A man I hadn’t talked to for a while phoned me on Sunday morning. What he called about has no relevance to this story, but near the end of our conversation he passed a judgement on YCBS. ‘Your articles have become very gloomy in recent times’, said Eamon. ‘I used to get many a laugh from what you wrote, but you haven’t made me laugh for a long time. Of late, you seem to be all about doom and gloom.’
Naturally, I was a little taken aback by my friend’s verdict because every hack has an inbuilt insecurity. I looked back on recent columns, and whilst Eamon may feel he has a case, the offerings are still a bit of ‘mixum-gath erum’, like they always have been. This is not to say that Eamon is wrong – and we’ll come back to his point in a moment. We touched on some serious stuff over the past few weeks.
The editor, knowing my limitations, allows me to fill this space on any topic that comes to mind. He never stipulates, comments, or changes anything I write. I would be fairly certain that at some time or other he has to defend the newspaper and make it clear that Bernie doesn’t speak for the paper! My first YCBS editor, the great Ronan O’Donoghue, gave me my brief: “Write about anything you like – but have them wondering, “what is he on about this week!’” Nothing has changed since then.
But I digress … something I am good at, so let’s rewind back to my friend’s comment on the phone.
These are gloomy times we are living through for nearly two years now. Maybe Eamon’s perception had as much to do with his own mood as with mine? I promise to give you a laugh soon, Eamon, but the papers have to reflect what is going on around us.
We hear criticism of the media for constantly talking about Covid, but that, dear readers, is the news. Reality has to be faced up to and looking the other way can only make things worse. This battle with Covid is a war: A war that mankind cannot afford to lose.
Take the last great war; the Second World War: Every day for most of the six years of fighting, the daily papers in Britain carried front-page banner headlines of the progress of the war. It was pretty similar here in Ireland – even though we were a neutral country. It would be irresponsible of any serious news outlet to suppress reporting – just because it made unpleasant reading, viewing or hearing.
Of course people are fed-up, frustrated and even scared. But we all have to keep going and do the best we can for ourselves and for each other. We have to believe that everything will be OK and that the Covid curse will come to an end.
‘This too shall pass’, is a favourite fall-back line of mine when the going gets tough. The line comes from a proverb dating back to 1200 AD. The vital certainty to hold onto is that all bad stuff comes to an end. This is ‘the dark before the dawn.’
We have to look on the Covid pandemic as a dirty war between a horrible plague and mankind. Like all wars there sadly are casualties, but victory will inevitable be our lot. This war is bearable as long as we all exercise patience and serve our country in the interests of all.
In reality, this war isn’t too bad at all. We have food and shelter. There aren’t any bombs dropping out of the sky, or snipers hiding in the bushes to pick us off if we venture out in the open: In fact, out in the open is our great ally. Medical science and the survival instincts of the population will see us through. Every human life is more important than the economy, monetary possessions or political points-scoring.
The ‘young people of Ireland’, have really shown themselves to be a great generation. The restrictions have hit them harder than the rest of us: And yet, the majority have made the necessary sacrifices and shown outstanding compassion and understanding of the situation. None of us were too inclined to be civically compliant in our teens and twenties, but certainly society is in good hands with the youth of today.
When this is over, all of us – including the government, must find a way to compensate the young for being so responsible when we needed them.
It may sound like a cliché; but we really are all in this together. Please God, we shall all get out of it together in 2022.
Happy New Year to you all ….
Don’t Forget – Time is nature’s way of preventing everything from happening at once.
