Anti-Traveller vitriol is socially acceptable in Ireland but let's call it what it is - racism

My article in today's Irish Independent 👇

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/anti-traveller-vitriol-is-socially-acceptable-here-but-lets-call-it-what-it-is-racism-39502475.html

When I was 15, I volunteered to teach literacy to Traveller children after school. That’s where I met Josephine, whose ensuing friendship gave me the gift, privileged and painful though it was, to walk in another girl’s shoes.

Strictly speaking, they were slippers, which I wore inside the caravan Josephine shared with her parents and four siblings. Her grandmother was often there too, imparting knowledge and love of her Traveller heritage through story telling. I sat for hours listening to her tales, hanging on every word.

I lost contact with Josephine, but every-time I hear racist anti-Traveller rhetoric and reports of attacks on the community, I think of her. So when a house in Galway, earmarked for a Traveller family was set alight this week, I thought, what if that’s Josephine’s family?

What if the children who were counting the sleeps before moving to their new home were hers? How would she explain, for example, that local councillor, Noel Larkin, went on radio, not to sympathise with the Traveller family, but to demand consultation for residents who “have genuine fears for their own property”? Adding, “Ramming a family into an area will cause upset to the people there”.

Thugs intimidating builders, blockading homes with silage bales in the dead of night and arson resulting in actual destruction of property, is not upsetting? But a young family with children seeking a safe, secure home pose “genuine fears for property”?  

Prejudice is underpinned by fear and ignorance. It’s not the responsibility of the marginalised to educate their oppressors. The only thing that Mr Larkin and the people on whose behalf he purports to speak, knows about their new neighbours is their ethnicity. Therefore, the fear he speaks of is predicated on hackneyed stereotypes and poisonous prejudice.

As an elected representative, Mr Larkin knows that to consult with residents before allocating housing to Travellers would be discriminatory. Galway City Council made that clear to fellow anti-Traveller agitator, Noel [Golfgate] Grealish, when he also demanded community consultation regarding the same burnt out property. If these men were demanding consultation before allocating social housing to Jews or Black people, it would be called out for what it is: Racist. It’s beyond time this country spoke anti-Traveller racism by its name and strengthened the law against hate crime to combat it.

Burning houses allocated to Travellers is not new in Ireland. Last year, an elderly Traveller couple in Cork had their caravan burnt out, destroying all their possessions, including their pets. In Tipperary, vandals targeted a house assigned to Travellers and in February 2013, a house earmarked for Travellers in Donegal, was wrecked in an arson attack.

What’s particularly disturbing to me is the perception that vitriol against Travellers is socially acceptable. Comments such as, “The people who did that deserve a medal”, “The travellers would’ve burned down the house if they didn’t do it.” and "Pity the Travellers weren't in there," are alarmingly commonplace online.

Scanning Travellers’ social media accounts, the mental health impact of the constant deluge of tacitly accepted racism is palpable, as captured in this comment: “I honestly can't take anymore. My mental health is suffering from all the racism I am seeing against my community”. It’s little wonder that suicide in Travellers is 6 times that of the general population and accounts for 11% of all deaths. Such relentless hatred would not be tolerated if targeted at any other ethnic group in the country.

On Tuesday, a 9 year old boy, who happens to be a Traveller, returned to school for the first time in six months to be greeted with this from another child:  “No-one likes k******s, that’s why that house was burnt down”.

Shielding our children against the emotional impact of coronavirus is hard enough without burdening them with the additional psychological trauma of racism. That any child is subjected to this hate, in Ireland, in 2020, is a national disgrace. Ireland’s Human Rights and Equality Commission reported in October that, “Persistence of systemic institutional racism against Travellers and the continued and widespread existence within Irish society of discriminatory attitudes towards Travellers remain among the most significant areas where the State is failing to meet its [UN] obligations” to eliminate racial discrimination.

Dehumanising Travellers and portraying them as “other” and evil, desensitises us to their distress and makes the conditions for discrimination and oppression possible. When we have limited contact with people who are different to us, we become susceptible to the shorthand of stereotypes which is mitigated by seeking out friendships beyond our comfort zones.

When you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes/slippers, their pain becomes your pain, their joy becomes your joy. When I stood up for Josephine in school, she said it was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her. If you’re reading this Josie, know that your fight is still my fight and that I stand with you, your family and your kind, compassionate community.

