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Short Story Whalesong

The third prize winner of the RTÉ Radio Francis MacManus Short Story Competition 2014.

Whalesong, written by Barbara Leahy, is the third prize winner of the Francis MacManus Short Story Competition 2014.

This year marks the 26th anniversary of the RTÉ Radio 1 Short Story Competition, which over the years has proved to be the launching pad for many renowned Irish writers.

THE OLD MULVEY house had lain empty for years until the Russian moved in. Early one June morning, my father brought news of the arrival. ‘Thrown out of Russia for writing dirty books,’ he said. ‘A nice proposition to be landed in to us.”That house can’t be fit to live in,’ my mother said. She was stirring figures of eight into a pot of porridge. When she lifted the spoon, they dissolved.My father chewed the end of a crust as though it was a bone. ‘A summer up there and he’ll wish he was back in Siberia.’Angry bursts of steam spat from the porridge.

‘Ma, it’s burning.’

She stirred the pot again. ‘He’ll miss his own people.’

The wedding clock chimed nine. My mother’s parents had refused to come to the wedding, and sent the clock instead. My father used to joke that it was really a timer for a bomb that would explode some day and blow him to smithereens so that my mother would have go back to Northern Ireland and I’d meet my Granny and Grandad at last. It was a beautiful clock with a picture in the centre of a lion and a unicorn, and pointed golden hands. My mother was like the minute hand, slender and quick. My father was the hour, squat and slow.

He stood and stretched. After the door clattered shut behind him, my mother nodded in the direction of the Mulvey house. ‘We’ll pay a visit,’ she said. ‘Go out and see if he’s there.’

I ran into the garden. The Mulveys’ house was at the top of our hill, the only two-storey, jutting like an eye-tooth from a bank of heather. In the front porch sat the Russian, dressed in a black suit, staring out to sea.

I went back into the kitchen. ‘He’s there.’

My mother wound a towel round her hand and lifted a pan of bread out of the oven. She washed her hands and dried them on her apron. Beneath her feet, the lino was worn into a grey triangle – table to sink, sink to cooker, cooker to table. I wondered how many miles she’d walked in the kitchen.

‘Come on,’ she said, tucking the bread under one arm.

She snagged fuchsia from hedges as we walked up the hill. ‘I think I might tackle the ceilings tonight,’ she said. She’d painted every room in the house that year. ‘Your mother will collapse if she stops moving,’ my father used to say, and I pictured her spinning through the house like a gyroscope, her balance dependent on her speed.

One of the Mulvey sons had built the porch; a botched job. Salt air grated paint from the wood, and damp settled in, rotting the window frames and rusting the catches. It was roofed with clouded perspex, mossy and stained. Two wicker couches, their cushions faded yellow, and an upturned apple crate served as furniture.

The Russian rose as we approached. My mother stopped outside the glass door and held out her offering. ‘For you,’ she said, and I wondered if the Russian would understand that she couldn’t help about her accent, over being from the north, and it didn’t mean she had an opinion of herself, no matter what the women in the village said.

He was an old man, with a long thin face. His white beard sprang wild like scrub from his chin, and his hair began somewhere around his ears, straggling low to his neck. A deep cleft ran upwards from the bridge of his nose so that his forehead seemed about to split in two. He rattled the door open and stared at the tea-towel.

‘Bread,’ my mother said, unwrapping a corner.

He reached out and took the loaf, holding it at arm’s length. Steam rose from the moist linen. Slowly he brought the bread close to his face and inhaled. Then he nodded at my mother, ushered us into the porch, and disappeared into the house.

We sat on the wicker furniture. I squirmed on the damp cushions. My mother raised a finger to her lips.

The Russian’s house overlooked all others on the hill. Each garden ran down towards the village like steps of a stairs. I could see our rectangle of grass split with a line of washing, and below that, past more gardens to where the village began, the chequered row of houses and shops, blues and whites and greens and reds, and the sweep of the sea wall facing them. I could even see the crescent of sandy beach, shrinking with the tide, and the sun-bleached pier reaching out into the water. From here, the Russian could see everything.

He returned, carrying a silver urn and set it on the crate. The tea towel became a tablecloth, the bread he cut in wedges as though it was cake. When he turned a handle on the urn, a stream of black tea, flecked with leaves, ran into my mother’s cup. We ate the crumbling bread and sipped the bitter tea.

Finally, my mother set her cup down on the crate and stood up. The Russian stood too, nodded once more, and we left.

‘So thin, poor man,’ she said as we walked home. ‘I wonder would he like some broth. Or a stew.’

We visited him often after that. She brought soups and stews, cakes and bread. He held each loaf the way he had held the first, breathing in the buttermilk and soda like a diver rising to the surface, taking a long sweet breath of air. We always sat in the porch, eating the bread, moist and brown as earth, and rarely speaking.

My mother slowed to a new rhythm with the Russian, an ebb and flow of tastes and smells, signs and gestures. In return for the food, he gave her gifts of things the tide had left behind: smooth jewels of sea glass, colours muted by waves; spiralling whelk shells traced with delicate pink whorls. He showed us pictures of his home town, a great bustling port. Once he showed us a curling photograph of a woman and three little boys.

‘Three sons, all grown up,’ my mother said, as we walked home. ‘His wife died years ago.’

