As predicted only a few days ago Ireland now has a nationwide lock-down, although against my expectation they decided to call a spade a spade and formally announce Level 5. They have basically closed down everything except schools for the next six weeks.
For all the talk of saving Christmas this is actually the last nail in the coffin.
Aside from a few that can actually survive as food takeaways the only pubs left will be speakeasies, because as I suspected back in August bona-fide watering holes would be hung out to dry. Now retail is being thrown under the bus at what is supposed to be their busiest period of the year, and this is expected to cause 60,000 job losses. To make matters worse it will help cement a shift over to online shopping that will likely prove permanent.
For those who have already had relationships destroyed by lock-downs it is pretty grating to have everything closed for the benefit of other people’s kids, especially when it relies on the fiction that children don’t transmit Covid so it is fine to let them mix at will. At least in a few weeks time there will be no-one else left to blame