It's #Schoolgate not #Golfgate we need to focus on now

My article in tomorrow's Irish Independent👇

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/reopening-of-schools-akin-to-sending-teachers-and-pupils-into-a-building-guaranteed-to-catch-fire-39473486.html 

Government is making life-and-death call on school's reopening. It has to get it right

My article in yesterday's Independent

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/government-is-making-life-and-death-call-on-schools-reopening-it-has-to-get-it-right-39451430.html

Listening to Leo Varadkar  on RTÉ “guaranteeing” outbreaks of coronavirus in schools when they open, reminded me of the mayor in Jaws.

 

Mayor: “Get those kids back in the water”. Sheriff: “There’s a shark out there?” Mayor: “We’ll just have to live with it”. Sheriff: “People will die”. Mayor: “Yes, but tourism will survive!”

Meanwhile, acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr Glynn, said “children don't transmit very effectively to other children or adults”. As a parent,  I found that comment alarming. He should know that the ECDC report published last week states: “Children are more likely to have a mild or asymptomatic infection, meaning that the infection may go undetected or undiagnosed” and “When symptomatic, children shed virus in similar quantities to adults and can infect others in a similar way to adults.

Infact, there are numerous documented studies outlining the scale of risk associated with reopening schools. In Israel (like Ireland), where class sizes are big, the virus spread to students’ homes, other schools and neighborhoods, ultimately infecting hundreds of students, teachers and relatives. Across the country, thousands of students and teachers were quarantined. Israel’s deputy Director of Public Health Services , Dr. Udi Kliner, said that “schools, not restaurants or gyms, turned out to be the country’s worst mega-infectors.”

A large new study from South Korea shows that children between the ages of 10 and 19 can spread the virus at least as well as adults do. Cases in children in Germany have increased by 50% since they reopened schools and researchers in Berlin tested more than 3,700 coronavirus patients and found that children carried the same viral load as adults.

Our government seems unaware of these facts given the “roadmap” for school reopening does little to mitigate them. Aerosol transmission, for example, is not acknowledged, despite emerging evidence that the virus can travel up to 16 feet across an indoor space. This raises questions about proper ventilation, face masks and the efficacy of the roadmap’s “pods”. None of which are adequately addressed.

Another gaping omission from the roadmap is how to accommodate the many children who have underlying health conditions or whose family member(s) are high risk. What virtual/remote alternatives will be provided for those children who cannot attend school but remain entitled to an education?

What about the risks associated with multi-system inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) which is a covid related disease affecting children? Although the numbers are small, if contracted, it affects the heart and other major organs in the body and in a few cases it has proved fatal. Have teachers been made aware of the prevalence of this disease in children and how to spot it?

Community transmission is another key risk factor. The opening of schools safely was always contingent on levels being low.  NPHET warned Micheál Martin that, “We have to prevent the reimportation of the virus and unless we do that we are not going to be in a position to reopen our schools and get the economy up and running again.”

 Ignoring public health advisors, the government allowed, and continues to allow, tourists from the US, the most infected country in the world, unfettered access to our communities, thus reimporting the virus. Banned by other EU countries and Canada because the infection rate was out of control, Ireland said, “failte”. Even when New York banned flights from Texas, where in one day, 10,000 new cases were recorded, flights from Dallas landed here with no mandatory requirement to quarantine and no testing.

 With an R rate now of almost 2, how can it possibly be deemed safe to reopen schools?

 The government’s claim that “only 2%” of cases are related to foreign travel is disingenuous. As Dr Gabriel Scally warns, if we’re not quaranting and testing at source, the evidence trail is lost until it’s seeded in the community.

Instead of changing strategy, Micheál Martin wants us to learn to live with the virus. That’s like asking us to learn to live with a serial killer on the rampage.

 

However much money we throw at adapting our environments, as long as coronavirus is in our communities it will infiltrate our schools, nursing homes and workplaces. The only sustainable option is to adopt a zero-covid approach, which is to eradicate the virus from our shores, as New Zealand has done so successfully.

 

That requires mandatory quarantine so that all imported cases are detected on entry thus preventing community transmission and allowing schools, pubs, theatres and businesses to open at full capacity, safe in the knowledge that the silent assassin is not lurking in the shadows.

 

It’s crucial that schools re-open but it has to be done safely. After 3 months of being homeschooled by me, my child wrote a poem entitled “The Witch” which he insisted I send to his teacher. It was probably about me but I can’t be sure.

 

In the words of the WHO’s Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,  ”Treat the decisions about where you go, what you do, and who you meet as life-and-death decisions—because they are.”

 

Until the government can guarantee that reopening schools is safe, my child’s not getting back in the water.

"Who's running this country! Micheal Martin or Michael O-fecking-Leary?"

