Letter from the Editor
ONE surefire way of telling someone has made a substantial contribution to life in Ireland and beyond is when two or more counties claim them. Take Mike Ryan, health emergencies director of the World Health Organisation. Mayo people say he’s one of them, to outrage from Sligo. Even Galway tried to nab him. Nobody was having that.
Where I come from, we are no slouches at it. For years I was one of three judges of the Limerick Person of the Year. We gave the honour for 2013 to Donal Ryan, that wonderful writer who hails from Nenagh, Co Tipperary. I can now confess the truth about that perhaps questionable decision.
When my fellow judges pointed out that Ryan was a Premier County man, I wasn’t having it. “Listen,” I said,
“he’s been living in Limerick for years, he’s one of us now. And besides, his wife comes from Newcastle West.”
Donal looked mortified when his name was called out, but Anne Marie Ryan was delighted. Everyone was a winner on the day, except for Tipperary, which was fine by me.
The great Vicky Phelan hails from Kilkenny, technically, but we have long since claimed her too — and quite successfully, judging by the majority of media references to her. But one thing is beyond dispute — she has made Ireland a better and more caring place, thanks to her magnificent advocacy for cancer patients in this country.
On page 14, Vicky writes powerfully about one of the most worrying aspects of the coronavirus lockdown — the disruption to normal cancer services. Screening was sacrificed so that we’d be better prepared for a Covid-19 surge that, thankfully, never came. Operations were put on hold, throwing families into turmoil.
We have tried, in the Sunday Independent, to encourage a robust debate around the very difficult decisions being made on our behalf by a combination of the acting Government and Nphet medical experts. The lockdown has saved lives, but different writers in these pages have expressed concern about the amount of lives it could ultimately cost. We may never know the answer.
Vicky Phelan contributes to that debate this week and I hope her piece helps to make a difference. “It beggars belief that we would cast aside the known benefits of screening for fear of a virus that we are going to have to learn to live with,” she writes. Who could disagree with that?
As ever, thanks for reading us.