Those at the sharp end of the pandemic are our true patriots

WHEN this is over – it will be, some time or other – there will be a lot of soul-searching. Much of this will be from the top down. After all, those who called the shots on Covid are sure to get the loudest shout out.

There will be political and scientific post-mortems, inquiries and reports, PhDs by the library-full and bookshops stacked high with revelatory bestsellers.

But it will need to be poked at from the bottom up too because the accumulation of individual choices made by all of us drove the ebb, flow and surge of this disease.

It dictated who got sick, who didn’t, who died and might have lived.

Blaming government is always a handy one. It might even be argued that if we didn’t need government we’d have invented it anyway so we had something to beat up on.

But it was those who wilfully, stupidly and cynically flouted the rules time and again that put Ireland top of the world’s most embarrassing naughty list. No one else.

When the book of evidence is eventually presented though, the idiots who let us down won’t be called to account. They’ll have washed their hands (uncharacteristic though that might be) of the entire mess and slithered off.

They will go back to being who they always were. In fact, that is our best chance of identifying them. Because we all know them.

They have always been with us. Hiding in plain sight. The sort who put themselves first and give the finger to everyone else. Always have and always will.

They are the litter louts who soil our streets because they couldn’t be bothered strolling a couple of yards to a bin, the sort who fly-tip from the boot of a car, wedge their motor up on the footpath so wheelchairs and buggies can’t get by, only pay their taxes when they’re found out, scam insurance companies so the rest of us have to pay more.

The list is near endless. Add your own as you see fit.

Patriotism is one of those big words thrown around by the sort of people who wrap the tricolour around themselves and sing maudlin rebel songs over pints. But in essence it is something else completely different.

Patriotism is being at the sharp end of this crisis in our hospitals. Patriots are those who lost jobs and businesses and will dust themselves off and start again.

Then there’s the rest – the majority it must be said – who simply tried to do what was asked of them.

The villains are those who wilfully spread this disease. They mightn’t think we know who they are but we can all hazard a good guess.