The Obel Tower party felt like a slap in the face to frontline health staff ... but was it that different to a middle-aged barbecue?
If young partygoers are happy to risk other people’s health, then they are going to have to risk their own when they’re asked to go back to work, writes Eilis O’hanlon
On Sunday morning, I had to drive someone in the family to Lisburn for emergency dental treatment. The dentists were swathed head to foot in protective scrubs, face visors, goggles and gloves to protect themselves and their patients from the coronavirus, but worked methodically and cheerfully to provide the best treatment in extraordinary times.
Meanwhile, partygoers from Obel Tower 64 on Belfast’s Donegall Quay were probably still sleeping off their revels, after police were called to eject dozens of people from all-night parties being held there hours earlier in defiance of social distancing.
The contrast couldn’t be starker. It’s only natural for young people to get together at the weekend to enjoy themselves and have a drink.
The loud music and hollering can be a nuisance for neighbours, wherever and whenever it happens. The police are called out to rowdy parties across the city all the time.
But ignoring scientific and medical advice in the midst of a pandemic just so you can have a party couldn’t feel more like a gratuitous slap in the face to healthcare workers tirelessly manning the frontline against the virus.
Young people often like to pretend that they’re more caring and socially aware than their parents and grandparents, but in this case appear to have decided that their right to have fun trumps someone else’s right not to catch a deadly virus.
They may be statistically unlikely to get very sick, or die, of the coronavirus themselves, but that doesn’t mean they can’t give it to someone else who will.
Similar gatherings have become vectors of infection around the world and it’s not unthinkable that there could be a spike in cases down the line as a direct result of those parties in Obel Tower 64.
It was a shockingly selfish thing to do. The lockdown won’t last forever. Couldn’t the revellers have waited a few more weeks before getting back to normal?
Having said that, there is a certain air of hypocrisy about some of the harshest criticism which has been directed against them.
Everyone seems to think that their particular way of breaking the lockdown is more acceptable than that of the next person. Is having a noisy party really any more dangerous than middle-aged people hosting a barbecue for friends?
There has been plenty of that sort of thing going on, too, and the virus doesn’t differentiate between people in close quarters based on what they happen to be doing at the time.
Older people have also been flocking to garden centres since they reopened, with an enthusiasm that might have horrified them a few, short months ago.
They could try setting an example, instead of pretending to be without sin and casting the first stones, especially as it’s actually younger people, rather than their parents and grandparents, who are suffering most as a result of the lockdown.
Partly, that’s because they were more likely to have had active social lives before the pandemic, so feel the changes more acutely.
More than 40% of 18-24-yearolds say they’re not coping at all well right now. That could be storing up big problems for the future in Northern Ireland, where mental health outcomes are already poor. If nothing else, the incident shows the need for the Executive to lay down a consistent road-map out of the current crisis.
These are the greatest restrictions on personal freedom to have been imposed since the Second World War and those still under lockdown deserve to be given detailed explanations as to why certain restrictions are either being eased, or kept in place, in order to offset frustration, otherwise they can be forgiven for concluding that there’s not much joinedup thinking behind it all.
Some of the rules do feel a bit arbitrary. Big stores are allowed to open and are making huge profits, but small family-run businesses are going to the wall, even when it’s perfectly possible for them to observe social distancing.
It feels equally unfair that Mcdonald’s is reopening its restaurants tomorrow, while other places serving food remain shut. Burgers and chips are hardly an essential service.
As the weather improves, more and more people will be tempted to see what rules they can bend, with potentially devastating consequences for the elderly and vulnerable. That was always destined to be the problem when the devolved governments in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland opted to part ways with the English timetable on lifting the lockdown.
At some point, they were going to have to answer the question of when they’d start getting back to normal, too; and in the absence of meaningful guidance, some people have clearly rushed ahead of the politicians. The First and Deputy First Ministers have produced a plan of sorts and more details are being unveiled daily, but it’s still fairly vague. Is it any wonder that people are all doing their own thing?
That doesn’t mean, of course, that the young people who were partying at Obel Tower 64 at the weekend shouldn’t be pulled up on their own hypocrisy.
(There’s no suggestion, by the way, that every apartment in the building was involved in partying.)
Right now, the burden of keeping the country going is being shouldered by a small group of essential workers, many in insecure, low-paid jobs.
It’s appalling to expect them to carry on taking those risks alone, while certain other groups of workers refuse to even consider going back to work until all risk is eliminated, even if such a thing was possible.
Are young people who prioritise their own pleasure despite the danger also willing to take the same risks in order to what’s left of the local economy? Pollsters have been asking that question in recent weeks and the irony is that it’s actually older people who are more willing to support everyone getting back to work, despite the fact that they’re the ones who’d be most drastically impacted by a second surge, while young people, who are far less affected by Covid-19, are resistant to any return to work.
Incredibly, Yougov found that the young were actually far more supportive of letting people out of the house for social reasons than they were of getting back to work.
That’s understandable perhaps. The young have fewer financial responsibilities and don’t necessarily understand how the economy works. But it’s hardly what you’d call an admirable position to adopt.
If they’re happy to take risks with the health of other people by meeting up for parties, then they’re going to have to be prepared to take some risks with their own health when the time comes and they’re asked to go back to work as well.
They can’t have it all on their own terms.
❝ It appears their right to have fun trumps someone else’s right not to catch a deadly virus