My article in yesterday's Irish Independent:

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/its-micheal-martin-not-michael-oleary-who-needs-to-pilot-our-covid-19-course-39399358.html

Full blog version below 👇

“Who is running this country! Micheál Martin or Michael O-Feck-ing Leary?” My 12 year smuggled a radio into his room and listened to Tony Holohan warn that foreign travel was the greatest threat to this country. This was immediately followed by a psychosis inducing Ryanair advert.

The answer of course is Michael O-Feck-ing-Leary. The announcement of the “green (means go) list” of “safe/quarantine exempt” countries that you definitely shouldn’t go to on holiday (wink wink), in contempt of NPHET’s advice, was undoubtedly an aviation lobby victory. Nonetheless, Ryanair is threatening litigation if the Irish government doesn’t open up further.

A week earlier, Philip Nolan, chair of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) warned that of the 23 cases confirmed that day 15 were directly or indirectly related to travel. The team recommend that “all measures are utilised to discourage non-essential travel from overseas to Ireland”, including mandatory quarantine.

Refusal to mandate quarantine is part of the government’s strategy of constructive ambiguity, otherwise known as, fiddling while Rome burns. It’s deployed by politicians pretending to do the right thing, whilst buying time for those who seek to exploit the manufactured mayhem.

The underhand watering down of the wording from “quarantine” to “restricting movements”, with no enforcement, exposes where our government’s loyalty lies.

Micheál Martin claims that he’s acting with caution compared to other European countries. Not so. Ireland and Britain are amongst the only EU countries that are allowing tourists from the US, the Covid capital of the world, into the country. Despite sharing a border, Canada has also banned US tourists.

It’s worth remembering that, when people are moving freely, one contagious person can infect, on average 3 people, who will then potentially infect another three. By the time you multiply that variable 10 times, exponentially the original person could have infected over 88,000 people.

For months, Leo Varadkar exploited constructive ambiguity around mandatory quarantine, citing “legal” issues. Last Wednesday, speaking on RTE radio, Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly, said he sought clarity from the attorney general on the legality of quarantine. Turns out it’s legal, but “complex”. Presumably, a resurgence and lockdown 2 is the easy option? 

Minister Donnelly, erroneously claimed that quarantine has proven unworkable, referencing Australia as an example of failure. In fact, quarantine has been extremely effective throughout the country with the exception of Melbourne where security guards breached regulations. Donnelly evaded questions about New Zealand where, as of 23 July, there had been 83 days since the last community transmission case with all 22 active cases detected and contained in quarantine facilities.

Having been assured that mandatory quarantine is legal, presenting no deterrent to acting on the public health advice, Mr Donnelly said he then sought and gained the WHO’s blessing to effectively disregard his own public health experts and not bother with mandatory quarantine.

This was disconcerting, for two reasons, firstly, the WHO is not usually in the business of usurping country based public health advice and secondly, the claim appears to contradict the WHO’s strategic document which states: “Quarantine is included within the legal framework of the International Health Regulations (2005)”. Further: “Member States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to legislate and to implement legislation, in pursuit of their health policies, even if this involves the restriction of movement of individuals”.

Having cited advice from the WHO as grounds for ignoring Ireland’s public health experts, thereby potentially exposing Irish citizens to dangerous levels of community contagion, a crippling second lockdown and preventable deaths, Stephen Donnelly should make details of his alleged WHO advice available for scrutiny.

Listening to Minister Donnelly, I couldn’t help thinking of Dr Syed Waqqar Ali and his seven healthcare colleagues who died from coronavirus, sacrificing their lives to save ours. And, the scandalous revelation that Ireland has the highest coronavirus infection rate among healthcare workers in the world. I felt, acutely, the affront to these people to whom Stephen Donnelly has a direct duty of care. That he would seek to circumvent safeguards to protect them and citizens of this country, against the greatest Covid-19 threat (foreign travel) reduced me to tears of grief, frustration and anger.

Disclaimer: I lost a friend to coronavirus and I have loved ones risking their lives as medics. I am 100% biased in their favour and 0% buying this coalition of chaos’ blaggardery.

With public safety sacrificed at the altar of false gods, robust, fearless, public service broadcasting has never been more vital. Yet last Monday, Eoghan Corry, who advised against cancelling St Patrick's Day festivities, and who recently produced a “post-Covid” airline promo video on Ryanair, told RTE Radio listeners, “Spain is safe”. On the same day that British newspapers reported 200 Covid outbreaks throughout Spain, resulting in Britain imposing a 14 day quarantine on returning holidaymakers.