‘How do you know? He didn’t tell you.’ I was sullen that day. It was late August; the school holidays were nearly over. All summer I had hoped for something to happen but nothing had.

‘Not in words,’ she said.

One morning we found the Russian standing outside the porch. As we approached he lifted one arm and pointed. Down on the beach, a wreath of people circled a dark shape. ‘A lost whale,’ my mother said.

Later, I ran down the hill, my anorak puffing up with wind. I grabbed the sea wall and hoisted onto my arms. The whale was lying near the parched wooden struts of the pier. Its sleek black body was tipped to one side, so that one corner of its mouth was angled upwards, exposing deep white grooves along its throat. The tail was curled in an arc, lying like a propeller in the sand.

I skidded down the slip-way to the beach. Up close, the whale shone steel-grey and the sand around its jaws was murky with blood. Great rents scored its side, like slashes in tarpaulin.

‘Is it dead?’ someone asked.

‘If it was dead you’d know about it,’ a man said. ”Twould stink to high heaven.’

Two men in red wind-cheaters were taking measurements. They tapped rods into the sand with stones, and tied swathes of red plastic ribbon, circling the whale. ‘When the tide comes in, it will swim away,’ I said. The men never looked up, just kept tapping wooden stakes into the sand.

The whale didn’t swim away. Next day the men took more measurements, hammered more stakes. An ice-cream van and a chip van parked at the sea wall where a crowd gathered. Parents sat their children along the wall, fed them ice-cream and lemonade, and waited.

The whale still lay on its side, a slimy trail of red pulp dripping from its mouth and pooling in the sand.

One of the wind-cheater men was standing at the cordon, pouring tea from a flask.

‘What kind of whale is it?’ a boy asked.
‘A humpback. Near on forty foot.’
‘Are you going to save it?’
‘Gone beyond saving, son.’ The man flicked the dregs of his tea onto the sand.

That night I woke to hear movement in the kitchen. My mother had always been restless by night. Often, when I crept along the passageway I’d find her lifting plates from the dresser, rearranging them, then changing her mind and replacing them as they were.

‘What are you doing up,’ she said. She was sitting in an easy chair in the kitchen. The curtains were open and a glow of light shone from the Russian’s window. She opened her arms and I climbed onto her lap. ‘He writes at night,’ she told me, wrapping her arms around me. She held one fist tightly closed.

It seemed to me then that somehow the Russian was writing her thoughts, that he could hear all the unsaid things inside her. He was a lighthouse, drawing her silently through the darkness towards him, and I wanted to anchor her in the chair with me forever.

‘Ma, why are you so pally with the Russian?’

She shifted beneath me. I felt something swell, then diminish within her. Her breath ruffled my hair.

‘He reminds me of my father.’

I wanted to ask her about her father, to find out all the Russian knew, but I was afraid the words would shake her, spill her secrets like seeds, and they would take root in the gaps between us and grow into dark, undeniable truths. I wondered if the Russian was watching our house from his window, or staring out to sea, or looking down onto the beach to where the whale lay.

‘Ma, is the whale going to die?’

She took so long to answer, I thought she was sleeping. Then she kissed the top of my head. ‘He says it cries by night,’ she said. ‘Isn’t that a terrible thing, to lie alone, crying at night?’

When she fell asleep, her fingers softened, and a chunk of sea glass rattled to the floor.

That night, I dreamed of the whale bounding through the ocean, singing to its mate, while all the time a snare of sharp rocks lay waiting for it in our bay. I woke next morning in my own bed. I thought of my mother sitting all night in her easy chair, watching the light on the hill, while below on the beach the whale lay dying in the darkness.

***

The Russian died that September. Finding the porch empty one afternoon, my mother entered the house for the first time and found him lying among his books. A week later I was helping her peg clothes on the line when we smelled burning. Our eyes stung and streamed by the time we reached the bonfire on the hill. One of the Mulvey sons stood stripped to the waist in the sunshine, feeding the fire with paper. For days afterwards we could smell the Russian’s writing in our clothes.

The whale’s jaw bones were polished and put on display in the harbour. They stood in a gleaming white arc, like an enormous marble wishbone.

Up close, the bones were grey and stippled with tiny holes. When I walked underneath them, it felt as though the whale was rising up out of the earth, swallowing me whole. My fingertips dragged on their scuffed surfaces, and although my father pointed out the grooves and hollows where the whale’s blood had once flowed, it was hard to imagine that something so empty had ever really lived.

Barbara Leahy’s stories have appeared in Crannóg magazine, on the RTÉ Ten website, and in various anthologies.  She has won the Hungry Hill Short Story Competition, the Doris Gooderson Short Story Competition, the Wells Festival of Literature Short Story Competition, and the Words with Jam Shortest Story Competition.

Listen: Whalesong by Barbara Leahy read by Aonghus Óg McAnally>

Short Story: The Chamber Pot

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    Mute James Fox
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    Feb 13th 2021, 9:40 AM

    Bad news,bad news,bad news.
    Please can I have a break from it for the weekend

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:55 AM

    @James Fox: Why keep looking at news apps in the middle of a pandemic if you don’t want to know what’s happening?? I don’t want to be uninformed just because someone else does. Really wish people would stop shooting the messengers.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:09 AM

    @James Fox: of course you can have a break

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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:23 AM

    @JusticeForJoe: go to bed cover your head and don’t rise until Monday morning

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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:36 AM

    @Tony Mcgrath: Was that meant for me or the OP?

