All you need is love, grit and a will to survive

ALL You Need Is Love, sang The Beatles in 1967.

Well in 2020, Ireland has got it in bucketloads. The efforts of our people in the struggle against coronavirus is truly heroic.

We are not the selfish bastards we’ve been made out to be. We actually do care.

The last two weeks have been tough but our citizens have got on with it. There is no whingeing, no bitching, the people know what they have to do.

The lives of our husbands, wives, partners, mothers and fathers are at stake. Kids with existing respiratory illnesses such as cystic fibrosis are also at risk.

We have learned a new phrase – social distancing – and we are living our lives by it. It really means physical distancing, to stay as far away as possible from the next person you see.

It’s against everything we friendly Irish believe in but people could die so we have to do it. I am getting used to chatting from six or seven feet away.

Waiting my turn in a food line is now part of everyday life.

WAR

We are in the middle of a war. Yet it doesn’t feel like it until you see what is happening in Italy and Spain, two countries we know and love so well.

The sight of hundreds of coffins laid out in morgues and on the streets, hospital emergency units full to the brim with patients battling for life. And yet only one in 20 surviving. Harsh but horrible. The rest dying.

The last time I saw morgues so full was in Kuwait and Iraq during the first Gulf war, and trust me, it ain’t pretty.

Then, everyone knew the enemy was Saddam Hussein. This time it is invisible. A virus can be found anywhere, on your hands, your clothes, your face, your saliva.

As a country, we are proud of the way we are fighting it. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his team have done a great job.

They are talking to the people, not at them. The “We know best” attitude they displayed towards the housing and homeless crisis over the past few years, and which cost them the General Election, is now gone.

The Government is far more likeable. If there is another election when this pandemic is over, they might even return with a lot more seats.

They are telling the truth as it happens, no spin or lies. The more they keep us in the loop the better.

The 2016 census found there are 637,567 people over 65 in our country. They are the ones most at risk.

We are all staying at home as a sacrifice so many of them will live and because we love them.