In the midst of a global pandemic, RTE is either a trusted news source grounded in forensic journalism, underpinned by evidence based health expertise, or a cheerleader for industry. It can’t be both.

Next up, Dr Jack Lambert contradicted the overwhelming medical consensus by defending the “green list”, disingenuously describing 88% of coronavirus cases as “Irish bred”. He should know, because colleagues such as Paddy Mallon, professor of Microbial Diseases, told the Dáil’s Covid-19 committee that, without mandatory quarantine, contact tracing becomes very difficult with community transmission “inevitable” as a result.

Dr Lambert’s reference to “Irish bred” cases of covid also fits with the strategy of constructive ambiguity that shifts the focus from overseas Covid carriers to blaming young people for house parties. The truth is that, had our government followed NPHET’s advice and that of 14 scientific and medical experts calling for the implementation of a zero Covid strategy to eliminate the virus, as New Zealand has done, pubs and local eateries would be open at 100% capacity now with social distancing and masks a thing of the past.

Our children and young people would be enjoying the summer they longed for. Instead they’ve been robbed of their rites of passage, cheated of hope and plagued by fear for the future.

Micheál Martin promised that his decisions on international travel would be underpinned by public health advice. He has reneged on his promise and people will die unnecessarily as a result.

Don't be paralysed by white guilt: Teach yourself & your children about racism

My article published in today's Irish Independent:

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/dont-be-paralysed-by-white-guilt-teach-yourself-and-your-children-about-racism-39277149.html

Full blog version below 👇

The night before George Floyd was killed, I watched the scene in Normal People where a group of attractive young white students sat around a table somewhere fabulous in Italy sipping champagne. One of the assembled made a racist remark, which was laughed off by half the gathering and ignored by the other two, who fled the scene leaving a contrail of white privilege in their wake.

What bothered me, even more than twenty somethings swilling fizz, was the missed opportunity of a contemporary drama, written at a time when fascism is on the rise globally, to call out racism. The wherewithal and moral conviction just wasn’t there.

Knowing how everyday racist remarks can lead to everyday job discrimination, everyday racist abuse and sometimes murder, I was vexed. I thought of all the normal people whose lives have been brutally torn asunder by racism. Such as Stephen Lawrence, whose mother Doreen, I met when I was advising the Metropolitan Police on institutional racism. The grief laden eyes of a woman whose life was normal until her teenage son was murdered by racists in London, haunt me.

I built a life in England which ended ten months ago when I returned home as a Brexit refugee. The epidemic of far right bigotry unleashed by the EU referendum morphed into daily race hate attacks directed, not against immigrants like me, but those of a darker hue.

A Leave voting mother approached me at the school gates assuring me that “people like me” (white), didn’t vote to kick “people like you” (also white) out. It’s the “other” foreigners she had a problem with. The juxtaposition of Brexiteers issuing imaginary asylum passes to white immigrants while concomitantly ordering black and Asians, many of whom were born and bred in Britain, to “go home” was as surreal as it was sinister. I replied, “If the black and brown immigrants get kicked out, I’ll be right behind them”.

Racism exists in Ireland too and, with black voices amplified in recent days, we are hearing heart-breaking stories, such as that of Trés Jones. The 11 year old who recounted racist abuse, from adults and children, calling him the “n” word and telling him to go back to Africa.

The words of civil rights activist, Angela Davis, have been widely invoked since George Floyd’s death.  “In a racist society, it’s not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist”. For white people wanting to know what to do in this moment, anti-racism groups are urging us to educate ourselves and our children about black history and racism.

I’ve been teaching my twelve old about black history, mostly through stories, since he was four. When his teachers talk about Florence Nightingale, he says, “What about Mary Seacole?”. In the last year, we’ve watched The great debaters (not suitable for younger children), Just Mercy, the spectacular dramatization of Malorie Blackman’s ground breaking novel, Noughts & crosses and Dr Who’s re-enactment of Rosa Parks’ story.

None of the above made it easier for my son to comprehend how George Floyd could die under the knee of a white police officer who ignored his anguished pleas, “I can’t breathe” and “Momma, I’m through”. It just helped him understand the anger that comes with generations of pain and oppression.

There’s a plethora of educational resources online but these are no substitute for listening to black voices in this country, now. For leaders of institutions like Trinity College, for example, that involves hearing the everyday racism experienced by black and ethnic minority students on campus, and stamping it out. For agents and publishers, it’s about commissioning black stories and talent.

As well as educating and enabling, anti-racism requires the courage to tirelessly challenge racist behaviour, wherever we encounter it. Our children watch how we respond to racist “jokes”. Silence is tacit approval.

