By Eamon Quinn

Social distancing, two metres please, stay at home, save lives, the past four months of our lives and possibly a few more to come has been nothing short of a living nightmare for every citizen of our tiny little country and the year 2020 will be remembered for only one thing ‘Covid 19’.

When we grow old hopefully, we will tell the grandchildren about the Lockdown of our tiny nation and what effect it had on everyday life, I have heard so many different opinions, its like a war, its like something in a film etc but the truth is nobody really knows what this virus is that has crippled the world and it could take a lifetime before anyone really knows how this happened and why, the conspiracy theories will fly, the pointing of the fingers will continue to be pointed however it is how we react over the next few months which is critical in my opinion.

As I sit here typing this, I have just checked that 1650 people have so far lost their lives to Covid -19 and our deepest sympathies must go to all the grieving families who have lost loved ones. Today May 2nd we have ten new cases, ten too many but it certainly tells us we are winning the battle.

However, I believe the biggest battle is just around the corner and it is now that we must prepare to start saving people. On average between our 32 counties 700 people die through suicide each year, it is not something you will read on the front of any national newspaper in fact that number is what is reported, what about the ones that go unreported because of the stigma and shame that mental health can bring to your doorstep.

In 2008 I came back as a volunteer to my local club as part of my recovery from mental health issues, I hid it for two years, avoided friends, missed friends weddings, family weddings along with numerous other events all for the same reason, shame and anxiety and that dreaded word Depression, thankfully I have learned to live with it through the support of my wife, family, friends and the GAA.

I got through the tunnel very slowly and painfully but since that I have had much more good days than bad, and my wife will totally understand this when I say the GAA brought me a big percentage of these. I lived for that league game during the week and the championship weekends, well that is what we all waited for after all those league and challenge games in the mud and the rain. And now we the need the GAA more than ever over the coming number of weeks, only today I read ex-players saying we need to start the inter county before club!

RUBBISH, the inter county must take a step to the side for the sake of peoples mental health, now is the time we need our club, our parish, our community to come together and support each other as our country slowly opens up, the national league and this years All Irelands must now be cancelled and get our clubs going first, easier said than done I understand but all you have to do is look at the statistics. Our two busiest airports Dublin and Cork of course have the two highest cases and of course logic will tell us that population would define logic here and not the closing of our airports to 5,000 Italian rugby fans to a game that had been cancelled, the movng of workers from Bulgaria to pick strawberries etc, our government has been praised for their actions but I personally would have a different opinion on that, the real heroes were our medical staff who battled this invasion on the frontline some who lost their lives and not to forget our HSE, the whole country were watching them after the cervical cancer scandal and you could argue they delivered with the odd glitch here and there most notably the old folks homes.

So as we prepare for one of the greatest depressions and recessions our tiny island will ever witness we must now depend on our neighbours and community and definitely the GAA to try bring a little normality to our lives and get our club games back up and running as a priority, even starting a club championship in September will give us 12 weeks to complete it and if we start planning now this can be achieved.

Do not depend on our government and health department to deal with this massive problem coming down the line, we need to work, help and support each other because we will need each other more than ever now and the club game will help us along the way.

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