Galway diner’s alarm clock is a wake-up call for us all

World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com

That picture from McGinn’s Hop House in Woodquay will tug at your heart strings. It’s a man with a flat cap sitting in a snug; in front of him, the remnants of a meal and a half-finished pint of Guinness. The other object in this modern-day still life is a tiny alarm clock.

Presumably it’s set at 105 minutes – that strange period of time (one hour and 45 minutes) has become standard for anyone who frequents a pub.

Our life is now measured by all these new figures and instructions: two metres, one metre; 15 minutes indoors; two kilometre restriction zones. Work from home; no non-essential journeys; wash your hands; cocoons; wear a mask; sneeze into your elbow stay in your pods.

There are other changes to our world too; this week Google announced it was not going ahead with a deal to lease a huge new office development in Dublin.

The one thing we know about the virus is that when you are outdoors you are as safe as you could possibly be.

I was listening to an interview with Dr Gabriel Scally about the return to school. He said that the school he attended on the Falls Road in Belfast was a perfect building – high ceilings and lots of big windows to circulate the air going through.

Of course that school was built at a time when another disease – tuberculosis – was rampant. Even then they knew the free passage of air and a breeze was an optimal response.

Recently too I was listening to a podcast featuring the New York Times specialist reporter on coronavirus. He was recommending that all the windows be knocked out of subway trains and buses in the city to allow air circulate freely.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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