Great L.E. Yeats departs Dublin
You forget about the virus out here, we are so removed from it all
MEMBERS of the emergency services formed a guard of honour for Irish naval ship
L.E William Butler Yeats as it left Dublin yesterday.
The vessel departed from
Sir John Rogersons Quay to return to routine security operations at sea.
It has provided an unbroken presence since March 15, where it has operated a Covid-19 Community Testing Centre in support of the HSE.
Emergency services form guard of honour we push to raise funds and awareness.” Meanwhile, there was a glimmer of hope for Irish bar owners as those in Australia reopened yesterday.
The New South Wales state government announced all businesses are subject to the same social distancing and headcount caps – with four square metres of space for each customer and up to a maximum of 10 patrons.
However, ordering a beer from the counter is not allowed.
A FAMILY living on the Great Blasket Island have said it’s easy to forget about the coronavirus with little change to their lives in Europe’s most westerly point.
Billy O’connor, 31, his partner Alice Hayes, 28, and their two kids Harry, five, and four-year-old Joey can live their lives with little chance of picking up the bug.
Except for a few jaunts to their home in Dingle, the family of four are cut off from the mainland.
Billy told the Irish Mirror: “We’ve been out here now for the last three or four weeks except the odd trip back into Dingle for supplies, it really is lovely here with just us the kids and the dog.
“You would definitely forget about the whole coronavirus out here, we are so removed from it all.
“We haven’t seen a huge difference to our lives just working away doing a few jobs that need to be done, there are a few hundred sheep out here grazing too so looking after them.”
Unlike the rest of the country, there’s no checkpoints on the Great Blasket Island, no gardai and with the area a little over 4km, it’s not physically possible to break the 5km essential travel limit. Billy said: “We do have our house in Dingle that we have to go in and out of every week or so but really I don’t think there’s any real way a virus could be spreading amongst us out here.
“I do bump into people when we head back for a day who stop me and say we are so lucky to be out here, and we are but I suppose even Dingle is lucky in it’s fairly removed from the whole thing.”
The only real difference with the coronavirus is the lack of tourists, which is the family’s main income.
Billy added: “Usually at this time of year we would be flat out, under a good bit of pressure, bringing people in and out of the island, getting groceries, cleaning and picking up rubbish.
“We’re nearly getting tired of just doing maintenance at the moment.
“Our business is such a small one that we are used to running everything tight, we will be down this year but it won’t be disastrous.
“Hopefully this doesn’t go on for too much longer because the main industry here and around Dingle and these parts is tourism so it could destroy it.”
BILLY O’CONNOR YESTERDAY