Covid changed everything — let’s use it to prepare for the future

As many people as possible, from all walks of life, are asked to contribute to an evaluation and survey about covid-19, writes Nat O’Connor

Mon, 07 Jul, 2025 - 20:00

Nat O'Connor

We know what a ‘normal’ society looks like, in all its messy diversity. People’s experiences include birth, childhood, education, relationship formation, employment, housing, parenting, sickness, and disability as well as providing and receiving care.

No one person’s life path is the same as another, and yet many of us experience the same key events in life: our formative first years of life, going to school, transferring from primary to secondary school, maybe going to college, starting a relationship, getting our first job or having a child, bereavement, living with sickness or disability, and needing the care of others in older age.

Covid-19 disrupted all of it.

From January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2022, Ireland experienced profound upheaval. These were not simply public health measures – they were life-shaping experiences.

More than 120,000 children were born in the core period of the pandemic and the experience of giving birth during covid-19 lockdowns was entirely different, with a far more medicalised environment in the maternity hospitals, and far fewer interactions with family and friends to offer support or to celebrate the birth of a new child.

A key concern for the covid-19 evaluation is to understand how the lockdowns and restrictions affected people who were already marginalised or disadvantaged before the pandemic. File picture: Larry Cummins

More than 70,000 people died, of all causes, during that time. For many people, there were restricted opportunities – or no opportunities at all – to be with loved ones in their final weeks.

There were restrictions on the numbers at funerals. All of the normal process of gathering with family and friends to mourn the passing of a loved ones were disrupted by the pandemic.

The disruption was total and affected education, work, relationships, and daily life. Toddlers missed out on crucial socialisation. Teenagers were cut off from peer groups. Couples were forced apart or cooped up.

Thousands lost jobs, shifted careers, or worked in precarious conditions. Health workers, carers, teachers, retail and transport staff bore the brunt and kept the country running.

Covid-19 evaluation

The independent covid-19 evaluation is to document and try to understand the extent of the disruption and upheaval that occurred during the lockdowns. It’s about the real human experience.

We want to understand the positives as well as the trauma or scarring effect that loss or anxiety had on people living in Ireland during that period. We want to understand how people’s relationships were affected.

Some people experienced strong solidarity and shared identity due to the collective challenges. But others had much more negative experiences.

We want to understand what pandemic measures and supports affected people. What were the pros and cons of blanket restrictions, such as the “cocooning” of older people?

What new resources, if any, did people find to help them cope, such as access to outdoor facilities in their area? How was people’s mental and emotional health affected?

A key concern for the covid-19 evaluation is to understand how the lockdowns and restrictions affected people who were already marginalised or disadvantaged before the pandemic.

Social policy tells us that adverse child experiences can last a lifetime. And disadvantage can accumulate across a person’s life course.

It is extremely important for us to understand how more disadvantaged people in our society were affected by the pandemic, such as people with underlying illnesses or disabilities, or those who found it hard to make ends meet. We also want to understand the different experiences of women and men, of different age cohorts, and of minority ethnic groups.

We recently held a roundtable event with stakeholder organisations from across Irish society – education, parenting, mental health, care work, community outreach, disadvantaged and equality sectors. Their insights reinforced the need to centre the evaluation on real-life impact.

The ripple effects of the pandemic were deep and unequal.

Initial survey findings are suggesting negative impacts across education and development; civil liberty, human rights and trust; and mental health. Preliminary analysis also points towards wide-ranging difficulties for those who were already disadvantaged – a pattern well known in social policy.

We are asking the public to share their experiences – positive or negative – in our national survey, which remains open at: covid19evaluation.ie/share-your-experience

Nat O'Connor: 'We want to understand the positives as well as the trauma or scarring effect that loss or anxiety had on people living in Ireland during that period.' File picture: Tommy Clancy

We want as many people as possible to contribute. Everyone’s experience matters. Even now, years later, this is a moment to be heard.

We will also examine the decisions made at the time – how and why they were taken – and assess their impact through the lens of lived experience.

While pandemics are rare, they are not unpredictable. Experts had long warned of the risk of a novel respiratory virus going global. It is not a question of if another public health crisis will occur, but when.

The best way to honour those we lost, and those who sacrificed so much, is to learn every possible lesson from this one. We owe it to ourselves – and future generations – to act on those lessons.

Nat O’Connor is Assistant Professor of Social Policy at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, UCD and a Fellow of the UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy. He is also Senior Policy Adviser to Age Action.
For information on the covid-19 Evaluation, or to complete the public survey see covid19evaluation.ie

Limited scope of covid evaluation may not judge if key decisions were right or wrong