‘The Most Miserable Lockdown In The Western World’

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Ireland sits in ‘the longest and most stringent lockdown in the Anglophone world’

This morning.

Via Michael Brendan Dougerty in The National Review:

…Some countries, like the United States, have never been as strict. Others, like Israel or New Zealand, took harsher and more stringent measures than Ireland ever did, but did so for much shorter bursts of time, with the aim of relaxation. Ireland, however, seems to have a lockdown perfectly calibrated to be a marathon of penitence, anxiety, and misery.

A brief relaxation is followed immediately by a terrible surge in cases, and the door slams shut again. It has never been strict enough to exit more thoroughly, as has been done in Australia and New Zealand, but the restrictions of daily life over 14 months have been much more difficult and emotionally taxing than anything known in America.

…The humiliation is close to home, too. The U.K. also had absurdly intrusive lockdown policies. But now, Northern Ireland, the part of the U.K. that sits on the same island as the Republic, has vaccinated nearly 40 percent of its population. Ireland sits just at 10 percent.

Why is it like this? Isn’t Ireland a land of rebellion? Beyond voices like Gary Dempsey, not really. Social critic Conor Fitzgerald has diagnosed Ireland’s political culture as suffering from an acute case of “goodboyism,” which he defines as “the tendency in the Irish establishment to ostentatiously direct themselves towards external sources of cultural authority over and before the Irish populace.”

Resistance to lockdown is associated with Donald Trump, or troglodyte Tory backbenchers. Ireland self-image is more enlightened and progressive than that. The Royal Irish College of Physicians made Dr. Anthony Fauci an honorary fellow this March. He proceeded to warn them against getting too frisky too soon. Pat on the head received: Good boy!

…On Easter Sunday, a priest said Mass on the rocks of Achill, where the Mass was said the last time a government in Ireland made saying it vaguely criminal. Two men in Dublin, both getting their 5k of exercise, met and brought lilies to the General Post Office, which was the site of Ireland’s great rebellion in 1916. They were conscientious men who would have no truck with lockdown skeptics.

But, for this patriotic act, they were hassled by the Guards. “You’re not exercising.” In fact, this gesture was an exercise of sorts. Commemorating that place on that day in Ireland summons people to contemplate the “unfettered control of Irish destinies.”

The most miserable lockdown in the Western world (The National Review)

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20 thoughts on “‘The Most Miserable Lockdown In The Western World’

  1. Charger Salmons

    ” …has diagnosed Ireland’s political culture as suffering from an acute case of “goodboyism,” which he defines as “the tendency in the Irish establishment to ostentatiously direct themselves towards external sources of cultural authority over and before the Irish populace.”

    I’ve been saying this on here every day since October 2nd 2009.

    Heh x HisMastersVoice

        1. Papi

          Point proven, yet again. Don’t worry, there’ll be no mails checking to see if you’re OK if you stop posting. Hint, hint.

          You’re not terribly good at this not reacting malarkey, are you, chargy?

          1. Papi

            The more you react, the less time you have for your bigotry and hate, so win win all round.
            Marvelous.
            Fishy fishy.

  2. Conski

    nothing to do with a rubbish hospital infrastructure then?
    make up your own arguments to suit your self there… ‘social critic’ lolz

    1. Mr. T

      A rubbish hospital infrastructure that even in the worst of our big bad christmas wave, never ran out of capacity?

      Pathetic the lengths people will go to to excuse the actions of those in charge.

  3. JEH

    This guy is absolutely on the money!

    Irish Government: “we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas!”

    1. Ro

      Also from the National review: This is no time to be precious about locating the exact individuals directly involved in this particular terrorist attack. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren’t punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That’s war. And this is war

      1. Micko

        Yeah, but you’re leaving out the part where that was said two days after Sept 11th (tensions high and an whole got to post a piece of rubbish) and they then said that opinion piece was a mistake and fired the author.

        It was literally the next sentence in the Wiki article but you chose to leave it out? Why?

        “We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That’s war. And this is war.”[77] National Review later called the column a “mistake” and fired Coulter as a contributing editor.[78]”

        1. ro

          Oh they said sorry sure thats grand! It still shows that its a rubbish paper that allows its writers to publish overly emotional articles calling for the death of thousands civilians in response to a terrorist attack. No sensible paper would ever publish that. If you want to hear crap like that go talk to the local tool in the pub who has had a few jars

          1. Micko

            It’s ok man.

            Do you agree with every article The Guardian (for example) has ever published?

            Of course you don’t. (I hope)

            To just automatically agree with a newspaper because it shares the same political ideals as you would be insane. .

            So why would you think that you would agree with everything the National Review prints?

            Also, that article was printed literally two days after Sept 11th. I’m sure you can accept that tensions were high and some stupid things were said and printed.

            And later retracted and apologised for and the journalist fired when cooler heads prevailed.

    2. Micko

      I’ve never heard of the National Review before.

      But, did ya read that entire Wiki page?

      They are conservative – not far right.

      They seem pretty alright actually…

      From their inception (according to the wiki) the founder wanted to exclude segregationists, far-right nutters, anti-semites, communists etc from the conservative narrative.

      The even published pro and anti Trump pieces – giving a voice to both sides in the States.

      IMO we need both conservative and liberals – just not the far branches of either.

      I’d be far more concerned that Jeff Bezos literally owns The Washington Post.

    3. JEH

      Just because it’s American and conservative doesn’t automatically mean it’s wrong though.

      If they published an article today called “It’s 2021” you wouldn’t reply with “ah, National Review is an American semi-monthly conservative editorial magazine”

      1. dav

        Well I would hope the title would be a bit better than “it’s 2021” but if the article is another right wing load of crap with such gems as
        “Resistance to lockdown is associated with Donald Trump, or troglodyte Tory backbenchers. Ireland self-image is more enlightened and progressive than that. The Royal Irish College of Physicians made Dr. Anthony Fauci an honorary fellow this March. He proceeded to warn them against getting too frisky too soon. Pat on the head received: Good boy!”
        I would look to explain the source of such tripe..

        1. Daisy Chainsaw

          If it’s a snide anti lockdown peice, Bodger doesn’t care where it comes from. “The enemy of my enemy…” etc

  4. K. Cavan

    In mid-January, with the Flu Season causing massive numbers of people to think they had Covid & our highly-paid, sorry, highly-trained Frontline Workers on the Frontline unable to tell the difference, we hit the absolute peak of alleged Covid victims occupying hospital bed occupancy, on the Frontline. Was it 75%, 50%, 90% even? No, it was 17%, yes, our hospitals on the Frontline & the Frontline workers or staff, maybe, is a better description, had to cope with all the cancelled appointments with only 83% of their normal Frontline capacity. What a Pandemic we’ve had. It’s a pity the Deadly Cold didn’t arrive in 1981, when we had 41% more beds, then we could’ve had a lot more empty hospital beds. Still, I think you’ll all agree, when you’re finished bitch-slapping each other, that these facts & figures are Far-Right but they do justify destroying the economy, society & judging by these comments, people’s mental health. Destroying the economy is easy peasy for the FFFG Coalition, as they’ve proved, repeatedly but the rest took real determination. And a huge pile of Goodboyism. Hah! knew I could bring it back on-message.

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