Staycation sours for family as Laois imposes lockdown
A STAYCATION to Laois was cut short for Dave Bolger and his family after they found themselves packing up to head back to Wexford just one day into their four day trip.
The Gorey family were faced with the quick decision following the Taoiseach’s announcement on Friday evening (August 7) that counties Kildare, Laois and Offaly would face a back-tracking of the re-opening of society and face movement restrictions for two weeks.
Dave along with his partner and four children were in an Italian restaurant in Laois when they heard the news, and he said that panic and upset began quickly.
‘We were in the restaurant at 6 p.m. when the announcement came, and we were panicking a small bit because we didn’t know all the details around what was going to happen.
‘It was busy in the restaurant, and we were chatting to the waitress and one of the owners of the restaurant and they were in shock as well the same as us. They had just opened up a couple of weeks earlier and then in the height of their season, this happens. They had all the social distancing in place, we couldn’t have felt safer, so they were all a bit gutted.
‘The girl serving us said that she was meant to go away this week to Cork and obviously that was pushed to one side,’ he said.
The Bolgers finished their meal, but going back to the hotel they knew the same restaurant would have its doors closed the following day.
‘We had our four small kids with us and we were wondering what to do, we knew a government announcement was coming but we couldn’t have prepared for that. Back at the hotel, there was a bit of panic as well. ‘There was no manager around and the girls on the reception desk were being hounded. Existing guests could stay on but there were people packing up and leaving, and we didn’t know what to do but we decided to pack up and come home because the activities we had travelled for like the hotel pool and parks for the kids were going to be closed.
‘We weren’t sure if the hotel restaurant was going to be open, but we knew all the other restaurants in the town would be closing.
‘We thought if we stayed that we might just be stuck in the hotel for a few days, or that we would have been stuck in for the two weeks if we weren’t going to be allowed in or out’.
Dave explained that his family had booked the stay-cation about two weeks earlier, and that the main reason for it was that they felt beauty spots in Wexford were getting crowded.
‘It was a late decision to go because we were holding off to see how things were progressing in the country. We had been down around Courtown and Cahore and it was fairly busy down around those areas and we were just worried. We wanted to go away to stay away from crowds.
‘During our trip to Laois we were keeping ourselves to ourselves, social distancing and staying away from crowded shops. The hotel had social distancing everywhere, pods in the swimming pool that you stuck to and it was all superbly done. We felt safe in Laois but obviously there was a bit of concern going there because of the spread of Covid-19. We were hearing on the news about the meat packing plants and the high numbers infected, so there was a slight worry that you wouldn’t know how much of it had spread in the towns in terms of community transmission.
‘We’re glad we came home when we did as we had a great weekend in Wexford, there was loads to do with the kids. We’ve a couple of friends in similar circumstances who were due to go away this week to those counties and can’t, it’s upsetting for all but our main concern was that we were really upset for everybody from the towns. They now face a lockdown for the next two weeks and it felt like it was through no fault of their own that they were closed down. Leaving, we were just genuinely really upset for everybody because they had all put in so much effort as business owners to keep it open, the guys were all disappointed and upset’.
Reflecting on the experience, Dave said that people in Wexford should be prepared for the same circumstance.
‘We should be on guard for this happening in Wexford. As the government has said, it’s not restricted to those counties and further lockdowns may come. The big concern is whether the schools will open or not, and if there’s an increase in numbers how that’ll affect the plan,’ he said.