Why would you expect them to be closer? The respective government responses were very different - the UK initially decided to to pursue a "herd immunity" strat

Why would you expect them to be closer? The respective government responses were very different - the UK initially decided to to pursue a "herd immunity" strategy - i.e. do nothing to stop the spread of the virus. In contrast, the Irish government locked down early and hard - the UK lock down occurred later (once the significance of the threat became more obvious) and even then introduced lock-down measures more gradually.