Small triumphs, not false hope, will guide our path to freedom
DESPITE ALL, people remain steadfast. The country’s stoicism over the past 11 months has been a wonder, and more is now demanded of the nation. Ireland faces towering problems in the short term. The after-effects of the last year make the longer-term difficulties sobering, too.
But the capacity of Irish people to mostly do the right thing, to make sacrifices that would once have seemed unimaginable and to do that for the greater good, is one of the most valuable resources the country possesses.
That ability to endure will not stay fixed, of course; even the mightiest cliff will erode.
This is what makes the task facing the Government over the coming weeks so fraught. Micheál Martin must lead not only his administration but the rest of us on a perilously narrow path between hope and despair.
The terrain is treacherous and one of the lurking dangers is unrealistic expectation.
Giving people false hope in a time when they feel so stretched, so tired, simply so wrung out, is the surest way to destroy public morale.
And that morale remains a priceless asset for the Government.
The most recent Ireland Thinks survey in The Irish Mail on Sunday found that 59% of respondents believe the lockdown should not be eased until case numbers fall below 20 a day, levels reached when Ireland opened up last June.
That speaks to an understanding of the dangers that remain, despite the yearning for a return of cherished freedoms. In the face of the palpable frustration, most of us remain responsible and aware of the shifting environment we now inhabit.
The plan announced by the Taoiseach on Tuesday is extremely cautious, and it heightens the sense that pandemic policy now relies on vaccinations.
That plan is contingent, for months to come, on supply, a variable the State cannot influence. Therefore, urging the country to simply hang on in there is the effective policy.
It is crude and it is grim, but ensuring that vaccine administration is quick and efficient, especially when supplies increase, is the surest way to repay people for their efforts.
However, it is as important to eschew any improbably easy solutions – and they are starting to proliferate, particularly in the fetid conditions provided online.
More mainstream cures are unconvincing, too. It is remarkable the extent to which advocates of Zero Covid are still indulged, for instance.
Their arguments crumble when we introduce the matter of the border, and the irresolvable difficulties of an all-island approach when that island has two separate administrations.
It is interesting that the enthusiasm of Opposition parties for Zero Covid appears to have waned recently, their focus switching instead to quarantine for arrivals into Ireland.
Mandatory quarantining for those coming from high-risk countries makes sense, and the glacial pace of legislating for that is a cause of frustration – and a weakness in the Government’s approach to Covid.
YET it must also be recognised that quarantining is not the Eureka! solution either. Relief will come through a delicate combination of vaccinations, public health measures, and personal responsibility.
It is the job of the Government to achieve the correct mix, and avoiding unnecessary distractions is part of it.
The confusion caused by the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, on the reopening of schools was precisely the kind of intervention that frazzles people.
That classrooms will start reopening next week is a small triumph, and that is how our freedom will return.
There will be no landmark day when Ireland is liberated. Instead, it will be an accumulation of little steps, which taken together constitute a path out of this lingering misery. But we need to be shown the way.