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:04 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: Is it a pandemic, though? Pandemics pass. Covid is here to stay. This is our new normal.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:19 PM

    @Brian Ó Dálaigh: Vaccines will help

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:23 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: no, they won’t. Covid is here to stay. We used to have an approach focused on protecting the health service. That’s not our approach anymore. Now it’s about mild cases, irrespective of how our health service is coping. That shift in approach means we can never, ever return to normal.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 1:11 PM

    @Brian Ó Dálaigh: Most people that are vaccinated will be protected from the worst effects of covid. Why do you just ignore that?

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    Mute aaron
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    Feb 13th 2021, 2:40 PM

    @Brian Ó Dálaigh: That is literally not true, we will be returning to normal and for one glaring reason: capital. If you think governments around the globe will accept an indefinite pause on the economy for this then you need to go to bed. The vaccines will prevent the vast majority from experiencing any symptoms that require anything more than a day in bed. Once it gets to that level normality will resume, from then it will end up like how we manage the flu with an adapted vaccine every winter season for the current covid variant that is gaining traction.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 3:04 PM

    @aaron: I suspect he’s trying to convince people that the vaccines are pointless or dangerous. The anti-vaxxers have been so (rightly) vilified, they’re ashamed to admit that they’re anti-vax now. I see no other logical explanation for this lad’s rubbish.
    Fun fact: a percentage of anti-vaxxers are just afraid of needles

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Feb 13th 2021, 3:06 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: I’m not. Most people will be vaccinated by September/October, yet government plans on maintaining restrictions until Summer 2022 at the earliest. If it were a case that restrictions would be lifted after vaccinations were completed, why would the government suggest we should maintain those restrictions beyond that point? This is not me saying this; this is our government.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Feb 13th 2021, 3:11 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: well, no, that’s just a straight out lie. I’m fully in favour of vaccines. Apart from a tiny, tiny percentage of people who *might* have some very minor side effects, the vaccines are safe and effective against the symptoms of Covid. Personally, I think governments should be bending over backwards to work in conjunction with the pharmaceutical companies to ramp up production. I’m also in favour of vaccine certification which would allow travel. I have stated my support for vaccines on numerous occasions. Here we have yet another example of you lying and targeting others with false accusations simply because I don’t 100% agree with your position. This ties in exactly with what I said on another thread – you are a hate-filled Covid supremacist.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 3:22 PM

    @Brian Ó Dálaigh: I don’t even read your ramblings anymore. You started with the vitriol before I even said anything so gfy

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    Feb 13th 2021, 3:38 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: JusticeForJoe c. 1 month ago: “I never insult anyone or call them names”. Also JusticeForJoe today: “I have already predetermined your opinion without evidence so I won’t actually read your opinion, but will instead call you an anti-vaxxer Covidiot.” You’re the wоrst kind of hypоcrite – the type that doesn’t even know you are one and belittles everyone around you.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 5:03 PM

    @Brian Ó Dálaigh: I’ve seen your opinions. I know what camps you’re in and I don’t need to hear anything else from you when there are sane and reasonable people around to hear from instead.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Feb 13th 2021, 6:14 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: you obviously don’t know what camp I’m in. You say I’m an anti-vaxxer. That’s an outright lie. You insinuated I was a Trump supporter. That is another lie, as I cannot stand him. You claimed before that I support fully opening society. Yet another lie, as I support restrictions. Everything you claimed about me was a lie. You are neither sane nor reasonable. You bully those with mental health issues. You insult those who do not agree 100% with you. If anyone asks a question you label them as idiоts. Yоu are an extrеmist a supremаcist and a liаr. In your view there are only camps: supporters of a complete lockdown of society and ignore those who are struggling; or, those who are completely anti-lockdown, anti-mask, anti-vax and anti-science. For you, there is no inbetween.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:02 AM

    So in other words, the lockdowns are not going to work. Continuing lockdowns for something that is not going to go away is going to decimate this country. There will be nothing left. Nothing to stay here for. If other countries have managed to open up and managed to get back to.normality there will be an exodus again from this place. Well those if us that are left to exodus that is. Be it from covid or other means. Humanity is the survival of the fittest. Alas there is nothing we can do about this. The virus will continue to mutate by it’s very nature. Do you think its possible to develop and manufacture that quantity of vaccine every year??

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    Mute Laura Walsh
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:20 AM

    @Iblis: lockdowns were never meant to be a longterm plan. They are a delay tactic for governments to get their health service and facilities in order. Ireland is currently paying the price for several years of mismanagement of the health budget and funds.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:31 AM

    @Laura Walsh: agreed Laura. I don’t think there is enough character space here to outline the mismanagement. When the Philippines start keeping their nurses due to their own issues and the nurses here that have been working tirelessly to help us all aren’t been paid, decide to throw in the towel… Let’s just say all of our issues will be exasperated. I really think we will see a new type of exodus here in the coming years. I have a great, well paying job. Beautiful house and all the toys I could want. Problem is they are all in a country which will have nothing to enjoy in it within 5 years if we stay the current course. I really do love this country but I fear it will be back in the 80′s if we don’t open back up soon.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:45 AM

    @Iblis: Agreed, or we’ll be back in the 50s

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    Mute Claude Saulnier
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:45 AM

    @Laura Walsh: yes, but have they even started to adjust? And at that stage I think it’s hard to see any end of lockdown.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:47 AM

    @Anita OGalligan: I was hoping at least with the 80′s we would have decent music again Anita. Always the optimist.

