Frontline staff commemorate victims of Covid-19 including those they have treated

Physiotherapist Siobhan Healy; theatre porter Dave O’Donoghue; trainee GP and ICU doctor Padraic MacCarthy; ICU nurse Aine Considine: ICU doctor Patrick Seigne; Eileen Finnucane from Killarney who lost her partner Seamus to Covid in CUH; and staff nurse Mary Mcguane  at the launch of the ICU4U memorial event. Picture: Clare Keogh

Frontline staff are to undertake a Covid-19 Cycle of Remembrance carrying thousands of white roses to commemorate more than 7,000 people who have died from the virus on the island of Ireland.

Groups will cycle from towns and cities around the country to the Memorial Gardens in Dublin.

The ICU4U group includes intensive care nurses and doctors, paramedics and hospice staff from hospitals north and south of the border.

Organiser Dr Patrick Seigne, a consultant intensivist at Cork University Hospital said there has been a lot of pain during the pandemic, but it has been largely hidden from view.

“I did interact with a lot of suffering and tragedy, as did all my colleagues and the nursing staff. A lot of people never really got to say goodbye in a proper manner to their relatives,” he said.

“Visiting in hospitals is still, to a certain extent, very restricted, and people are at their most vulnerable." 

Up to Monday there were 7,317 deaths from Covid-19 recorded on the island. Dr Seigne hopes seeing so many roses together in such “an evocative location” at the War Memorial Gardens will send a strong message.

“I think it will be very powerful and very emotional to see over 7,000 roses standing together, and to think that this many people died in our small country,” he said.

The cross-border cycling group, which also includes members of the gardaí, aims to raise €150,000 for charities Alone, Breakthrough Cancer Research, Aware and Aware Northern Ireland.

Indirect effects of Covid-19

Dr Seigne said the charities were picked as they work with people suffering from indirect effects of Covid-19, including isolation for older people told to cocoon and mental health challenges generally.

He said they include a cancer charity because “cancer was very, very badly affected, lots of people had delays in their diagnosis and their management". 

Kerry woman Eileen Finucane is supporting the cycle to say thank you for care her partner Seamus O’ Connor, 59, received before he  passed away with Covid-19.

“The ICU team were incredible during Seamus’s time in Cork University Hospital and it’s so moving that they are yet again there for family members by remembering our loved ones and by raising much-needed funds for those who now need our help,” she said.

Ms Finucane urged everyone to get vaccinated.

“Tragically more than 7,000 people have lost their lives to this terrible virus and my partner was one of them,” she said.

This is the second year of the cycle, and more than half the fundraising target has been reached already with corporate support.

ICU nurse Serena O’Brien, a member of the Irish Association of Critical Care Nurses, said this was a way to remember the “wonderful people” who died.

“We’ve all unfortunately witnessed a lot of deaths because of the Covid pandemic over the past year,” she said. “And we’ve seen the toll it has had on families, especially when they couldn’t be there for their loved ones.” 

The cycle takes place on September 2 and 3, with groups starting from Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway, Sligo and Belfast. They will cycle to the Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge, Dublin.

The white roses will remain overnight and can be viewed or collected by the public the next day.

Donations can be made here or by texting ICU4U