Chronicles of COVID-19

Title

Margaret, Cork City

Contributor

Margaret

Subject

COVID-19 (Disease)

Coverage

Ireland; Cork; 2020s:

Date

10 April 2020

Language

English

Creator

Cork Folklore Project

Rights

Cork Folklore Project

Description

GENERAL PHYSICAL LOCATION RIGHT NOW

Glasheen

USUAL LOCATION

Same

Q. 1 STAGES

It seemed like it all happened very quickly. In the space of a few days, it went from something that was happening far away to something that was happening here to us. I remember people at the gym being much more careful than usual about wiping down equipment, and it seemed like everyone was saying, "We'll have the hands washed off ourselves" and stuff like that. But it didn't really occur to me that only a few days later I would no longer be able to go to the gym at all. About a week before campus closed down (I work in UCC), people were washing their hands a lot more and using hand sanitizer. One of my colleagues is Italian and I remember asking him about his family there and feeling sad for him but completely thinking of it as something that was happening to them and would not affect me. I taught my classes as normal on a Tuesday, and it didn't even cross my mind that Thursday's lectures would be online. Everything was kind of like that -- just doing normal stuff, never thinking this might be our last time doing this for months, and then suddenly everything seemed to change overnight. In a way I was surprised by how quickly everyone started taking it seriously. Campus shut down very quickly. People started standing apart from each other in shops and I saw people using hand sanitizer and wiping down trolleys at the supermarket and stuff like that. One thing that was weird was that there were UCC students occupying the Quad in response to a hike in their rent, and it seemed like they were there for the long haul, and then they had to suspend it. Again, in the space of a few hours, the tents were all down. Maybe it was because we had been hearing about how awful things were in Italy that so many of us took it seriously and did what we were told.

Q. 2 EVERYDAY ROUTINE

I would often work from home anyway, but I also teach and work on campus as well. I'd go to the gym a few times a week and I'd often walk around the city centre and go for a coffee or something like that. Obviously I don't do any of that now. Since the lockdown, I started leading a little morning meditation group with some friends so we get on Google Hangouts at 8 am and say some prayers and meditate together. Then I usually have breakfast and start work about 9. I'm the only one under 70 in my house so I now do all the shopping for my mam and dad as well as my own. One of the things my parents love is reading the papers (Irish Examiner and Irish Times) so one of my rituals now is going up to my local Centra every day to get them papers, milk and a coffee for myself. Going to Centra is a destination now and I'm grateful for the excuse to go somewhere. I've taken to finishing up work at about 5 and going for a walk for about an hour before making dinner. My mam is over seventy and normally we'd often go for a walk together. The Lough is near our house so we'd "do a few rounds of the Lough." Obviously, we can't go together any more now. I go for a walk most days on my own. I'm thrilled I can still go for a walk. Going for the papers and my walk are the highlights of my day now. I love walking around Cork city, so after Varadkar's Friday night address a few weeks ago, I immediately checked Google maps to see where my 2 km radius is and I have been exploring different bits of it. Sometimes I feel a bit uncomfortable if I'm on a deserted street on my own, even in daylight. As a woman, I always have that voice in the back of my head saying that if I get raped or murdered it will be my own fault. But I'd usually go for a walk about 5 and there are usually plenty of people around then. I am careful to give people a wide berth and I see others doing the same. I've noticed people saying "thanks" to me for doing this and I say thanks to others for moving out to pass me as well. A few people I've passed have just said "It's so weird, isn't it?" and we kind of smile and bond for a moment over the strangeness of the experience. I've noticed a lot more Gardaíon the street, especially in the city centre. I had to go to the GPO today to do something for my dad and they were outside making sure people moved on once they'd finished their messages in the post office. On my way into town I passed St Finbarr's South church and there was a hearse outside and a few people standing across the street, keeping a bit of distance between themselves. I think they were paying their respects even though they couldn't attend the funeral. My mam actually went to the funeral of a close family member who passed away before the over-70s were cocooned. She said the funeral directors staff were telling people exactly where to sit, and making sure they were all far apart. People bumped elbows outside after. It was the only time any of us can remember an invitation-only funeral in Ireland. There were no details given on rip.ie or put in the paper until after the funeral. And of course, there was no wake except maybe the immediate family did something, so that was very different.

Q. 3 GROUPS

I think this must be very hard on people with small children and those over 70. My mam who would normally walk a few miles a day and have a very active social life has taken to doing laps of our small back garden, and then doing online T'ai chi classes and following aerobics videos on her phone. She's planning a Zoom call with a group of friends she'd usually meet for coffee on a Friday. I'm amazed how well she has adapted. My dad marches on the spot for 15 or 20 minutes each day to replicate his walk. Normally he would go to Mass every day and he would get the bus into town once a week and go to the library and look around the second hand bookshops. He keeps saying he's "confined to barracks." My next door neighbour turned 90 recently. Despite the best efforts of her family and neighbours she refuses to stop going out for a walk every day. I would worry a bit for her of course but I love her spirit. She told my mam her approach to the lockdown was "Fuck ‘em all and keep going." She didn't make it to 90 by doing everything she was told.

