QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“I can’t tell you how afraid I was. When I was told I had tested positive I couldn’t believe it... I didn’t think I would make it. I said, ‘That’s it, this is the end of the line now for me’.” — Retired farmer Paddy-Joe Lynch (82) issues a message of hope to people fearful of coronavirus.
“I’m going to promise myself to never say no to a party, a dinner date, a walk with a friend or coffee catch-up with my girlfriends ever again.”
‘Dancing with the Stars’ and 2fm presenter
Jennifer Zamparelli on the effect the lockdown is having.
“I don’t see there’s any difference between being 89 and 29. You’ve got the same problems I suppose. It’s all right.”
Former Formula 1 chief
Bernie Ecclestone confirms he will be a father again at 89.
“The fact that we are not yet even testing 10,000 people a day is very, very serious indeed. There are almost half a million [frontline] people working in the NHS and the care sector. Even they have not yet been tested. It is ludicrous. We have got to get on top of testing.”
Outgoing UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says it is “ludicrous” that so few health service staff and care workers have been tested.
“We have packed up. Our life is packed up in 36 boxes somewhere across the Atlantic and we won’t see it for another two months, I’d imagine.”
TV chef Donal Skehan on his decision to leave LA and return to Dublin with his wife and two children.
“Dad fought bravely for so long. Due to this horrible disease we had been unable to visit him at the hospital but all of the family and close friends spoke to him every day. We will miss him terribly and we are so proud of everything he has achieved in his career with Syd and know that he was much loved by the millions that watched them every week.”
Ryan McGinnis pays tribute to his father, comedian Eddie Large, who died aged 78 after contracting coronavirus.
“If you had told the 14-year-old us that we’d still be working together on some of the biggest TV shows in the world, we’d have laughed you out of Byker Grove. It would have been too much for our tiny minds to comprehend but here we are still together and still having more fun than anyone really should be having at work.”
Ant McPartlin speaks as it is announced that he and presenting sidekick Declan Donnelly are writing a book to mark 30 years on TV.
“Art is there to be seen and to be shared, to inspire and comfort, especially in these difficult times. I am shocked and incredibly p **** d off that this has happened. This is a beautiful, moving painting by one of our greatest painters that has been stolen from the community.”
Jan Rudolph de Lorm, director of the Singer Laren museum, after the theft of a Van Gogh landscape.