Ageing in the pandemic: 'I feel I lost two years, and it’s difficult to make up for those years'

Now that Covid-19 restrictions are being dropped, we asked older people, and those working with them, to reflect on how they navigated through the last 22 months

'We had a lovely meal on a Saturday night, and the next morning we were told we couldn’t leave our room.' Bill Roe recounts the dramatic beginning of Covid restrictions while on holiday with his girlfriend in Tenerife in March 2020. Picture: Moya Nolan

Nelson Mandela once said: “A society that does not value its older people denies its roots and endangers its future.” As an ageing population, we Irish would do well to heed his words.

In 2019, one in seven people on the island of Ireland was aged 65 or over. By 2051, this is due to increase to one in four. The acceleration will be most stark in the 85-plus age group. In 2019, there were 73,000 people aged 85 and above; by 2051, there will be more than 301,000 in this category.