Grateful nation must thank those who got us through the dark
THERE’S no sugar-coating it – these are difficult, scary times. But there are also many reasons to be hopeful.
Number one is the response of our family, friends and neighbours. Not everybody has been heroic, not everybody has responded the way we would want them to.
But in every community from frontline health workers and emergency responders to the many “civilians” who have stepped up to help in a thousand different ways, we have seen an explosion of “accidental heroes”.
And when this ends, we should have a national thanksgiving to honour these people.
We could celebrate them by holding a national awards night, a ceremony to honour some of the representatives of our health and emergency services and the “civilians” who have become emergency responders because that is what their communities needed.
We should give thanks, mark this moment in our history and honour these people as an example to us all. Book Dublin Castle. Call it something like The Covid-19 Hero Awards and open up nominations to the public.
We won’t be short of people to honour and give thanks to.
In Cork, transition-year students Shane
Collins and Oisin Coyle are using their school’s 3D printing equipment to make hundreds of masks for health workers.
Their school – Kinsale Community – didn’t call them in, the Government didn’t ask them to do it.
Like so many others, these two 15-year-olds just asked themselves how they could help, rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in.
All over the country, post men and women are knocking on doors, checking on the elderly and isolated, taking time out of their busy rounds to have a little chat, deliver a little reassurance, let people know they are not forgotten and help is there for them.
The recent Tom Hanks movie A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood told the story of real-life US kids TV presenter Fred Rogers.
He was a father figure to a generation of American kids, a famously kind and optimistic man who always tried to see the best in people.
When he was asked about his optimism, he said: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers’. You will always find people who are helping.’”
We’ve always known our frontline responders, the fire service crews who will run – not walk – into a burning house or the gardai we’ve seen put themselves on the line so vividly in Inside The K on TV, are called on to be heroes.
What we are seeing now are new heroes all around us, in local stores, in nursing homes, chemists, pilots and delivery drivers working long hours to get essential food and supplies to every corner of the country.
These are tough times and it’s understandable that people will feel down.
But when it gets to you, when you worry for your family, your job and your community, just look to the helpers.
They are all around us. And when this ends, we should have a national thanksgiving and make sure they are honoured.
We are seeing heroes in the shops, nursing homes and in delivery vans