Not sure if someone is racist? The following is a useful litmus test.

Racists punch down on the powerless, be it “Nigerians coming here for a better life and sending all their money home” (unlike generations of Irish emigrants…) or “the sponging asylum seeking racketeers living it up in 5 star hotels, while “our own” are abandoned in the streets”.

Anti-racists punch up at those in power, calling out systemically racist policies that pit “our own” against asylum seekers.

Anti-racists might be inclined to think that the sponging racketeers are the private contractors who trousered an estimated €1 billion of taxpayers money for operating often substandard, unsafe, direct provision accommodation, that some residents liken to prison.

Anti-racists will have done their homework and know that the United Nations described the system as a “severe violation of human rights” and will be calling for an end to a barbaric, inhumane policy described as the Magdalene Laundries of our time.

Our black friends are frightened and traumatised. Now is not the time to be paralysed by white guilt. It’s a time to educate ourselves and our children and to call racism out. It’s a time to speak up, reach out and show people of colour that black lives do matter.

Black Lives Matter. RIP George Floyd

The night before George Floyd’s racist murder, I watched the scene in Normal People where a group of attractive young white people are sitting around a table somewhere divine in Italy sipping champagne. One of the assembled makes a racist remark which was laughed off by half the gathering and ignored by the other two who fled the scene leaving a contrail of smugness in their wake.

Knowing how everyday racist remarks can lead to everyday job discrimination, everyday racist abuse and murder, that scene made me angry. It’s bad enough that the Dublin street shots airbrushed out the homeless people in its quest for cinematic beauty but glossing over racism in a contemporary drama at a time when the far right is on the rise, set in a country where racism is brushed under the carpet?

When I saw the video footage of George Floyd being choked to death under the knee of a white police officer the next day, I felt sick, outraged, horrified and scared. Meghan Markle’s words resonated when she said, at times like this the only wrong thing to say is nothing (except if your name is Lawrence Fox).

I thought of all the normal people whose lives have been abnormally, brutally torn asunder by racism. Such as Stephen Lawrence, whose mother Doreen, I met. The grief laden eyes of a woman whose life was normal until her son was murdered by racists, haunt me.

Black history isn’t taught in British or Irish schools which makes it difficult to explain to our children how generations of systemic racism, dehumanisation and marginalisation of black people enabled the murder of an unarmed black man by a white police officer. Worse, that it’s not an isolated incident.

I’ve been teaching my 12 year old about slavery for years. A friend organises black history walks around London so my son knows that London was built on the back of the slave trade. When his teachers talk about Florence Nightingale, he says, “What about Mary Seacole”.

None of the above helped him understand the barbaric, racist, killing of George Floyd. It did help him understand and share the anger that comes from 400 years of pain and oppression.

Education is important but so is having the tools and courage to call out racism. The best way to learn this is by role modelling anti-racist behaviour. My son has seen me challenge everyday, Brexit bolstered, racism in the local Shops, at the school gates and on public transport. So when his teacher in the UK said he’d stood up to racist bullying in the playground last year, I wasn’t surprised.

His role model is the daughter of a Sudanese friend who came to Britain as a refugee and, at 10 years of age, asked for my help challenging a private school that denied her a bursary place. She knew her grades were good enough, so did I. When I called the school they admitted her grades weren’t the problem and when I asked what the “problem” was, they couldn’t answer. When I asked how many black kids from council estates they had granted bursaries to in the last 5 years? None. 

That little girl got the place that she earned, on merit. I explained to her that getting in was the easy bit. That life as the only black kid surrounded by rich white kids and white teachers would be tough. “Are you sure that's what you want?” Without missing a beat, this kick ass 10 year old said, “Why should their racism stop me from becoming a doctor and not many kids from my school get accepted into medicine?”

That was 15 years ago. Last week she started working as a doctor in an NHS hospital and although I’m so proud of this inspirational young woman, I’m also worried sick.

While 20% of the NHS workforce is BAME, just 7% of NHS leaders are from BAME backgrounds. Meanwhile, more than 50% of healthcare workers who have died with the Coronavirus are from BAME backgrounds. 

A black man is four times more likely than a white man to die with the virus.

There is no evidence that black lives matter to the alt right Tory government. This month marks the third anniversary of Grenfell Tower. 72 mostly BAME men, women and children were burned alive. The ‘Hostile Environment’, despite being lambasted as a racist policy designed to rid Britain of the Windrush Generation, continues today but without the pretence of remorse. 

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, was elected despite describing Muslim women as ‘letterboxes’ referring to Africans as ‘piccaninnies’ and ‘watermelon smiles’.