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    Mute Bert Carolan
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:59 AM

    @Iblis: Humanity is the survival of the fittest? Is that what defines us? I would have thought humanity is defined by how the vulnerable are protected.

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    Mute WJH
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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:17 AM

    @Laura Walsh: Several years! Decades more like.. we have an antiquated health service that is struggling to adapt to the modern world.

    We are pumping billions a year into the health service, its like a bottomless pit. It was mentioned recently the vaccine data was still been documented with pen and paper!

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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:20 AM

    @WJH: You would be surprised/horrified at what is still documented with pen and paper in the health service.

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    Mute Laura Walsh
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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:27 AM

    @Bert Carolan: that’s a nice theory and the way the world should be yes, but I think that humanity has been survival of the richest for a long time.

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    Mute Vanessa
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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:07 PM

    @Laura Walsh: The first lockdown was promoted that way but they pretty much revealed that they want to use rolling lockdowns to battle the crisis. It’s sadly the only plan we have.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:08 PM

    @Bert Carolan: humanity speaks of protecting the vulnerable from one corner of their mouth while supporting a political and economic structure which kills millions, enslaves children, keeps 100s millions in poverty and decimates ecological systems. Protecting the vulnerable is a catchphrase that’s nice to hear, but it has never been true.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:14 PM

    @Laura Walsh: Covid should and could have been one time where this was not the case, where all countries and companies would forget about profit and respond. I was niave I suppose but I have to believe that mankind can rise above short term profit. Otherwise my children will have an ugly future.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:20 PM

    @Bert Carolan: mankind will never rise above short term profit. It has never done so in the past, it doesn’t do so now, and it never will.

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    Mute Eamonn Martin
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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:40 PM

    @Brian Ó Dálaigh: Well said Brian, protecting the vulnerable, all in this together, another few weeks. Whatever the slogan of the day happens to be, it’s just soundbites. The real shame here is that most can’t see the shambles that’s unfolding.
    As the soap opera unfolds, I’m wondering what excuses or blame game will the govt be playing in another year or so.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:51 PM

    @Brian Ó Dálaigh: Then we’re doomed as a species. Ah no, I still have faith despite all.

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    Mute Patrick FitzGerald
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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:52 PM

    @Laura Walsh: Several years? At least two decades unfortunately. What truly beggars belief at least in my mind is that everyone seems to forget about our current Taoiseach being the minister for health in the early 2000s when the trolley crisis began in earnest. He presided over the beginning of the crisis and did absolutely nothing to resolve it, and that chronic mismanagement of the health service is ultimately the same mismanagement that has led it into such severe inadequacy today.

    I honestly can’t fathom how this isn’t brought up more often. He was the de facto Táiniste in the coalition-that-wasn’t-a-coalition prior to this government taking office last year and he regularly lambasted Simon Harris for his appalling management of the health service – the lack of self awareness was staggering, it was like watching Father Dougal call Cyril McDuff an eejit every time the two of them locked horns over the issue.

    In other words, the man whose government previously sowed the seeds of the health service crisis while he was the responsible minister, spent the next decade in opposition criticising his successor for continuing the same disastrous policy chain he initially set in motion, and is now the leader of the entire country – during an unprecedented international public health emergency.

    The writers of House of Cards, Yes Minister or The Thick Of It would struggle to sell as outrageously far-fetched a storyline for their respective TV series’ without losing the audience over the suspension of disbelief. It’s incredible. And it’s almost never brought up in current discourse which I just find absolutely bizarre.

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    Mute janet
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    Feb 13th 2021, 2:41 PM

    @Iblis: with over 70s not vaccinated until the end of may, yes we’ll be back in the 1950s

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    Mute Trev heff
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    Feb 13th 2021, 9:52 AM

    I am sick of this.

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    Mute Brendan Cooney
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:02 AM

    @Trev heff: not anywhere as sick as the people who are ill with it.

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    Mute Jim Lingk
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:12 AM

    @Brendan Cooney: but sicker that the people who have it and are not ill with it.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:14 AM

    @Jim Lingk: sicker than

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:01 AM

    @Jim Lingk: Isn’t that great for them? Or are you saying they’re the ones that we should all be more concerned about?

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:12 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: you’re actually not concerned about them. You have simply found a platform you can corrupt to mistreat others and voice your supremacy. The style and language you take, combined with your choices of words, all prove that you don’t care about others; you just want to be “better than them.” This pandemic created the perfect set of circumstances for you to bully, denigrate and insult people you deem unworthy.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:20 PM

    @Brian Ó Dálaigh: Ok Brian

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    Mute Joe Moore
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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:21 PM

    @Brian Ó Dálaigh: Well said Brian, I completely agree.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:54 PM

    @Joe Moore: There’s a surprise. Pair of covidiots agree with each other

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    Mute Frances Casey
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    Feb 13th 2021, 1:01 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: Then you lower yourself even further by name calling!!

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    Feb 13th 2021, 1:14 PM

    @Frances Casey: Like these lads are gonna listen to reason. I have nothing to lose or gain here and couldn’t care less what these people think of me.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 1:16 PM

    @Frances Casey: Did anyone even refer to anything I actually said? No. Brian just came out with fists swinging because he clearly has his opinion set already. I’m glad the covidiots hate me. It reassures me.

