Anna COVID-19 Photo Essay

(Image 1 - St. Patrick)
I took this photo just before St. Patrick’s Day in a small farming village near my house. The sign is the image of St. Patrick and was made by the children in the local primary school and community centre. Every year it is put out to decorate the village for St. Patrick’s Day. This year, however, they decided to give it a little twist. St. Patrick is now wearing a mask and instead of banishing the snakes out of Ireland, he is banishing Covid-19. I sent this picture to my friends in England who had visited the village the last time they were over. I thought it was smart and a nice exhibition of people raising morale. It was near the beginning of the pandemic and lockdown, too, so everyone was still in the realm of joke making and thinking it “won’t last long.”
 

(Image 2 - Birthday Driveby)
This photo was taken from the gate at the top of my driveway. The little girl is my neighbour and it was her eighth birthday. Her party was cancelled due to the ongoing lockdown and in an attempt to still celebrate it, her parents organised a surprise. All of her friends drove the distance to get to her house in the countryside. At the crossroads nearby, they all met up so that they would be in a line. Each of her friends made different banners and hung them from their cars. She was brought to the gate just as the procession of cars arrived. You could hear them blasting their horns from way down the road. Balloons were thrown out the window and her friends screamed happy birthday from their cars. She was overwhelmingly happy and declared it the ‘best birthday ever.’ I thought it was really beautiful. Even in the middle of everything that was going on, her friends and family made sure to celebrate her. Birthdays looked different for a while and will probably remain so for the foreseeable future but as humans, we always seem to find a way to support one another.
 

(Image 3 - Big Brother)
I took this photo near the beginning of the pandemic in Brown Thomas. It was at that point where masks weren’t mandatory and nobody really knew how serious things were. Social distancing was only beginning to be advised and there were some queues or booking systems for a few shops. Brown Thomas was one of them and, thinking we’d need to, my mom, sister and I booked a slot in advance (as it was coming up to my sister’s 21st birthday.) However, when we got there, there were absolutely no queues or anything. Inside, these signs were stuck on every pillar and there were staff members there to remind you of their message. I took this picture mainly because of the eye that is depicted on it. It reminded me a bit of Big Brother in Nineteen Eighty-Four; some omnipresent being that was watching our every move. I wanted to document it as it really sums up how things at the beginning of the pandemic (and even still now) felt like they were straight out of some strange dystopian novel.
 

(Image 4 - Handmade Rainbow)
This image is a play on the rainbow trend that is being documented in countless folklore projects. Throughout lockdown, rainbows seemed to become a symbol of hope and unity. Children would draw pictures and hang them in the windows of houses, I saw some rainbow-painted stones placed on doorsteps. This, however, was remarkable to me. The amount of effort put in was amazing. Every day during lockdown, I went for a walk around the pitches near my house. It was a way to get out and feel like I was in civilization instead of walking on my empty country road. Tied onto the fences the whole way around were these crocheted rainbows with inspiring quotes tied on to them. There must have been at least ten and there was no attribution to any person or group. They really cheered me up in a time that I needed it and for the first time, I believed the Taoiseach’s words that we were “All in this together.”
 

(Image 5 - Hairdressing at Home)
This photo is documentation of how my family dynamic changed during lockdown. It may seem like a really small thing to those outside but to me it wasn’t. My dad has always been adamant that my sister and I were not to dye our hair. I’m not quite sure why but it was one thing he was always set on. I’m an actor so I can’t have crazy coloured hair anyway, but I’ve always wanted to dye it pink. Seeing as auditions were halted and I was going nowhere, it seemed like a good time to do it. Surprisingly, my dad agreed but even more surprisingly, he was the one that ended up dying it for me. It was temporary and lasted just about until the end of lockdown. For me, this was a moment that sums up the entirety of lockdown and how it changed so many aspects of my life.
 

(Image 6 - Neighbour’s Meetup)
This is a photograph of my mom and two neighbours meeting on the lane between our houses. It is just one example of how being apart brought us more together. I honestly can’t remember the last time these three sat down together to chat like this but in the middle of lockdown, they set up socially distanced chairs and sat down for an hour or so. I think it’s a really strange photograph to have and one that would take a lot of explaining to make future generations understand. It was one of the only times my mom got to speak to her friends and I remember seeing such a change in her afterwards. This photo shows how much socialising has changed because of the pandemic.

(Image 7 - ‘New York’ Bread)
I think that every single Irish person can attest that they have never baked as much bread as they did during lockdown. I was definitely one of those people. I’ve always been an avid baker and spend a lot of time in the kitchen but I never really baked bread. It seems that all it took was a nationwide lockdown, however, to have me baking at least two loaves a day. The photographed bread was made with a recipe that I was sent by a friend in America. Apparently, the hobby of pandemic bread baking was taken up there, too. In the midst of the first lockdown, I baked around two loaves a day. I still can’t quite say what we did with that much bread, all I know is that all of our flour was used up. My baking habits changed completely and I was totally obsessed. I would love to be able to comment on why everybody suddenly wanted to bake so much bread but I honestly don’t have any ideas. I just think it is a great depiction of how even something as simple as what I baked was changed during the pandemic.