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The headline doesn't capture the remaining restrictions (although the article does). Masks are still required in shops, taxis, buses, trains. It's unclear for t

The headline doesn't capture the remaining restrictions (although the article does). Masks are still required in shops, taxis, buses, trains. It's unclear for takeaway restaurants and chippers. All staff in those places will still need to wear masks. I assume bar and restaurant staff will also need to wear masks. So really, the 8pm curfew on hospitality has been lifted but that was always silly in the first place. While you can point to some successes, the Irish government has really failed with their approach to all of this. The next election will be interesting and I predict Sinn Féin will be elected.

wiredfool 5y ago
Sinn Féin Was elected, they just couldn’t form a government. They’ve lifted the vax cert requirements for going out, limits on size of gatherings, and most mask requirements are due to go in a couple of weeks.
lljk_kennedy 5y ago
What failures? I’m pretty proud of our overall response as a nation, apart for the anti-mask loonies. Most of us did what was asked, and as a national policy we (mostly) followed the medical and scientific advice, with obvious compromises for economic, educational and social factors. And here we are now, having mostly gotten through it without massive loss of life, without overloading the hospitals (apart from unvaccinated towards the end) and we’re removing the restrictions. Feels good.
- deepnotderp 5y ago
  > “medical and scientific advice” Curfew, masks while standing up and not when sitting down, cloth masks which data shows do nothing (from Bangladeshi RCT), etc.
- Graffur 5y ago
  Off the top of my head.. Mask advice at the start, deploying the police to stop anyone going further than 2km from their home for one. Shutting down outdoor public spaces for another. No scientific backing on lots of decisions made for another. Media controlled propaganda throughout (this one is debatable I guess). Keeping restrictions in place for inappropriate lengths of time - e.g. could have opened up at times last year, Merrion Gate, confusing and contradicting advice to the public after nearly every announcement, covid cert delays, closing off sections of shops - you could go to dealz and buy enough sugar to become diabetic but you couldn't buy some clothes in the same shop if you wanted.
- pibechorro 5y ago
  Stockholm syndrome.
- thdespou 5y ago
  Excuse me but there have been times last year where Ireland had the highest infection cases in Europe (shamefully). To be honest I wasn't very convinced that there was a ever a real lockdown here, just people using their cars less. Now it's back to normal almost.
  - s1artibartfast 5y ago
    Infections or lock downs should never be the barometer of success. Success should be measured by death tolls, happiness, and economic prosperity.
    - igetspam 5y ago
      How would you account for happiness in relation to death tolls? Are they neutral or negative? Or maybe positive, if they're religious? An increase in per capita infections feels like a pretty solid negative indicator of success. Happiness during this whole ordeal is often directly related to faith in science and willingness to make hard choices to ultimately strive for a reduction in infections. People who make hard choices to protect others aren't doing it to be happy, they're doing it to be right. Maybe you could convince me to agree to economics as indicator but not an immediate one. The results of our choices will take years to fully manifest and understand and the if you want to look at it in th immediate term, the US markets just took a dive and that will have global impact. So... success?
      - s1artibartfast 5y ago
        I think you missed my point entirely. Infections alone are meaningless. The only reason to even think about them is they impact other parts of daily life. If infections are 100x higher, but everyone is healthy and happy, who cares. To the extent we should care, it is because they have impacts on other aspects of our life. If a country is healthy, happy, and prosperous, their policy was a success, even if infections are high. Alternatively, if a country is swamped with deaths, miserable, and economically failing, it doesn't matter if their infection numbers are low and they had the harshest lock downs.

wiredfool 5y ago

Sinn Féin Was elected, they just couldn’t form a government. They’ve lifted the vax cert requirements for going out, limits on size of gatherings, and most mask requirements are due to go in a couple of weeks.

lljk_kennedy 5y ago

What failures? I’m pretty proud of our overall response as a nation, apart for the anti-mask loonies. Most of us did what was asked, and as a national policy we (mostly) followed the medical and scientific advice, with obvious compromises for economic, educational and social factors. And here we are now, having mostly gotten through it without massive loss of life, without overloading the hospitals (apart from unvaccinated towards the end) and we’re removing the restrictions. Feels good.

deepnotderp 5y ago
> “medical and scientific advice” Curfew, masks while standing up and not when sitting down, cloth masks which data shows do nothing (from Bangladeshi RCT), etc.
Graffur 5y ago
Off the top of my head.. Mask advice at the start, deploying the police to stop anyone going further than 2km from their home for one. Shutting down outdoor public spaces for another. No scientific backing on lots of decisions made for another. Media controlled propaganda throughout (this one is debatable I guess). Keeping restrictions in place for inappropriate lengths of time - e.g. could have opened up at times last year, Merrion Gate, confusing and contradicting advice to the public after nearly every announcement, covid cert delays, closing off sections of shops - you could go to dealz and buy enough sugar to become diabetic but you couldn't buy some clothes in the same shop if you wanted.
pibechorro 5y ago
Stockholm syndrome.
thdespou 5y ago
Excuse me but there have been times last year where Ireland had the highest infection cases in Europe (shamefully). To be honest I wasn't very convinced that there was a ever a real lockdown here, just people using their cars less. Now it's back to normal almost.
- s1artibartfast 5y ago
  Infections or lock downs should never be the barometer of success. Success should be measured by death tolls, happiness, and economic prosperity.
  - igetspam 5y ago
    How would you account for happiness in relation to death tolls? Are they neutral or negative? Or maybe positive, if they're religious? An increase in per capita infections feels like a pretty solid negative indicator of success. Happiness during this whole ordeal is often directly related to faith in science and willingness to make hard choices to ultimately strive for a reduction in infections. People who make hard choices to protect others aren't doing it to be happy, they're doing it to be right. Maybe you could convince me to agree to economics as indicator but not an immediate one. The results of our choices will take years to fully manifest and understand and the if you want to look at it in th immediate term, the US markets just took a dive and that will have global impact. So... success?
    - s1artibartfast 5y ago
      I think you missed my point entirely. Infections alone are meaningless. The only reason to even think about them is they impact other parts of daily life. If infections are 100x higher, but everyone is healthy and happy, who cares. To the extent we should care, it is because they have impacts on other aspects of our life. If a country is healthy, happy, and prosperous, their policy was a success, even if infections are high. Alternatively, if a country is swamped with deaths, miserable, and economically failing, it doesn't matter if their infection numbers are low and they had the harshest lock downs.