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    Mute Jim Lingk
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    Feb 13th 2021, 1:17 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: yes it is great for them. It is often forgotten and rarely mentioned that vast majority of people who get Covid also recover from Covid, and plenty of people have Covid and are never ill with Covid.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 13th 2021, 1:18 PM

    @Jim Lingk: It’s never forgotten and it’s always mentioned! The numbers are all on the covid app! Why the hell do you people keep lying this and thinking you’re taking some sort of moral high ground. It’d be laughable if it wasn’t so despicable.

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    Mute Vanessa
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    Feb 13th 2021, 1:19 PM

    @Brian Ó Dálaigh: Well said. His further reactions are proofinyou right.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 13th 2021, 1:44 PM

    @Vanessa: No they don’t. They reassert what I’ve always been saying myself, which is why Brian and his ilk hate me. I have nothing but disdain and utter contempt for covidiots and Trump fans. The ones who are both hate me twice as much.
    I have no problem with anyone else at all. I actually get along very well with most people. Just not on these articles. That’s ok with me.

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    Mute Ainm
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    Feb 13th 2021, 2:12 PM

    @Brendan Cooney: only a small proportion of people who have it actually get seriously ill.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Feb 13th 2021, 3:21 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: To prove my point, you just used derogatory language simply because I don’t lick your boots. I’m fully aware of how dangerous the virus is. What I don’t agree with is governments imposing restrictions while not adhering to them themselves. I don’t agree with bowing down to JusticeForJoe-style populism. I don’t agree with slashing mental health services when they are needed most. I don’t agree with using insults because someone does not agree. I don’t believe in separating families. I do believe non-essential sun holidays should not happen. I do agree large gatherings should not happen. I do agree with masks, distancing, hygiene and vaccines. So, what exactly is your definition of a Covidiot? Because it sounds like anyone who doesn’t 100% agree with you.

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    Mute Jim Lingk
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    Feb 13th 2021, 3:25 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: it is not mentioned in this article. It is not mentioned in most articles in the media.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Feb 13th 2021, 3:49 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: for the record, I don’t support Trump and I don’t hate you. I just wish people like you had a bit of empathy for those struggling right now. Your commentary – including use of derogatory language at nearly every turn – shows signs of a sociopath. You’re highly focused and blinkered and anyone or anything that slightly goes against your opinions are bulldozed to the side to be sneered at and mocked. You show no understanding of how human psychology works when trying to get people on board. Understanding nuance and long term implications are also absent in your thinking. That’s not to say you don’t have those qualities; it’s just that right now, for whatever reason known only to you, you choose not to care about others.

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    Mute Vanessa
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    Feb 13th 2021, 3:59 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: They don’t hate you. He called out your behaviour. Your claims are without any foundation. If article turning you like that stay away from them until you can reflect on that.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Feb 13th 2021, 6:39 PM

    @JusticeForJoe: further, Joe Moore and I are not in the same camp; I do not share many of Joe’s opinions regarding Covid. The difference is that Joe and I can have an actual honest and civil debate, questioning and answering each other. You can’t. The second anyone brings up a question or utters even a slight difference of opinion, you call them a Covidiot and openly question their intelligence without ever even engaging the point. Yes, I came out fists flying today; but only because for several months you have been attacking me and I’ve had enough of your slander, bile and lies. The worst part is that you don’t even seem to realise that you attack almost everyone around you – that is another classic symptom of a sociopath.

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    Mute artur filip
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:34 AM

    I hope that doesn’t mean we are going to be locked in forever. Hopefully this the last lockdown. I have been living in Ireland for several years and I must say people changed.
    Irish people used to be more easy going but since that pandemic started people changed a lot. There is so many bad things. I am reading comments here and people getting really upset so easy. For example all that issues with traveling and penalties for breaking the rules. At beginning people were saying 100e is not enough should be 500e week later no 5000 etc.
    Than some people were saying no should be prison sentence. I think if someone going away and coming back to Ireland negative PCR test should be ok plus maybe 5 days quarantine in hotel and repeat test after 5 days just to make sure but putting people in hotel for 14 days doesn’t make sens unless government want help hospitality industry this way.
    Another thing I have noticed anyone with some uncertainty about vaccine is marked as tin foil hat or Gemma supporter.
    Covid is not the same like flu there is no doubt people dying in my wife’s nursing home over 20 people died due the outbreak.
    Myself and my family we all got infected I still have a lot issues and I am not sure if they ever go away. I just wondering if people are going to change back I think this pandemic has permanently changed some people mentally.
    I am really concerned about my daughter’s if they will able to live in such World. I hope my comment haven’t offended anyone is just my humble opinion.

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    Mute Frances Casey
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:56 AM

    @artur filip: Every thing you said is completely true. It shouldn’t offend anyone but it should make people take a long hard look at themselves. The vitriol in a lot of comments here at times is horrendous. Everybody blaming everyone else. If anyone dares query lockdowns, vaccines etc they are pounced upon immediately as conspiracy theorists or worse. The nature of this country has changed dramatically in the last year and definitely not for the best.

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:19 AM

    @artur filip: It’s certainly having a devastating effect in a huge number of ways. It’s happening the world over, though. I don’t think we’re all that unique. I really wish you the very best with your recovery.

