President pays tribute to frontline workers in St Brigid's address

President Michael D Higgins. File picture: RollingNews.ie

President Michael D Higgins has paid tribute to frontline workers for their work during the pandemic.

In an address to mark St Brigid’s Day on Monday, President Higgins said future generations will be grateful for the workers and their efforts.

“As we celebrate the courage and commitment of St Brigid in her day, we in our day pay tribute to all of those who, in their different ways, continue to put their lives at risk as they continue their important work, for the benefit of all of us, their fellow citizens,” President Higgins said.

“Future generations will recall, I am sure, and feel grateful for, the enormous debt of gratitude we owe to all those workers who have responded to the pandemic with such courage, 'misneach', such care, 'cúram', and with a spirit of solidarity, 'dlúthpháirtíocht'.

“As we prepare to move into the brighter, warmer days of Spring, with the renewed hope that it brings, the reality of the present, the present we share, is that the winter of the Covid pandemic is still upon us, and continues".

He said the pandemic "will continue to challenge us for some time, and while lockdown fatigue is very real and palpable for so many, we must continue our journey within and muster up courage.

“Moving through such moments of darkness, it is important to celebrate the light that comes from our common determination to see out the challenge. Just as the seasons change, this crisis, too, will pass.”

On Saturday, the Chief Medical Officer confirmed that the country had seen more new Covid-19 cases this month than in all of 2020.

The grim milestones were reached as officials from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) reported 79 further deaths and 1,414 new cases of the virus last night. 

President Higgins also reflected on those who have died since the pandemic began and also acknowledging the loneliness and isolation people have felt in recent months.

“Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, thousands of people have lost their lives to the virus. Many of those they left were without the intimacy of their passing or the opportunity to grieve as they would wish,” he said.

“Countless people too have seen their lives radically altered, their livelihoods curtailed and the social bonds, from which they drew comfort and joy, ruptured.

“It is appropriate that we all pause to acknowledge the distress of all those for whom the pandemic has brought such pain and loss, and all those who are now experiencing loneliness and isolation from the contacts with those who previously sustained them.

"Just as the seasons change, this crisis, too, will pass," said President Higgins in his St Brigid’s Day address. Flie picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

“We must all recognise, that while the justified and necessary measures to protect public health, and to which we must give an ever greater effort, it is equally important to be sensitive to the undeniable fact that they have had a profound impact on so many, and for some more than others.” 

Hailing St Brigid, President Higgins highlighted who Irish women have benefited from the saint’s “inspiration and legacy”.

He said: “St Brigid was a woman who rejected the conventions of her time, who dedicated herself to innovation in the realm of education, and who, in seeking to ensure that her voice was heard in a male-dominated world, had to summon an extraordinary courage, transcend obstacles, and not just survive but put a new version of things in place.

“How appropriate, then, our invoking her is for our present circumstances.

“Generations of Irish women have benefited from her inspiration and legacy.” 

The President added that “as we recall her story with admiration, may we also resolve to seek inspiration in her example, to pursue our ideal of equality, universal respect for rights, and a better world for all our citizens, male and female.”