Terry Prone: Ireland's 'greatest generation' have suffered greatly in the pandemic

Irish men and Irish women in their late 60s and 70s have been patronised by cocooning and genericised by the apparently kindly word 'vulnerable', writes Terry Prone

Older people have become the disappeared and now see a vaccine as a passport, not just to the hugging of grandchildren, but to the resumption of full citizenship.

When you’re a crisis manager, the first thing is your phone alerting you to a problem. Second, it starts ringing with “have you heard?” calls. Thirdly, the texts start to come in from those directly involved in the crisis, whatever that crisis is. The sequence is immutable.

The texts and emails from those in the maelstrom tend to start the same way. Just as messages from publicists tend to start with an utterly spurious hope that you’re keeping well, the messages from those involved in an emerging stinker story tend to begin with this formula: “I’m sorry,” they say, “I never seem to contact you except in a crisis.”