From top: Cork Airport last Tuesday; Dan Boyle
It had been planned meticulously we thought. The plan was that I go with my Mam to Scotland visit my sister, who has been recovering from a long term injury, and whom we haven’t got to see for the best part of a year.
The trip was not without risk. We reckoned that the infection rate in Ireland had reduced considerably. We would be going to that part of the island of Britain, that had seemed to be dealing with the pandemic that bit better than elsewhere.
It would have been an early Monday morning flight so we chose to travel on Sunday, then stay near the airport.The news we were hearing over the radio talked of a more contagious COVID variant taking hold on the South East of England. Still too distant we thought.
Each hour’s news bulletin brought worsening news. European governments were making decisions to cease flights from the UK in and out of their countries. The Irish government was considering a similar action.
I did try to make contact with someone who might know. Not to influence him, not either of our styles, but knowing the difficult decision that had to be made I sought an inkling of the thinking that was going on. What followed was something of an Irish solution. Incoming flights from the UK were to stopped, but outgoing flights from Ireland to the UK would continue.
Airlines interpreted this in line with their corporate personalities. Ryanair immediately cancelled all Ireland/UK flights. Aer Lingus announced it would fulfil outgoing flights for essential workers and for those returning to the UK.
My mother and I did not fall into either category and so a decision was made for us. We later rang my sister. While there was a sense of disappointment, there was also unsaid relief at not being able to go in these circumstances.
There was a huge personal frustration but there was also a sense that ours was not a unique story; that thousands were experiencing similar frustrations and disappointments.
We have now had nine months of going into lockdowns with intermittent slivers of light. Every setback has taken its toll on our collective psyche. Even with the hope being provided through vaccines, it could be that we are still only halfway through this crisis.
Despite this proviso we should begin thinking about a Post COVID world. What are the lessons that have been learned? What should we restore? What should be glad to be leaving behind?
We will probably spend too much time wanting to know who knew what when and who did what because of that. The real lesson from any human crisis should be whether response was based on the presence or absence of humanity.
We should start living life more slowly. We probably won’t. We need to more properly divide our use of technology with our interpersonal needs. Technology helps us in better entwining ourselves in the global. It also enables us to live our lives more local. If there is any lesson to be learned from our COVID disconnect it should be that we work, rest and play more in the local.
We need to be making the World a smaller place. We should be bringing our values closer, our experiences wider, our expectations more honest.
We can choose to do this by touching the screens of any number devices that now predominate our lives. Or we can try harder to touch the lives of those who make our own lives worth living.
Dan Boyle is a former Green Party TD and Senator and serves as a Green Party councillor on Cork City Council. His column appears here every Thursday. Follow Dan on Twitter: @sendboyle
Pic: ESC Scoreboards