DELIGHT AS OVER 85s GET
WHETHER IT’S HITTING BALLS ON THE GOLF COURSE OR SIPPING A PINT AT THE BAR, THESE LOCALS, AGED 85 AND OVER, HAVE MUCH TO LOOK FORWARD TO
NORTH WEXFORD’S over 85s were out and about for a very special reason last week as they received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Local doctors described a very positive response from the first cohort of people, and three patients at the Palms Surgery spoke to this newspaper after getting their vaccinations.
Phil Clancy has been married to Desmond for 61 years, and she said that getting the vaccine went very smoothly for them both.
‘It was all very good and the word “good” just sums it all up. We were very carefully minded going in and the staff were cheerful, I had a pleasant chat with the doctor but getting the injection I didn’t feel anything at all. We had to sit down for a while afterwards just in case but everyone was the same. I didn’t feel anything at all for the whole day but I was expecting I might be feeling bad, but the next day I had a very slight headache and my husband had no side effects at all. If you have been unwell recently, that need not keep you away from taking the vaccine as you’re taking it to alleviate your mind helping you to get better quicker.
‘You’ll always get the people who love to complain and beforehand some people got on to us trying to warn us, they told us to ask certain questions and be careful. I just had to make a decision if I was going to go for this and if I was fit enough, or whether I was going to worry about it or not and I thought to myself “yes” to both. Hopefully now we’ll get the second dose in the next four weeks, and another week after that to be sure. Not that I will be taking any risks then either, as you’ve got to think of other people, so we won’t all be free again, not until everybody gets it. It’s very important and necessary part of this whole thing, that people should think half about themselves and half about the other people, because it’s equally important’.
Having cocooned at home for the last year, Phil said that she looks forward to getting back on the golf course at Courtown Golf Club.
‘My best way of dealing with the pandemic was to see it as a challenge and I like a challenge. I’ve had quite a few challenges in my life, and I think that a challenge makes you stronger. If you set your mind to it, you say that I can beat this, I’m made of stronger stuff than this and I’m not going to let this get me down. That’s the way I thought about it all the time, and it really is a challenge as none of us have ever been through anything like this in our lifetime. If it doesn’t kill you it’ll make you stronger. I want to thank my neighbour Bernie Collins who has been a brilliant help to us always making us feel safe, and for leaving things at our doorstep.
‘I’m not in the full flush of youth but I really want to get back out on the golf course, it’s the main target for me as well as seeing my family and friends. I love being with people and having the phone has been a lifeline but people have been extremely good. They were visiting when they could and being very careful when they came in, keeping their distance and wearing the mask’.
Riverchapel’s Noel Darcy (85) believes that the vaccine offers hope to society in general.
‘It was a very simple thing, they used to say that having an injection was like a bee sting so that was it. I was quite confident going in, at my age it doesn’t bother me. The first year of the pandemic was the worst for us as we didn’t know whether we were coming or going and then all of a sudden they came out with this vaccine and I have never in my life heard of a vaccine so quick. It took years to develop the small pox and flu vaccine, so I knew they must have done a fairly good job.
‘There are a lot of people getting the jab now so that’s a good thing. My wife and I are the same age so we sit in and look at the television, we might have a beer or something like that. We feel that the only way to beat this thing is to relax and enjoy yourself at home. The cocooning didn’t bother me, but as true as I’m sitting here, what I’m looking forward to now is going down to Jimmyz bar and having a pint of Guiness. I haven’t had a pint in about two years and I used to drink about 20 pints a week and it kept me in good health’.
Isabel O’Neill (87) lives in Tara Hill with her husband of 67 years, Joe (91) and she said that she was very pleased to get the call to come in for the vaccine.
‘I wasn’t nervous at all and I had the injection, all was well and it didn’t hurt. We were told that because of our age, the vaccine might have some side effects such as confusion. The morning afterwards, Joe’s carer came and the pair of us had a case of the giggles and giddiness. I was told afterwards that we weren’t the only people to have this giddiness after getting it done, but it was a great relief to have received it. We’re delighted that there is enough of it to be distributed and that it is available to help us all so we know that our carers and all those people who are our life support at the moment will get it’.
Mrs O’Neill said that getting through the pandemic so far has involved being careful, but life didn’t stop.
‘We haven’t been visiting people and we’re not appearing too much around the place but for us, being confined to home, we had to go out and do a bit of business like going shopping. So many people had been so very kind to us during the first shut down, we stayed home then and had our meals brought to us and it was fantastic. When the next shut down came, I just felt that to expect the same from people who had given up so much time, effort and kindness, it was just not right to rely on them again. We wanted to carry on for ourselves, so we left the house masked, keeping it on all the time and we made sure to be make home within an hour. We occasionally met someone that we knew and it passed the time, it was healthier both physically and mentally at the age we are’.
Isabel’s message to the general public is for them to please take the vaccine.
‘We need to be so thankful that there is something that can help you survive a bit longer for family, friends and for yourself. Everybody has been terrified, and it’s very easy to slip into depression and fear but the thing is, tragedies like this have happened before but this is something that’s worldwide. I spoke to my children about this but we need to remember that back in the distant past, there was 40 years of war in Europe. We can imagine how they tried to re-establish a way of living to survive it and we have built on what they learned. We’re not that badly off as those in other countries and what we have to do is keep masked, wash our hands, take our social distancing and carry on that way. Not soon unfortunately but it’ll end, and there is hope and we can survive. Human nature is so good at adaptability,’ she said.
Patients across north Wexford are asked to keep an eye on their doctor’s websites for updates on