Caroline O'Donoghue: Seven reasons why the Irish still need to talk about race
This column runs at the end of the 'upfront' section of Weekend magazine, and I try to remember that every time I sit down to write it. This page is not where people go to be lectured. I think of it like the grand foyer of a hotel, where the bellhop cordially says “we hope you enjoyed your stay” before you leave, tipping his hat after he helps you put your bags into the car. “He seems like a nice young man,” you think, and then hopefully you leave with a smile on your face and a pleasant memory of the hotel. I am the bellhop. The newspaper is the hotel. The best case scenario for this column is that you leave with a smile on your face.
This has been tricky in the last few months, when life has been so radically unpleasant, and so many of us have suffered so much. But I’ve kept at it: kept doffing my cap, kept loading the boot of the car. This has remained possible because even though the coronavirus has been hard on everyone, we have all essentially been going through it together – to a different extent, and with different privileges, but all together. It is hard to be the happy bellhop this week, when so many people who read this column will be digesting the news so differently. Too hard, I think, to even really try.
