in Lockdown

Well, today's the day. Exactly one year ago today, normality as we knew it ended in Ireland. In the morning hours of March 12th 2020, then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced that starting on the next day, Ireland would be moving into a partial lockdown. I've started calling it the "Missiles in Cuba" moment of my generation, as something that had been mostly academic suddenly turned into a very real thread. As my colleagues and I left work that day, there was a really weird vibe in the office, with jokes and humour covering up a very real sense of apprehension and worry. It was only supposed to be for two to three weeks, they said at the time.

Yet, here we are, one year later It's been a year since I last saw most of my colleagues face to face, a year in which so many things changed, yet at the same time also stayed the same. Over the space of twelve months, Irish society has shown its worst, but also its best aspects, with the best aspect thankfully dominating. Large parts of Ireland have come together to help out in the crisis. Even local councils, organisations that I'm often highly critical about, and equally vocal in my criticism, have stepped up to the plate, offering assistance to vulnerable, often elderly citizens. It has also reinforced my opinion that moving to Ireland was actually a smart decision, as Germany, my country of birth, is continuously dragging up ever more ever worse aspects of its collective psyche.

That's not to say that everything is rosy over here. The government response to the crisis, sweeping and ambitious though it may seem, has still fallen short in many regards, particularly when it comes to protection for rental tenants, income supports and social protection, as well as the lacklustre internal security response. The vaccine rollout is also less than stellar so far, though it appears to still be far faster and more coordinated than the rollout back in Germany. There has also been a noticeable drop in the quality of communications by the government ever since the new government under Taoiseach Miheal Martin took over during the tail-end of the first lockdown phase. It certainly doesn't help that the current Taoiseach has the charisma and public speaking ability of a slightly mouldy bag of carrots but even if you take that into consideration, the loss of quality and indeed coherent messaging amongst government officials has been noticeable. It's almost as if having a trained medical doctor as Taoiseach is an advantage during a public health crisis.

I could go on about the proliferation of conspiracy theorists and political extremists as a consequence of this lockdown, the massive economic damage it has caused, the mind-boggling scientific illiteracy it has exposed amongst large parts of supposedly educated populations, but there'll be ample time for that later. This is just an article to remind you that if you've made it far enough to read this post, you've managed to last through what is probably the most batshit crazy year we've had in a long time. This year of empty shops and streets, of working from home and of tracking apps, it has been hard on everyone. Give yourself a pat on the back, raise a glass, or do something else to reward yourself. God knows we need it and deserve it!