Noel Baker: They gathered as if it would make Covid go away
People attending the anti-lockdown protest rally on St Patrick's Street in Cork city centre on Saturday afternoon. Picture: Larry Cummins
One byproduct of Saturday's anti-lockdown event in Cork city was that Van Morrison might have gained a few fans. Even the notoriously grumpy singer might raise a smile at that.
Van's 'As I Walked Out', from his critically panned new album, was played over a tinny speaker as the organisers from a group called the People's Convention set up outside Brown Thomas, the crowd expectant and building, despite having been urged to stay away.
Music is a subjective business, but you can never judge an act by its fans.
In a way, the same applies to this event. Some people were there to vent, many wanted hope, plenty were at the end of their tether. It was not typified by one person.
This was reflected in the words of the second speaker, Peter O'Donoghue.
He told the crowd, which gardaí estimated reached more than 450 people, that he was "not a quack", that he was not affiliated to far-right or far-left.
It was he who told people in no uncertain terms that anyone who came with a view to causing trouble should pack up and go home. It drew applause.
He referred to some of his own neighbours who had said he was stupid, selfish and foolish to attend, and they had told him to "cop on".
He came anyway, making sure to note his respect for the gardaí, but placing everything — including the public health advice not to gather — behind the right to freely gather, something he said was a Constitutional right.
He spoke about the "slippery slope to authoritarianism".
The right to protest is central to the creation of this state.
It was hardly a surprise that some people at the event were, literally, wrapped in a tricolour.
One woman carried a small sign declaring 'Irish Lives Matter'.
But the coronavirus, and more particularly its new, ultra-transmissible variants, don't really care about our Constitution, or our right to free assembly, or nationalities or political stripes.
That's why it was easy to sympathise with many of the arguments made by people who genuinely feel like they can't take much more of this, and yet still be struck by the dissonance on display.
One woman held a sign stating 'Pay the student nurses'. That's a laudable aim, one everyone can get on board with.
Spokesman Diarmaid Ó Cadhla also mentioned the respect for frontline care workers.
But as we know, frontline health staff have accounted for a substantial number of positive Covid cases since the pandemic began.
What if an outbreak arises from this very gathering, and Cork's Covid-19 numbers — currently the lowest incidence rate in the country — rise as a result?
How is that repaying those same nurses, when their own lives would then be at greater risk?
Afterwards, Dr Ronan Boland, GP and former President of the IMO, tweeted: "Anyone attending (let alone organising) such an event has no respect for frontline healthcare workers. Period."
It's that view, rather than platitudes from the street, that is likely to chime with doctors and nurses around the country.
Mr Ó Cadhla and Mr O'Donoghue spoke about the rising unemployment rates, the businesses going bust, the strain on mental health, the lonely deaths as people have passed away in isolation.
But then she spoke about "manipulation of the figures from the outset".
Another speaker, Paddy Bullman, from east Cork, said "the only thing they wanted to stop you spreading was the truth".
But the truth — the deadening, dull truth, the one we're sick of hearing every day — is that until enough people get vaccinated, until science and medicine find a way, Covid-19 is a very real risk to everyone.
Contracting it is a lottery, for you and your children.
That might sound like "scaremongering", a word heard often on Saturday, but this third wave has almost certainly been the one where we have all known someone who has contracted it.
And unquestionably, the strain of repeated lockdown is taking a toll, on young people, on families.
The pandemic has highlighted the gaps and tiers in society — those who can work from home, and those who can't; those whose jobs are secure, and those now out of work; those who, remarkably, may be able to save money during the course of this, and those whose finances have taken a battering.
We're in the midst of a pandemic where sadly there are no easy answers, no silver bullets, just hopes that vaccines will resolve this mess and let us get back to living the lives we want.
Before the demonstration got underway, sisters Katrina and Pamela Mackey stood outside Fitzgerald's menswear holding signs asking for a better strategy and demands for better.
But read the small print: our ICU bed capacity is "one of the lowest in Europe", so how does potentially adding to that tally help us out of this situation?
The sisters have graced the red of Cork with distinction while representing Cork at camogie.
They're respected people.
When they spoke, politely, to the media before the event began, they were emotional.
They have had enough. They want to go back to training, to living. Don't we all?
In this increasingly broad church, they were part of a crowd in which others were holding signs that said 'speak the truth, shame the devil', and where a man's homemade placard declared 'Fine Gael say you can't be anti-mask, vaccine or science, however, your uncle can be your aunty open the country and stop the nonsense'.
Some wore masks, some did not.
Some listened intently and said things needed to change.
Others channelled their rage and paranoia, sneering at mask choices, shouting "get rid of the fake news media", filming everyone, being filmed.
They gathered, as if the act of gathering would make all this go away, either by force of will, or numbers, or magic.
But it clearly isn't going to make Covid go away.
The inconvenient truth is that gatherings, like this one, risk pushing us back.
So Van may well add a few new fans attracted by the subject matter of his new album.
But as the vast majority of a weary people still hold the line, however painfully and reluctantly, maybe he'll lose a few as well.
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