Connacht Tribune
Close encounters of the Covid checkpoint kind
Going to the supermarket has gone from a routine exercise to an ordeal of epic proportions – but as TESS FINCH-LEES admits this week, it’s reaches new heights of pandemic panic when you get way too close at a Garda checkpoint.
For the past four weeks I’ve managed to studiously avoid going beyond two kilometres of my house. I would rather have root canal treatment – without anaesthetic – than venture further than my garden right now.
The thought of collecting the shopping conjures up traumatic childhood memories.
When I was five, there was a nun from the Sisters of (no) Mercy, who made us sit in the wicker rubbish bin if we got a maths question wrong. I spent an inordinate amount of time in that bosca bruscair, sitting atop peeled banana skins and Agnes McGinty’s congealed tissues, legs akimbo, feeling, in equal measure, mortified and petrified.
Every morning, I clung to my mother’s coat tails and begged her to let me stay at home.
I recounted this story to himself, sitting in my office wicker paper bin for dramatic effect (not the best look in an Easter Bunny onesie) but he, like the Sisters, showed no mercy. “It’s your turn to collect the shopping”.
It was indeed.
When I saw the checkpoint, I slowed and noticed there were two Gardaí standing shoulder to shoulder talking to the driver of a car coming in the opposite direction. They weren’t standing back, let alone two metres.
One of the officers gestured for me to open my window. I was so close to the other car, I could have shaken hands with the driver, so, complying with the Garda’s instruction would have exposed the two officers and both drivers to the risk of Covid-19 contagion, as well as breaching social distancing legislation.
Smiling, I reached for my Covid car kit and held up my handwritten sign asking the Garda to step back two metres. He tried, but realised there was no space to move.
Bizarrely, he then gestured for me to get out of the car, but the other vehicle and officer were still there so I shook my head and held up my sign again. He eventually went around the passenger side, which was better, but not quite two metres.
Disconbobulated, I opened my mouth and out came the jarring twang of a Donnybrook banker.
There’s only one thing worse than having a D reg car (luckily I don’t) at a lockdown check point in Galway and that’s having a Dublin accent (ill-advised in Galway, at any time) completed with a D4 inflection…at a lockdown checkpoint in Galway.
Having split my childhood between a housing estate in Santry, where Doberman Pinschers doubled up as fashion accessory and personal security, and the rest of the time tramping hay and footing turf on the grandparents’ farms in Loughrea and Charlestown respectively, it was far from D4 that I was reared.
Yet, there I was with my frazzled head saying ‘grewsareees’ (groceries) and ‘gorda’ (which is Spanish for ‘fat’ and potentially offensive).
To be fair to the Garda, he was doing his job in incredibly stressful circumstances. I have family and friends who are Gardaí, nationally, and my thoughts turned to them and their safety. They, like all our essential workers, have fears like the rest of us, but they still have to go to work every day.
They reassured me that they either stand back two metres or speak to drivers through closed windows.
They were more concerned about PPE, which was requested by the Garda Representative Association three weeks ago (a lifetime in a pandemic), for Gardaí on patrol, but distribution has allegedly been slow and haphazard.
Some officers said they had to buy their own hand sanitisers and wipes initially to clean patrol cars before and after shifts.
Even in Britain, where the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis has been shambolic and where PPE is like hen’s teeth, frontline police officers have received face masks.
The police federation of England and Wales has issued guidance recognising that social distancing cannot always be maintained, such as when apprehending criminals, presenting an infection risk to officers, the public and the health service.
Therefore, ‘face masks, gloves and hand sanitisers are the absolute basic we would expect our colleagues to be provided with in this current crisis’.
The Gardaí are fathers and mothers foregoing their children’s bedtime stories – indefinitely – so that ours can sleep soundly. They’re delivering food parcels to our vulnerable and checking in on our elderly, so that we can stay safe at home.
While we’re waiting for Charlie Flanagan to catch up with the rest of the world and protect our Gardai who, like the other emergency services, are putting their lives at risk to protect us, we can do our bit by staying home and avoiding unnecessary journeys.
Míle buíochas, a Ghárdaí Síochána. Fanaigí sábháilte.
■ Tess Finch-Lees is an international human rights journalist, who writes for the Guardian and other outlets. She is also a therapist and lecturer in ethics and discrimination. Having spent her childhood between Dublin, Galway and Mayo, she recently returned home to live in her mother’s native Galway.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