There’s a protest planned in Dublin tomorrow in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. I share Amnesty International's view, that peaceful protesting is a human right and should not be banned. Outlawing peaceful demonstrations is undemocratic and adds fuel to the flames, as seen in Trump's increasingly dystopian America.

 A great many anti-fascists, anti-racists, like myself, will not be physically present, in Dublin, or elsewhere. I made a personal choice not to put my family at risk by attending. I also have loved ones who are front-line workers, some of whom are BAME and vulnerable to coronavirus. 

That said, I respect the right of those who chose to attend and make their message heard. Black Lives Matter.  It would be a good use of Gardai resources, in my view, to work with the organisers to ensure road closures so that there's enough space to facilitate social distancing. The organisers, Black Pride Ireland, has set out clear safety precautions on social media for those attending.

There are many ways to protest but protest we must. Put posters in your car and house windows, donate to Black Lives Matter or other anti-racism groups. Start the process of educating yourself and your children. I took my 12 year old to see "Just Mercy" in January and we watched "Noughts and Crosses" together. "The great debaters" is a powerful film but not suitable for younger children.

Now is not the time to hide in a bunker, or to be paralysed by white guilt. Don’t turn a deaf ear and a blind eye. It’s our collective responsibility to fight for a society that values all lives equally, where our BAME family, friends and neighbours aren’t deprived entry to elite schools and universities based on their colour or creed, where they’re not demonised and scapegoated by despots who whip up hatred and divide communities to distract from their own failings.

Our black friends are frightened and traumatised. We have to speak up, reach out and show our solidarity.

Black Lives Matter 💓✊

RIP George Floyd.

I'm staying in lockdown at an undisclosed location somewhere in county Galway until my hair grows & the second wave passes

My article in this week's Connacht Tribune👇
https://connachttribune.ie/mastering-the-art-of-walking-and-cutting-in-straight-lines/

“Who’s that?” says Gobnait (not her real name) whose house I used to pass on my pre-lockdown walk. “It’s me”, I’d say, lifting my sunglasses to prove I’m not Lady Gaga incognito.

It’s her way of telling me I should catch myself on for wearing sunglasses in the middle of January. I could tell her I have light sensitive eyes but she doesn’t suffer fools gladly and I admire her astuteness.

I’ve changed my route since lockdown because the road isn’t wide enough to accommodate my ego and social distancing. That’s what Gobnait would say and I miss our daily dalliance. Despite that, and with the easing of lockdown imminent, I find myself reluctant to relinquish my newfound bubble, for various reasons.

My DIY haircut with blunt scissors didn’t go as planned. Just cut in a straight line, what could possibly go wrong? Everything. One side was shorter than the other and in a scene reminiscent of Father Ted’s dented car sketch (I’ll just give it one more tap), I kept cutting until one side was aligned with my upper ear while the other hovered in follicular limbo just below the chin.

Panicking ahead of a Zoom meeting, my options included the following: a bandana (a la Duran Duran), a balaclava (a la bank robber) or a baseball cap (a la who’s that eejit?). I went with the latter and kept my head down until someone said, “who’s that in the baseball cap”?

I also haven’t mastered the art of making sourdough bread (my heart’s not really in it) and, while the rest of the country has been spring cleaning since March, I haven’t even started.

I’m not ready to stop listening to the sound of the cuckoo, carried in the wind from the Burren across the bay and the butterflies of giddiness it unleashes, leaving endorphin infused contrails in their wake.

Whilst I cling to lockdown like Paschal Donohoe clings to his ministerial salary, many are chomping at the bit for freedom.

A vexed psychologist on RTE, warned of the psychological impact of children not being able to hug their grannies. If there’s a second wave, as already seen in Germany and China, what about the psychological impact on the child if granny dies of coronavirus?

What about the psychological impact on the doctor working with dwindling resources who has to decide who gets the last ICU bed and/or ventilator? And what about the psychological impact on the nurse who has to tell the family that their loved one has died.

At time of writing, 30% of the people diagnosed with coronavirus are previously healthy Health Care Workers. What of the psychological impact on them and their families who risk their lives to save ours? The shortage of PPE is an ongoing worry for healthcare staff with reports of post-traumatic stress disorder emerging, unsurprisingly. If there is a second wave, our capacity to respond could be significantly depleted.

Meanwhile, having spent six weeks in lockdown, leaving many financially destitute, it emerged that people continued to enter Ireland and the safeguards, such as self-isolating and filling in contact tracing forms, weren’t actually mandatory and therefore as effective as a chocolate tea pot.

