Irish Examiner view: Good news, but don’t go wild

Fighting the pandemic

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said "hope is returning" as he thanked the public for their "hard work and sacrifices".

In the old God’s time, there was a kind of Irish mammy, now on the Red List, if not already extinct, who could offer the sternest warning in the gentlest way. ‘Don’t go wild’ was their stock-in-trade order to children of all ages undertaking any new adventure. Everything, from a first disco to going to an auction to try to buy a house, was addressed with that call for grounded common sense. This seems an apt moment to remember and apply it.

The Cabinet approved a longed-for easing of many pandemic restrictions from May 10. Travel outside your county, larger outdoor meet-ups, hairdressing, sports training, and religious services will again be part of our lives. Ministers sanctioned the faster-than-expected lifting of curbs approved by a Cabinet subcommittee on Wednesday night. That decision must have been informed by the consequences of the premature relaxation to allow a ‘normal Christmas’.