This year I decided to spend Christmas in the UK and I flew over to the UK on the 20th December. It seems that I got out of Ireland just in time, since much of the spike in Covid cases last weekend would have been infections in the few days afterwards.
Retail desperately needed the respite but even before I left I was less than comfortable with the number of people on Henry Street, and local eating places were booked out solid. However I suspect that while Christmas shopping and dining contributed to the numbers, it is likely that holiday season visits really kicked off the explosion in infections.
Coincidentally there are reports that a Garda pre-Christmas drinks party was implicated in a car crash. So much for setting of examples.
The “16 weeks to save Christmas” was a huge mistake because it was an open invite for all the usual Christmas happenings, when in reality this is when cancellation of such events should have been encouraged. Banning of flights from the UK was ineffective because the low proportion of infections with the new B.117 strain suggests a source other than travellers from the UK, and in any case a lot of people just got around the ban by travelling via Northern Ireland.
Knowing the government’s form I fully expect yet another lockdown for all of January, but there is still the open question whether schools will also be closed during this time rather than a tokenistic week or two. To top it all off the government is stopping the testing of close contacts which is asking for trouble.