Q. 4 WAYS WE TALK

I've seen loads of jokes about how long the days/weeks seem. "My five year plan is to get through April" and "30 days has September, April June and November, all the rest have 31 except March which has 367" or something like that. A lot of people are making jokes about how we thought 2016 was awful but it's not that bad compared to 2020. And a lot of jokes about men's haircuts growing out and women's real hair colour showing and stuff like that. I feel like I'm on Facebook way more and Twitter way less because I want to 'talk to' my friends and family rather than scroll through stuff from journalists or people I share research interests with. We had a family Zoom call last week and it was gas. Most of us were somewhere in Ireland, but my uncle was in Fiji and my cousin was in Vancouver. My uncle wouldn't be the most tech-savvy so while we were all on the call, my aunt was on the phone to him trying to explain to him how to log in. It was great really because usually all of us wouldn't be together except maybe at Christmas or something. We'd be in touch one-to-one but not as a group. I've also been having online wine sessions with some of my close friends. I've actually hung out with them more in the last couple of weeks than I have in months. I've been mentally keeping a list of people I can't wait to hug when it's all over. But mostly I'm struck by how little we talk about 'when it's over.' It's almost as if everyone is afraid to jinx it or something. I have mid-June in my head. I have decided they'll start easing restrictions in mid-June and we'll be somewhat normal by autumn unless there's a second wave. But we all seem to be oddly fine with the fact that we don't know. The little kids at the bottom of my park have made 'wash your hands' signs out of paper plates and they're hanging in their windows.

Q. 5 COMMUNITY RESPONSE

Two Gardaí came to check that my elderly neighbour was alright, which was good. Our local chemist has been delivering my parents' meds to the door which is brilliant. My mam would normally get her fruit and veg at Con's on the Bandon Road. They have a system now where she can phone in her order, they have it ready in a box and I just drive up, beep the horn and they bring it out and I can pay contactless. I suppose the businesses that can stay open have no choice but to adapt, but all the same their ingenuity and kindness is impressive. It annoys me that people don't really seem to get the 2 m thing. Maybe it's that they don't know what 2m looks/feels like. It's slightly too far away for a conversation to feel natural, but too close for a drive-by shouting-across-the-road type conversation. So yeah it feels weird, but that's the point. Close enough to chat is close enough to transmit. I don't think some people get that. But it seems like most people are trying. It doesn't really annoy me when ordinary people don't get it, but it does annoy me when shops have markers on the ground saying keep your distance but the markers are maybe 1 m apart and you have to brush past people anyway. Ordinarily I would just find it funny, because it seems typical of an Irish "yerra it'll be grand" attitude, but it seems so dangerous to get this stuff wrong.

Q. 6 THOUGHTS AND PREOCCUPATIONS

No Response.

Q. 7 SIMILARITY TO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

No Response.

Q. 8 CHALLENGES AND COPING

No Response.

Q. 9 THE FUTURE

I hope we won't ever again believe it when politicians tell us their hands are tied in some crisis. They were (quite rightly) able to find money to deal with this. In a way I feel angry that this wasn't done for housing or people on trolleys. 10,000 homeless including small children and people stuck in horrific direct provision even when they were entitled to move out; apparently that wasn't a crisis to the national and international powers that be. I sometimes feel hopeful that this might give rise to more solidarity and willingness to change things and redistribute wealth a bit more, but it seems like a bit of a pipe dream. On a smaller scale, I do feel like if we are able to lift restrictions a bit in late summer and if the weather is anyway decent, it could be the best summer in Ireland in decades, like Italia 90 level party atmosphere...that's what I have my fingers crossed for: An epic party in August and a saner, more humane government making some real changes in September...

Q. 10 IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT SPRINGS TO MIND?

No Response.

Q. 11 IN A NUTSHELL

Don't believe people who romanticise this event. Even if this is our 'Blitz spirit' moment, innocent people died in the Blitz. Yes, many people are being extremely helpful and going to extraordinary lengths to help each other, and that is truly heart-warming. And there are jokes and triumph-of-the-human-spirit and all that. But there are also people stuck in direct provision and emergency accommodation that literally cannot social distance properly. Hospitals and especially nursing homes are being hammered because we have failed to put in place the right protections for our most vulnerable. I hope people will look back on this as a time when we snapped out of civil war politics once and for all and insisted on better.

age

36-50

gender

Female