Marie O'Reardon

Dublin

Formerly a member of JSBSC 2005-2025 and an annual visitor here since

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Marie and Chris in her previous Dublin flat alongside some of Des's paintings in 2016

On Saturday March 7th my family organised a birthday party for me at my son’s house, just family but absolutely great.  My birthday was Sunday the8th but I was going away for an overnight with the golf club, down to Woodenbridge in Co Wicklow, a beautiful spot a little way outside Dublin.  At that time we had had the first case of Covid in Ireland and everyone was very jokey about it, little did we think that that was the last game of golf until end of May or June if, like me, the golf course was further than 5 Km from your home.  There would be no more family gatherings or birthday celebrations for the next few family birthdays.
The Ireland Italy rugby match which was to take place in Dublin on March 7th was cancelled but for some reason all the fans were allowed to fly in for a long weekend - from the Covid epicentre in Italy.  The Patricks Day parade was cancelled but we were all still gung ho, then, on March 12th, they closed the schools and banned any large gatherings – concerts, theatre, church, pubs!  I don’t think churches or pubs were ever closed in Ireland before.  Businesses were closed on March 24th and serious lockdown started on 27th, many of us had already been isolating, it was getting scary to go out.
Lockdown meant that no one could go further than 2 km from their home unless they were working on the front line, going for essential supplies or for a medical appointment.  Over 70s and vulnerable were to stay in their houses, if they had no-one to do their grocery shop they could ring the Garda who would organise it for them.  At this point, I sat down and cried, since Des died I have made a point of being busy and meeting people so that I would not be lonely, all that was gone for the foreseeable future; however, no point in moping so I got on with it.
My family are very good, they collected my groceries and came to talk to me across my terrace, as the weather here has been exceptionally good this was a real pleasure.  I busied myself painting a set of garden furniture, organising pots for the terrace and have started growing veg in the spare bedroom – visitors are not an option!  And I played bridge, 5 days a week on BBO.  The local bridge club set up on line and the games were well attended.  The CBAI have now got a deal with BBO and Irish bridge clubs are having their regular club games, just on line.  Next weekend the Yeats country – Sligo Congress will be held on line, for my sins I am playing Friday evening, Saturday 2 sessions and a 2 session team event on Sunday, a real marathon!

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Lockdown is coming to an end, for the last 3 weeks I have been able to go out for a walk. Some things I’ll miss – all the Whatsapp messages and jokes, Zoom quiz sessions with my kids, Zoom sessions with my siblings, funnily enough, it’s the company I’ll miss most, everyone will be going back to their busy lives.
Things are getting back to normal in Dublin, I went to the dentist today!

M O'R. 4/5/2020

dublin

So, Irish bridge, CBAI, got its act together as soon as Lockdown came in

 

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