Here is a flavour of what proprietors said about re-opening after 14 weeks in lockdown

please note: all below are following stringent guidelines, which we have not repeated each time

Mary Murphy, Manager of Banteer Community Childcare:

“We are delighted to have reopened on Monday. This is on a much smaller scale than usual with priority given to children of essential workers. Significant changes have been made to policies and procedures to ensure compliance with Covid-19 health and safety regulations.

“It’s fantastic to have the sound of children laughing and playing again around the place putting the life and soul back into the centre. The community group has spent significant funds to comply with the Covid regulations, a huge thank you to all involved in the preparations in the lead up to reopening”

Orla Tomkins, Manager of IRD Duhallow Restaurant and Duhallow Community Food Services:

“Monday saw the re opening of the restaurant at Duhallow Community Food Services. While DCFS remained open throughout the lockdown it was great to welcome customers back to the Restaurant. There was a steady stream of people throughout the day.

“Our focus over the past few months has been the rural meals service. Full credit to the dedicated team that turned up to work every day throughout the Covid 19 crisis to produce meals and deliver to all our existing and new clients that were cocooning”.

Anne Collins, Mallow Beauty & Skin Clinic:

“Our first day back went amazingly well. Customers were so appreciative of the fact that our services are back with a new normal. One of our new safety measures is a reduction in customer capacity but since our salon spans two floors with individual treatment rooms, social distancing is not a problem.

“It is so uplifting to see the smiles on our customers faces and how much they are looking forward to their next appointment”.

Patricia Roche O’Keeffe, Market 18 Restaurant, Newmarket:

“Reopening on Monday went very well. Everyone seemed very happy to be back and able to sit and chat instead of getting takeaways. All our customers seemed comfortable as we are adhering to all social distancing guidelines. We are lucky to have a large, spacious premises so our capacity hasn’t suffered too much.”

Catherine O’Connell, Stunners Hair Salon, Park West, Mallow:

“Our reopening went very well, we have a team of 10 working in the Salon so we decided to do two shifts to help us get through the backlog of clients crying out to get their long awaited hair appointment, so for the first two weeks the salon will be open 12 hours a day.

“After the first few clients it was like the ‘normal’ way to work with the masks and visors. We are lucky in Stunners as it’s a large salon and we have no problem keeping the two metre distance between clients. It’s great to be back and we’re looking forward to meeting everyone over the coming weeks”.

Noreen O’Donoghue Sheahan, Café Aroma, Millstreet:

“We had a bumper day on Monday, people were delighted to be able to come out and have a meal and it was fantastic to see our regulars and locals again”.

Breda Sheehan, Breda’s Hair Salon, Kanturk:

“It’s really fantastic to be back doing what we love most and to meet up with and chat to our lovely customers after such a long time off”.