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    Mute Tom kenny
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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:39 AM

    @artur filip: comment of the day

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    Mute NotMyIreland
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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:40 AM

    @artur filip: I think its the pandemic coupled with social media and using it to fill the time. I’d hope that maybe as life returns to normal the majority won’t have the time to get outraged about the small things anymore. When your living as restricted as we are now people look to social media to fill the gap in their lives and give them a sense of purpose. Once the busy “rat race” of everyday life resumes hopefully we will only be left with the extremists still spreading such vitriol.

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    Mute Joe Moore
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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:44 AM

    @artur filip: People are just under a lot of stress and their true nature gets tossed aside in the mayhem. Things will change back and things will be really good again.

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    Mute Vanessa
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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:10 PM

    @Joe Moore: The article is stating that it us assumed that it stays

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    Mute Joe Moore
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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:28 PM

    @Vanessa: I know, but with vaccine rollout now and summer coming things should be coming back to semblence of normality. There will still be restrictions for quite some time but it will be an endemic disease that we will just have to live with. Just like all the other ones we lived with before Covid.

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    Mute Vanessa
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    Feb 13th 2021, 3:54 PM

    @Joe Moore: We can only hope

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    Mute Conor Kiely
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:44 AM

    Please amend the article to make it accurate. 2.7M people died “with” covid. Not “from” covid.
    While tragically the number of deaths with covid this winter in Ireland is significant, it may be reassuring for those who are worried that overall mortality this winter is below average for Ireland. In fact November and December show the lowest sustained average mortality for many years. Source: https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/
    This is clearly a deadly virus when out of control – but this winter is having nowhere the impact on overall mortality here in Ireland than it did during the first wave.

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    Mute Joe Moore
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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:50 AM

    @Conor Kiely: Why do you think Ireland is no excess deaths while England is extraordinarily high excess and then Scotland is high excess ? Strange don’t you think ?

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    Mute Joe Moore
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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:51 AM

    @Conor Kiely: Sorry Wales too are no excess

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    Mute Conor Kiely
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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:36 PM

    @Joe Moore: Simply because we are doing a better job at supressing the spread of the virus than England are right now. While the numbers of cases and deaths last April and this January in Ireland look comparable on the graphs – they are not as we are doing 5 times as much testing now as we were then. We pick up a lot of weak positives where the virus is present but people are asymptomatic and do not have the disease. This applies to both case numbers and death numbers. Testing protocols vary across countries and test-kit manufacturers, and the UK’s are different to ours so the covid numbers are not very comparable across countries. January’s spike here was significant – but effectively suppressed by the extent of our lockdown and adherence to same.

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    Feb 13th 2021, 1:00 PM

    @Conor Kiely: ok thanks for the reply, appreciate it.

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Feb 13th 2021, 1:52 PM

    @Conor Kiely: This is Misinformed nonsense, it has been corrected multiple times but keeps popping up.

    Ireland and most other countries (Russia was an exception, requiring an autopsy which suppresses their true death toll) record deaths from / caused by COVID-19 based on Death Certificates, that list a cause of death i.e. “the underlying causes of death”.

    The underlying cause of death and subsequent sequence of conditions / diseases that lead to a death is listed a death certificate in sequence e.g.

    Covid-19 -> viral pneumonia -> Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome -> Death

    A death certificate is filled out by a doctor who treated the patient. The guidenace is provided by the WHO, which most government agencies follow. The international standards allows countries to be compared:

    “A death due to COVID-19 is defined for surveillance purposes as a death resulting from a clinically compatible illness, in a probable or confirmed COVID-19 case, unless there is a clear alternative cause of death that cannot be related to COVID disease (e.g. trauma).”

    Notice the guidance says “due to” i.e. from, caused by, the result of. The guidelines also say…

    “There should be no period of complete recovery from COVID-19 between illness and death. A death due to COVID-19 may not be attributed to another disease (e.g. cancer) and should be counted independently of pre-existing conditions that are suspected of triggering a severe course of COVID-19″

    In Ireland, if a death is subsequently found not to be from COVID-19 a denotification will be issued and a death incorrectly assigned will be removed.

    I noticed 4 denotification were issued last week.

    Your confusion is probably due the UK’s policy of recoding all deaths within 28 days of a positive test as a Covid-19 death. This is unique to the UK, as far as I know. However, they also have a second list based on Death Certificates, which follows WHO guidance. This is maintained by the Office of National Statistics. Deaths from COVID-19 are similar to the stats for deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

    References:

    https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/in/vs/informationnoteontheimplicationsofcovid-19ontheprocessingofdeathcertificates/

    https://www.who.int/classifications/icd/Guidelines_Cause_of_Death_COVID-19.pdf

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Feb 13th 2021, 2:21 PM

    @Conor Kiely: “We pick up a lot of weak positives where the virus is present but people are asymptomatic and do not have the disease.”

    Testing asymptomatic cases and close contacts was suspended between December 31 and January 29. During this time we only tested cases that had symptoms. So the big increase in infections in January wasn’t due to testing mild or asymptomatic cases (weak positives).

    Also, did we see a big jump in infections after we resumed testing close contacts on Jan 29th? No, we did not.

