We’re one year into the pandemic and it still feels like the Irish government is bluffing its way through the greatest health crisis to hit the globe in decades. The entire health service was underprepared — a consequence of staff shortages and cutbacks — and it’s a miracle that it didn’t completely collapse. In general, the public was unprepared for what was to come. Then again, it’s not the job of the general public to prepare for pandemics. Such work is the job of governments, leaders, and health systems and experts.
Nonetheless, many took on the challenge. We stayed at home when told to do so. Contacts were limited. Financial and emotional sacrifices were made in order to reduce the possibility of our hospitals being overwhelmed. All in all, the vast majority of people on the island did what was necessary.
Surviving lockdown
Our leaders, unfortunately, did not. It appeared to be one rule for most of us and an entirely different set of rules for others. Included in this latter group were golfing aficionados and owners of meatpacking factories. The rest of us had to suck it up. And we did.
COVID-19 is a threat. Countless lives have been lost to the virus. Many more, having contracted it and survived, will have to live with the long-term damage of the virus for years to come. For that reason ordinary people did what was necessary. For their part our leaders undermined the experts who were supposed to be in charge of leading us out of this crisis. Calls for an approach similar to the one in New Zealand were consistently shot down; an approach which could have seen the country return to a somewhat normal existence months ago.
Right now we’re headed into the third month of a third Level 5 lockdown. People are sick and tired of running on the COVID hamster wheel where progress seems to be imaginary or, at the very least, fleeting. When people are in such a vulnerable emotional state it makes them ripe for exploitation at the hands of those who have a wider agenda. It’s what allowed conspiracy theorists and far-right extremists to gather hundreds of people on the streets of Dublin over the weekend.
Still, it doesn’t justify what happened. Nor does it excuse people flouting the lockdown regulations as they see fit.
A rising anger
But the seemingly endless lockdowns have exhausted many people’s goodwill. We’ve had a year of half measures, hypocrisy, and mixed messaging from the government. So the idea that most of us will have been offered the vaccine by June seems like nothing more than a fantasy concocted by the government’s PR lackeys to minimise people’s anger. The problem is that it’s likely far too late for that.
Apart from the protest in Dublin, other evidence for this is in the form of the latest polling data. Fianna Fáil, to put it bluntly, is in free fall. It currently sits at 13% while ostensible coalition partners Fine Gael sit at a comfortable 29%. The latter’s tactic of politically backstabbing Micheal Martin at every opportunity appears to be working as public support for his party is now at the same level it was in the aftermath of the bank bailout a decade ago. An electoral thrashing likely awaits. And deservedly so.
However, this is politics. And in politics nothing is ever certain.
Fianna Fáil could, somehow, miraculously recover some ground in the coming months. At the same time, public anger is not likely to simply disappear though. The worst thing to do would be to underestimate the level of discontent out there. As the lockdown or some variation of it continues to disrupt people’s lives, the events in Dublin two days ago could seem minuscule in comparison to what’s coming.
I hope I’m wrong. I fear I’m not.