Small steps on path to exiting lockdown

get the €20 and €50 notes the delighted grandparents will be doling out.

And the 5km limit is being extended to 20km. So you can travel to see loved ones – but only within the new limits. Like living in a communist country of yesteryear.

Any four people can visit a household that isn’t necessarily family. And that’s to be welcomed.

But hardly an occasion to break out the brandy. You’d want more than that for a good hooley.

With funerals, and there have sadly been lots of them, only immediate family and close friends up to 10 people have been allowed to date. And none at all, except the priest, undertaker and gravedigger, if the deceased had the virus.

From Monday, more mourners can attend funerals. But we’re waiting on Leo to say how many. God, that man has some power.

Little retail shops, too, selling everything from clothes to toys will reopen. Expect queues on big shopping areas like Grafton Street.

And not to be forgotten, farmers can finally sell their cattle and sheep at marts. But no shaking hands after the deal is done. And no pints in Gurns Bar after Monday’s mart in

Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim. Not yet anyways. Pubs aren’t due to starting pulling pints again until August 10.

Many won’t wait that long and will aim for June 29, along with the restaurants. Would a “hang sangwich” with the pint get round Leo?

And the bookworms and the geeks who devour science mags are in for a break, too, as libraries reopen. No worries about social distancing there. They’re a silent crowd, who like their own space.

Fitness freaks and sports-mad lads and lassies can meet up for outdoor team training sessions. But no matches. Just belt the ball into an empty net.

Overall, they’re not massive steps. But they’re something as we slowly exit Leo’s lockdown.

Now, if he’d only open the barbers. And the bars.