    This shows that testing close contacts (some of whom are weak positive) doesn’t contribute much to the number of infections detected, maybe 10%-20%. At least small enough that it wasn’t noticed when resumed testing close contacts.

    Also, a weak positive test in a person who is a close contact may be due to them getting tested within their incubation period, before they fall ill with symptoms. That’s the point of contact tracing, finding people before they fall ill and infect others.

    In that case they are presymptomatic, not asymptomatic. About 25% of cases remain fully asymptomatic, never experienced symptoms. Asymptomatic cases are likely capable of infecting others, but the rate they do so is unknown but at a likely a fraction of the rate a person who has symptoms. But the risk is there.

    https://www.thejournal.ie/close-contact-testing-5337288-Jan2021/

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Feb 13th 2021, 3:11 PM

    @Cono Kiely: “In fact November and December show the lowest sustained average mortality for many years.”

    This is also highly misleading.

    Euromono data ends in December. But we experienced, so far, 1,420 Covid-19 deaths in January and February. We had 138 Covid-19 deaths in November and 168 Covid-19 deaths in December. That’s why excess deaths in Dec and Nov weren’t increased.

    I really would love you to explain why you think statistics for November and December on Euromono somehow prove Covid-19 deaths in January and February didn’t happen.

    Please explain.

    In fact, RIP shows that excess deaths peaked at 50% higher than normal this January, 150 death notices were posted per day by the end of January, when the average for the time of year should have been 100 per day. In fact, the number of deaths reported in Dublin, in January, was higher than the 1st wave of the outbreak last spring.

    “Levels of posting to RIP in South Dublin (Eircodes A94, A96, D14, D18, D16) have surpassed the first wave of the #covid19 pandemic. Dublin South was the least affected region of Dublin in terms of excess mortality in the first wave:

    Dempsey, R., Parnell, A., McCarron, P. and McCarthy, G., 2021. Excess Mortality in Dublin during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Using RIP as a geographical source. Irish Geography, 53(2), pp.163-172. http://irishgeography.ie/index.php/irishgeography/article/view/1421/1163

    https://twitter.com/ger_the_sea/status/1359111775808069633

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    Mute Conor Kiely
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    Feb 13th 2021, 3:46 PM

    @David Jordan: Now David you are drawing conclusions that I did not infer, and there are some inaccuracies in your responses. Testing of asymptomatic cases was not suspended in January, only close contacts. We did over a half a million tests in January and many were positive but asymptomatic – as would have been alluded to in the daily briefings.

    I never said statistics for November and December on Euromono somehow prove Covid-19 deaths in January and February didn’t happen. Where on earth did you get that from? Very misleading response. There have been deaths caused by covid in all these months – and also deaths where people tested positive with covid. Despite your request for me to expIain January’s deaths – I did not mention January deaths in my post at all (apart from stating that January’s spike was significant but we did a good job in suppressing it). I only said that – despite covid – our overall death rate in Nov/Dec was below average – which is quite unusual for Winter months.

    Even the HSPC’s own hub reports the total death as “includes probable and possible” and in it’s weekly reports us “Number of deaths among confirmed cases” – not “deaths from covid”.

    You’re reacting like I’m some covid denier when I’ve said this is clearly a deadly virus. I’d expect a less reactionary and more considered response. My overall point is that if overall mortality is down – people’s outlook does not need to be so negative. It’s hard enough for folks – and surely a good-news story if less people died from Oct-Dec than normally do?

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Feb 13th 2021, 5:16 PM

    @Conor Kiely: “Where on earth did you get that from?”

    From what you wote…

    “While tragically the number of deaths with covid this winter in Ireland is significant, it may be reassuring for those who are worried that overall mortality this winter is below average for Ireland.”

    No it’s not below average anymore, as there were 1420 deaths in January – February, with excess deaths posted to RIP peaking at 50% higher than the average for the time of year.

    However, I have to admit I was rash in thinking you were claiming this despite a lack of data.

    I see on Euromono, data for Ireland continues to February, but as yet the excess deaths in Jan and Feb aren’t picked up on the graph. There must be delay in reporting to Euromono. If we chech back in a few weeks, .I expectthe excess deaths to show up on the graph.

    As for the reason why non-Covid deaths were down in November and December,…

    Social distancing measures resulted in fewer non-Covid deaths due to far fewer cases of influenza and pneumonia, an ironic benift of the pandemic and the social distancing measures we imposed.

    Now thinking about it, since non-Covid deaths are down, that means the excess deaths connected to Covid-19, seen in January and February on RIP, are greater than inferred from the increase over the 5-year average. The baseline is lower, so Covid-19 deaths are somewhat higher then the 50 deaths per day initially calculated.

    “How COVID-19 is changing the cold and flu season”

    “Measures meant to tame the coronavirus pandemic are quashing influenza and most other respiratory diseases, which could have wide-ranging implications.”

    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03519-3

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    Mute Conor Kiely
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    Feb 13th 2021, 7:51 PM

    @David Jordan: there you go again David. I specifically mention November and December as having lower than average death rates but you ignore this and nitpick at my reference to “winter” by quoting January statistics, despite my referencing the January spike, and despite these 2 months (Nov/Dec) having the highest monthly reported covid death rates in the 2nd half of the year. Crikey – talk about extinguishing any little crumb of positivity ….

