AS THE MOST ‘AT RISK’ DEMOGRAPHIC THESE ARE WORRYING TIMES FOR DUNDALK’S ELDERLY COMMUNITY, REFLECTS
KEVIN MULLIGAN
Normally I wouldn’t take a lot of heed in what Boris Johnston has to say.
That is until, last Thursday, when he said ‘many more families will lose loved ones before their time’.
Hey, I thought, he’s talking about me.
I’m a near 77-year-old, right bang in the age group most vulnerable.
I may not have the underlying health conditions that place me in the most at risk category, but I don’t want to go before my time.
Now, because of Boris’s prediction, I’m starting to give a lot more thought to this Coronavirus lark.
Until now, I’m afraid, I was a little like Donald Trump.
It’s no more than a common cold. I’ve always had a few of these each year like everyone else, and never had any real problems.
Damn Boris, I wish he hadn’t made his prediction.
As a result, I’m seriously considering self isolation. Can I really do that ? Have I the self discipline to be locked away for a month ?
Will cabin fever not get me in the end ?
Can I do without my morning coffee in the Jockeys and equally as important the verbal jostling with Damien and Maria and the many regular customers.
Can I survive without debating my solutions for the world and its problems, or the merits of the Liverpool reserve ‘ keeper with Billy and whoever wants to participate.
Can I undertake a period of total abstinence when I haven’t done it for most of my adult life and ignore the comfort, company and the pleasure of a pint of the creamy stuff in the Greenore ?
At least Dundalk, and the League of Ireland, had the decency to call off matches, because while the withdrawal symptoms from missing the regular Friday night fix will be there, there is at least the comfort of knowing that the games will have to be played at some stage in the future.
To fill in the time when I’m not able to go to Oriel Park or the Greenore, I’m confined to the sofa, the TV, listening to the interminable number of medical experts whose prognosis vary from the doomsday scenario when you want to hide behind the sofa, and the slightly more optimistic who say it will be all over in a few months, or a few years.
There is however one expert who had the kind of advice I liked.
He said that he would love to gather all the old people in Britain together and confine them to a remote part of Scotland, while letting this dreadful virus rampage amongst the young people.
In that way, he maintained that, the country would build up the immunity needed to beat this awful virus.
Somehow I like that idea, but of course it’s not possible because for a start if all the old people are sent away to a remote island who will mind the grandchildren.
I digress, and in truth should apologise for my selfishness in talking about the elderly, like myself, when seriously I, and all of my generation, should be greatly concerned about the economic impact that this lockdown will have on many aspects of normal life like the owners of many fine businesses trying to keep going.
People like my barber, who is never overworked when I visit, but who hadn’t a customer through his doors in two days.
People like a young publican who I met on the street on Friday, a decent, hard working family man, who took an enormous risk in leasing a well known town centre premises, but who predicted that the Paddy’s Day week-end trade on which he was reliant to survive was gone, never to be replaced.
Across the country, in the town that we all love, there are businesses that won’t survive, families in which the main bread winner will be out of work.
They’re the ones who deserve our concern, and our support and if we can do anything at all when escaping our self imposed quarantine, then we must try to help all we can by supporting our local community.
We’re all in this together, and while we’re all told to pull on the green jersey at this time of national need, there’s no harm in pulling on the black and white jersey whenever we can.
Forget Boris, he does not know what he is talking about most of the time, and in this case I hope that’s right.