Cool welcome for ban-breaking weekend visitors
VISITORS who defied the newly imposed travel ban to spend the Easter Bank Holiday weekend in West Kerry have caused shock and anger among locals who are concerned about the increased risk of coronavirus being brought in from cities and other more heavily infected areas of Ireland and abroad.
Although Gardaí mounted highly publicised checkpoints, especially on roads around Dublin, in an effort to enforce the travel ban in the run up to the bank holiday some weekend visitors did manage to get to West Kerry. Locals have even reported seeing cars from ‘up the country’ arriving late at night, apparently in a manoeuvre aimed at avoiding Garda checkpoints.
The number of visitors was small by comparison with what West Kerry has come to expect on Easter weekends, and small too was the welcome that awaited them. A sign placed on the roadside outside Baile an Fheirtéaraigh on Saturday declared: “Cá Bhfuil an Meas [where is the respect] Summer Houses Out”. The sign was later removed by locals who clearly felt the message was too strong.
Brenda Ní Shuilleabháin from Baile an Liaigh reflected the feelings of many when she commented on Facebook that weekend visitors who didn’t stay in isolation were putting frontline workers and vulnerable people in the local community at unnecessary and avoidable risk.
“There are some truly disgusting people who have visited Dingle this weekend. I can understand a family which would pack the car with everything they would need, move here and isolate here. Against the rules, but not actively irresponsible.
But they’re in the supermarkets… where courageous women and men are working… to keep provisions available for their community, for the old, the sick, the immunocompromised. And these disgusting people come in putting them at risk of illness which they will then, much against their will, spread,” she said.
“Furious is not the word for how I feel. And it’s too late. The damage is done. We will have to count the cost.”
Micheal DeMordha supported Brenda’s comments: “Níl aon deallramh leo. Ba cheart iad a thiomáint amach as an ndúthaigh,” he wrote.
And Gorta Dubha native Maurice Brick who now lives in New Rochelle, New York, offered the benefit of his experience as a recovering coronavirus victim when he added: “Stay at home for God’s sake and for others. This is a nasty virus.”
Meanwhile, there were very few people to be seen on beaches throughout West Kerry over the weekend after seaside public carparks were blocked off with ‘Bóthar Dúnta’ signs. The barricades, which were erected by Kerry County Council, working in cooperation the Gardaí, were intended to prevent the scenes witnessed last month when some West Kerry beaches became crowded with visitors. A council spokesperson said it has not yet been decided how long the barricades will remain in place.