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    Mute kevin mc cormack
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:17 AM

    Il assume then that all the oppressive new laws pushed through will be staying also

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    Mute Rathminder
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    Feb 13th 2021, 9:56 AM

    Is it really the vaccine that has caused a drop in cases? It hasn’t been given to that many people. Or is it that we are locked down and realising that we need to take it seriously? I still see college age people clustering outdoors unmasked at take-outs, but I also see more people masking on the street.

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    Mute Kevin Hill
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:36 AM

    @Rathminder: we are the equivalent of a small town in terms of population compared with the likes of India. Their cases are plummeting even though social distancing and lockdowns are virtually impossible there. That gives me hope that previous infection in the community can give some future immunity.

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    Mute Liam Preston
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:53 AM

    Covid will remain with us like the flu remains with us. Take your yearly booster vaccine you’ll be fine.

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    Mute Sean Ryan
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    Feb 13th 2021, 9:58 AM

    We know this already surely?

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    Mute Jim Lingk
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:13 AM

    @Sean Ryan: I would have thought so too.

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    Mute Terry Cahill
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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:23 AM

    The EU experts need to shut up and hang their collective heads in shame ! How many people in Europe are dead now because they could not manage the procurement of the various vaccines or the timely rollout ?
    The UK are actively trying to persuade their last unwilling vulnerable people to please come and take the job as they want to have 15 million vaccinated by Monday ! And all we do is sit and wait.
    History will write the European effort as a Disastrous Failure.

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    Mute Seamus Mac
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    Feb 13th 2021, 12:04 PM

    @Terry Cahill: many countries have procured vaccines outside of what the eu is allocating them. Why are we not doing the same?

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    Mute Terry Cahill
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    Feb 13th 2021, 1:36 PM

    @Seamus Mac: Good question . We are told it would be chaotic and we would be at the end of the queue as a smaller country . I don’t believe that’s true . Despite any differences I think the UK would supply us with the AZ independently and we would be looked on favourably by other producers too. I just think we are slavishly following the EU’s say so while they are admitting their culpability and , of course , it would involve a lot of effort .. something there’s not much of on offer at Leinster House.

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    Mute Kim Steen Hansen
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    Feb 13th 2021, 9:45 AM

    With the vaccine role out, we should almost be at the end. At least that what I keep reading in all the comments. Looks like it will take a long while.

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    Mute Tony Humphreys
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:05 AM

    @Kim Steen Hansen: many love lockdown – that’s the problem

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    Mute Francis Mc Carthy
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:10 AM

    @Tony Humphreys: many are spreading false misinformation online- much bigger problem.

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    Mute Kim Steen Hansen
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:11 AM

    @Francis Mc Carthy: like what? I tend to agree.

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    Mute Kim Steen Hansen
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:12 AM

    @Tony Humphreys: I know, they also believe that everything will be “normal” again in only very few weeks.

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    Mute Virgil
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    Feb 13th 2021, 1:10 PM

    We’ll probably have to accept 750-1000 deaths per year from Covid, in the same way we accept the flu deaths. This has to be the last serious lockdown

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    Mute Gavin Linden
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    Feb 13th 2021, 2:31 PM

    @Virgil: unfortunately I think not. If any thing I get the impression that restrictions will be ramped up. There has been a slow quiet move recently to down play any positive outcomes the vaccines may have and that is concerning. I have been positive to now on a return to some semblance of normalcy but in reality I see nothing opening in a meaningful way this year anyway. I’d say the next great saviour to be rolled out will be based on treatments and we will be still locking down until that great hope runs out of steam. What’s after? I really don’t know.

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    Mute Ainm
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    Feb 13th 2021, 2:11 PM

    No $h1t Sherlock. Of course it’s going to remain with us. It’s time the government started planning for getting us out of this and actually living with Covid rather than rolling lockdowns. It can’t go on.

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    Mute Michael Maher
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    Feb 13th 2021, 1:51 PM

    Wonder will the winter flu ever come back?

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    Mute Paul Cunningham
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:49 AM

    Sounds like the EU is putting waving the white flag of defeat. Hugely disappointing.

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    Mute Merlin Lancelot
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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:48 AM

    They are dropping the peasants with bits of information.

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    Mute patrick o keeffe
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    Feb 13th 2021, 11:54 AM

    Jaysus Mickey Martin mightn’t even get his trip to Washington next year and that’s his last chance as Tea shock.

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    Mute Tomo
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    Feb 13th 2021, 6:44 PM

    So in other words shaming people for using public transport or walking in the Wicklow mountains is going to continue forever? And people who use aeroplanes are going to be criminals forever?

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    Mute Kevin McNally
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    Feb 13th 2021, 4:05 PM

    Please give it a rest. We’re already stuck at home for another few months at least as cases fall across Europe. There’s several vaccines all with ~90% efficacy being rolled out at pace across the world. Why the hell should it be with us indefinitely? Messages like this from people who wield power are more likely to make people give up than comply

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    Mute Jim Lingk
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    Feb 13th 2021, 8:19 PM

    @Kevin McNally: we have vaccines for ‘normal’ flus and we live with those. We need to do likewise with Covid19.

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    Mute Keth Warsaw
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    Feb 13th 2021, 10:19 AM

    Evolution of a species, in the face of an exterior force, doesn’t have to remain in a one state of reaction. That’s why we call it evolution. Hopefully we will evolve /react to the virus as a species that best suits us, as a whole.

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