Irish Examiner View: A concerted response can defeat virus

It’s taken almost 40 years but Conor Cruise O’Brien’s 1982 phrase — GUBU — has at long last been found wanting. The phrase, shorthand for grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented, can hardly adequately describe yesterday’s announcement that from six o’clock yesterday Ireland is in lock-down to try to contain the coroanvirus pandemic.

The closures are an unprecedented call for community-wide solidarity, concerted, deliberate and, if needs be, forceful action to ensure that every opportunity to beat this wretched, easily spread virus is maximised as soon as is possible.