Data from one week alone revealed that more than a third of passengers arriving at Dublin Airport and a quarter of those coming in at Dublin Port who were asked to self-isolate did not respond to follow-up calls, many were untraceable.

When confronted with this revelation in the Dáil last week, Leo Varadkar said that mandatory quarantine might be forthcoming but warned about the impact on tourism. The elephant in the room of course is Britain. Our nearest neighbour, which has the second highest death rate from coronavirus in the world.

In non-lockdown conditions, one contagious person can infect, on average 3 people, who will then potentially infect another three. By the time you multiply that variable 10 times, exponentially the original person could have infected over 88,000 people.

That’s why New Zealand’s premier, Jacinda Ardern locked down early, quarantining everyone entering the country and rolling out rigorous contact tracing and testing regimes. After one month and twenty deaths, she reduced the infection rate to zero enabling the safe easing of lockdown.

As long as Ireland’s border strategy against Coronavirus remains that of voluntary quarantining, I’m staying in lockdown. 

Gobnait and I have started a Zoom book club and our first book is, “Who’s that” by D.O Lally. It’s about a girl with lopsided hair who wears dark glasses in January and goes cuckoo trying to make sourdough bread in a ramshackled kitchen, somewhere in county Galway (recommended reading age 0-3mths).

Lockdown insomnia is a nightmare & it's keeping me awake at night

This was published in today's Connacht Tribune:
https://connachttribune.ie/insomnia-mixed-with-nocturnal-terrors-of-simon-harris-mummified-in-loo-roll/

As a parent, there’s always something to keep you awake at night. The existential questions, such as, “What if my child falls in with the wrong crowd and becomes a serial killer”?

There was a time, when he was six that I worried about his moral compass. We had a stand-off outside a food bank which had been brewing since before we left home. He was having second thoughts about “donating” some of his toys, which were thrown in (by me) to make the box of food look less meagre.

In child development terms, he was still at the “id” stage (world revolves around them) meaning guilt trips are futile. Nonetheless, I gave it a go.

 “Think of all those children whose parents can’t afford to buy them toys. Don’t you want them to have a toy to cuddle when they lie hungry and cold in bed”? “And”, holding up exhibit A, “You’ve never even played with this one”.

He thought for a moment and replied, “Yes, I want them to have toys to cuddle but not mine and I did play with that toy (exhibit A) once when I was 5 AND by the way, you said Santa brings presents to ALL children so it doesn’t matter if their parents can’t afford to buy them any, does it?”. In that moment, I thought, he’ll either grow up to be a prosecution lawyer or a serial killer.

During lockdown, he has gathered kindling, bought Easter eggs with his pocket money and made cards, all for cocooning neighbours. He also has a proclivity for harvesting mint from the garden to make tea with tepid tap water and because I’m his mother, I drink it. Not the modus operandi of a serial killer and yet sleep, like the ability to crochet, escapes me.

Coronavirus has seen the rise of insomnia and “lockdown dreams”. My problem is the recurring google induced face visor nightmares. I never share my real personal data when solicited in order to access apps. I input something different every time.  

As a consequence, I get ads targeted at a transgender 19-70 year old, which can be anything from denim hot pants to dentures.

Since the pandemic, I’ve been aggressively targeted by a face shield advert that follows me as I scroll down the screen and is so ubiquitous it has become the stuff of nightmares.

The other night, I dreamt of being chased by a visor clad Simon (“I made an awful boo-boo”) Harris, mummified in Lidl toilet rolls and rapping: “Stay at home, read a book - get wizer. Don’t bulk buy the aul’ hand sani-tizer” [If a mic drop emoji existed, I'd insert it here].

Our immune systems depend on sleep so that became this week’s mission. As someone who only has to sniff alcohol fumes to be inebriated and knowing that it’s a depressant and therefore not helpful dealing with insomnia, I went for the toddler cure instead: Tire yourself out during the day and wind down before bedtime.

My YouTube workout in the garden had to be aborted having been sabotaged by my son mimicking the American instructors, “Go Barbara”!” and “Gimme 5 more of your best Betsy”, resulting in me rugby tackling said child to the ground with an uncontrollable attack of the giggles.

Next was a family ball game of HORSE (what bright spark changed the name from DONKEY)? When himself and son with English accents shout, “You’re a “HOR” at an Irish woman, it didn’t go down well with the older neighbours who were walking past. “She dropped the ball – 3 times” the lads explain in unison, but the neighbours only ever played DONKEY so they walk away mumbling, “That’s no reason to call her a whore, like”.

