Shovels at the ready, heavy digging required

AFTER months spent walking round with our guards up, months spent holding so firm we got welts on our hands, and month spent remaining so vigilant we’ve developed a sixth, and possibly seventh, sense, a new directive has been issued from on high.

We must now dig deep.

How deep remains to be seen. So deep we end up with a hole big enough to fit Micheál, Leo, and Eamonn, with walls so high they have no way of escape? Or so deep we journey to the centre of the earth, dig right through the core, until we come out in Australia, with its nice low infection rates? It’s hard to say, but if we all keep digging at the same time, with the same level of determination, we’ll make enough noise to drown out the latest sermon from whomever happens to be taoiseach at the time.

Last week’s one had none of the foreboding of its predecessors, none of the doom-laden pauses, it didn’t even have a dramatic opening line. It was just boring old Micheál telling us he was as fed up with the whole thing as the rest of us.

There were details, bullet points, but nothing we didn’t know already: schools are reopening, we’re in Level 5 until April, and the vaccines are coming, honestly, they really are.

There was mention of a National Economic Recovery Plan - codename ‘Payback the PUP’ - and a bit of praise for how ‘remarkably resilient’ we’ve been since gifting our entire neighbourhood Covid-19 for Christmas.

But one phrase jumped out, one phrase repeated three times in the hope it might stick in our stupid brains and dislodge all the unnecessary stuff, like details and information.

‘We will get through this.’

It’s a nice thing to say, a bit like ‘ time heals all’ or ‘ this too shall pass’, the kind of thing your mam tells you when you’ve been dumped by the love of your life or ruptured your achilles tendon weeks before the big match.

Obviously he’s right, we will get through this - not all of us unfortunately - but there will come a time when we’ll reflect upon this moment in time and say, ‘Jesus, we got through that, didn’t we?’

When though? And at what cost? While the UK has given its citizens a set-date of June 21, a target to aim for, we remain in the wishy-washy twilight zone: We might be able to go the pub, visit our parents, attend a match, get a haircut, or go shopping at some point this year, who knows? Business-owners might open in time to save their livelihoods, it’s hard to say.

But we absolutely will get through this. In the meantime we just have to dig deep.

Yet what makes these bland, non-committal statements, all the more galling is that other nations have spent far less time in lockdown than we have. According to a study carried out at Oxford University we are the lockdown kings; our workplaces remaining closed for a total of 163 days since the start of the pandemic.

In second place is Italy (131), followed by the Netherlands (110), and the UK (104).

Italy, remember them? The epicentre of the virus in Europe, a country so consumed by Covid-19 it had to bring in the army to remove the dead. It has spent less time in lockdown than us.

You could argue our government’s caution has ensured we avoided similar scenes here, that by keeping everything shut it has protected us from the worst. You could also argue that its reactionary attitude, hesitancy and uncertainty has led to it alternating between two extremes when the solution lay somewhere in the middle.

Either way it has little to show for its austere approach, aside from a mid-table position in the European Covid-19 table; a table which it has been both top and bottom of in recent months.

So, at this point, with the nation’s spirits at rock-bottom and the daily figures at a frustrating plateau, would it have been that difficult for the Taoiseach to give us a scintilla of hope, something other than mealymouthed platitudes? No, having been stung by the third wave, had his knuckles rapped by NPHET, he’s taken against leadership, decided, at this late stage in the game to admit that, like us, he hasn’t a clue what’s going to happen next. So, dig deep, lads. We will get through this.