Steering clear of the fear factor in troubled times

Country Living with Francis Farragher

It is probably something of an understatement to say that these are very strange times indeed and the other day as I walked down Shop Street in Galway city around 3pm, workmen diligently attended to their duties in their ongoing upgrade works . . . with barely an onlooker in sight.

The greatly reduced pedestrian channel at a normally very busy time of the day should have meant bodies brushing up against each other, but apart from myself and a well-wrapped-up elderly lady, there was no one else about.

At times, you feel like pinching yourself and saying: is this really happening? – but alas it is and seems likely to stay with us for the coming couple of months at least, so it’s a case of making the best of it and adjusting to a change of habits.

For those of us who like a ‘pint of plain’ there does tend to be a gap in the normal evening/night schedule but, weather permitting, the previously unattractive prospect of a walk or cycle in the evening does tend to pass a chunk of time, as well as warming the body up.

Like most of the rest of the population, I’ve never before washed my hands as often, and as thoroughly, but after leaving a bathroom the handwash can seem something of a pointless exercise when a potentially germ laden door handle has to be negotiated.

Strange little idiosyncrasies also seem to be slipping into my lifestyle like holding my breath for at least 20 seconds when passing a stranger on the street and looking anxiously around a room to identify the source of a sneeze, a nose blow or a cough.

It’s like living in the land of eternal suspicion, not knowing where the enemy might be lurking – could it be your friend, a family member, a person down the road or that shopper leaning in close to you as a tin of beans is secured from a supermarket shelf.

We, of course, all have to keep going, be careful and sensible, and listen to realistic, well-sourced advice but I now find myself imposing a measure of self-censorship in terms of the coronavirus news that I allow my mind to absorb.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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