The thing my son misses most about school is his friends, who are particularly important if you’re newly arrived from England and your Irish accent needs breaking in before secondary school. He had just nailed, “Cawld” and “I’m the fineisht”, before tutorials were cut short.

When he first started school he thought his teacher was picking on someone. He didn’t know who it was, just that she kept shouting “Wrong O’Shea!”. I explained that she was saying, “Rang a Sé, which is Gaelic for 6^th Class”!

In the evening, I did a few laps of the garden before practicing meditation, then, noticing the clear night sky, I woke my son and, lying barefoot and in pyjamas, wrapped in a blanket looking up at the Milky Way, I thanked my lucky stars for these stolen magic moments of childhood.

That night, safe in the knowledge that I hadn’t spawned a serial killer, I slipped into sleep like a stockinged foot into a silken slipper.

Negotiating public spaces in a pandemic

This was published in today's Connacht Tribune
https://connachttribune.ie/negotiating-shared-spaces-in-the-midst-of-a-pandemic/

I lost a friend to Coronavirus this week. That’s a sentence I wasn’t planning to write and one I hope you never have to say.

My deceased friend is survived by his partner, who is also my friend. They only had each other and now her soul mate is gone. No doubt a walk on the beach would do her good but she has to settle for a backyard the size of a postage stamp, the walls of which close in with each passing day, in lockdown. In agonising grief.

Another friend is a medic living in a flat with no garden and is going stir crazy. She’s afraid to use the park 50 yards away because of unleashed dogs approaching her dog and toddler. Once, after 7 days of 12 hours shifts, she broke down in tears pleading with someone to put their dog on a lead.

I told a mutual friend that I was worried about both of the above women being isolated and vulnerable, but he was more concerned about his own mental health.

He lives in a house with a garden in the countryside. Yet, is “compelled” to drive beyond 2km to take his dog “for a run off the lead,” on a beach where unleashed dogs are not allowed. Ever.

As empathetically as I could muster, I pressed him to reflect on his behaviour. What about dog owners and parents with children in high rise flats in cities? Is your mental health more important than theirs”? “If everyone behaved like you the roads and beaches would be full…”

Realising that he wasn’t responding to the intravenous dose of compassionate truth I had administered, I pulled the plug on our friendship.

This isn’t dog owner vs non dog owner. It’s irresponsible dog owners vs everyone else. The above (former) friend’s justification for not using a dog lead was, “There’s no evidence that dogs can infect humans”.

There are far more unknowns than knowns with regard to Covid-19 but we’ve always known that this is a highly contagious, deadly disease for which there is no vaccine or cure. This should have triggered what scientists call, the precautionary principle, which means erring on the side of caution to prevent widespread infection and preserve life.

Instead, our politicians unleashed 3 words which I believe, served to fuel the deadly pandemic: “There’s no evidence.” At various times, these words have been used in relation to the following, all of which have since proved gravely mistaken: the apparent lack of community contagion, there being no need to restrict nursing home visitors, racegoers returning from Cheltenham not being advised to self-isolate unless they show symptoms despite warnings that people can be asymptomatic and contagious for 14 days. I could go on.

The absence of evidence should not be confused with evidence of absence. It just means the testing isn’t happening and/or data isn’t available. With residents of nursing and care homes representing almost 60% of all Coronavirus related deaths, this is surely evidence that the precautionary principle should have been invoked sooner by Tony Holohan.  

The World Organisation for Animal Health warns, “Now that COVID-19 virus infections are widely distributed in the human population, there is a possibility for some animals to become infected through close contact with infected humans. Studies are under way to better understand the susceptibility of different animal species to the COVID-19 virus and to assess infection dynamics in susceptible animal species”.

A number of vets have cautioned that dogs’ coats, like any other surface, can carry viruses to humans and the ISPCA, the Dog Trust, Veterinary Ireland and Galway County Council are all stipulating that dog owners keep their dogs on leads at all times in public spaces. In the same way that social distancing and unnecessary travel is obligatory (not discretionary), so too is keeping dogs on leads in public places during this pandemic.

Not all laws and rules can be policed. For society to function, it requires shared social norms, collective responsibility and community compassion. Never before has our behaviour in shared spaces had a more profound impact on the lives and wellbeing of others. At a time when space is so limited and freedom of movement so restricted, encroaching on that of others is no longer just selfish, it’s reckless and anti-social.

Either lockdown applies to everyone or no-one. The choices we make today will determine the extent to which lives and friendships will be lost to this pandemic tomorrow.

This article is dedicated to the people worldwide, my friend included, whose lives have been claimed by Covid-19. Suaimhneas síoraí dóibh uile.