“I am glad to have made an all out effort in the Dail last Thursday where I appealed in three separate sessions to the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Minister for Health Simon Harris and Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan to bring forward the reopening dates for hotels, restaurants and pubs and I want to thank them for listening.
I wish all the businesses in Kerry who now will be reopening on the 29th June 2020 and the 20th July 2020 all the very best of luck for long into the future,” said Deputy Danny.
This Kind of Calamity
If anyone told you this time last year that churches and public houses and football pitches would be locked up or down and that you could walk only two miles from your own door and back.
You’d wonder what kind of catastrophe could possibly cause this kind of calamity.
Now we know it as the Corona Virus and as the curse which has left many grieving the loss of family members all over the world.
All Part of the Conversation
The separation of loved ones, families and friends from each other and the annihilation of business and income and fears for a viable future for many small enterprises is all part of the conversation created by the onset of the virus.
The civil war of words is coming from members of the business community who, understandably, after putting a lifetime of huge investment – or both into an enterprise and who are now watching it rust away in dry dock.
No New Cases for Weeks
Then there are people who ask why in the name of God would you open up a county to tourism when we have just come through a fantastic period in Kerry where no new cases of the virus have been reported in recent weeks.
The floodgates are being tentatively opened on Monday and more again later this month.
God forbid, that a case or two is discovered and traced to a particular venue – is that venue and that proprietor / promoter then liable for the illness or death of a virus victim because they are responsible for putting the temptation to travel there and for bringing the carrier into the county?
Is it a bit like when someone falls over something on the street that the person who put it there is responsible for the injuries caused?
Both Have Valid Points
Both have very valid points and the war of words to date has indeed been civil and long may it last.
You’d have to have pity in your heart and understanding for both sides but pity doesn’t catch the fish and the growing surge to reopen in the
will probably win the day – for now.
We’re All in This Together is, or perhaps was, a great slogan during March. April and May.
Now, and maybe appropriately, in June – the month in which the cuckoo changes its tune – the floodgates are beginning to creak and we now appear willing and ready to go our own ways again.
Regained Freedoms
By all medical accounts and assessments, the reopening will work provided we are all sensible in our approach to our regained freedoms.
We’ll all have to remember that there are still vulnerable people in our communities.
We’ll have to keep washing our hands and be careful about distancing and not be a bit embarrassed about wearing a mask or a visor – if that’s how we’re going to play our parts in getting rid of this once and for all.
Life is Returning Slowly
Now that hope and life is returning slowly and we can all look forward to bright new days ahead, it mightn’t be any harm to remember the darkness we’re now walking away from – if it only reminds us to wash our hands and take care.
As Deputy Danny wished us all above: “The very best of luck for long into the future.”
