An earnest wish that things can only get better in 2021

NO sooner had I gone half-way in my alphabetical wish list for 2021, than another tranche of bad news has arrived, with our third major lockdown of the coronavirus emergency. There’s just no getting away from this tiny microscopic monster that we were only beginning to hear about this time last year in far-off China. We’ve a tough month or two coming up, but after that, the range of vaccines on offer should offer some real hope and just a little chink of light as the sun gets higher in the sky. A time possibly to hark back to my Leaving Cert days and one of my favourite poems of the time, Ode to the West Wind, from the pen of one Percy Bysshe Shelley, and his concluding couplet of: “The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind.” N undoubtedly has to be for the New Year and the earnest hope that through the course of 2021, a semblance of normality will return to our lives. By now, we’ve learned to temper any optimism with realism, but I’m hoping by Midsummer’s Day, just to have one pint and maybe sing a song in the local after an evening ‘at the turf’. Sometimes, it’s the simple things that we miss the most. O is for the Oxford vaccine developed primarily by scientists and researchers at the academically revered Oxford University. The full title of the product is the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and while it’s being administered across the UK since last Monday, the EU regulators seem to be behind the curve in terms of giving it the final nod of approval. Not a time to be hanging around lads! P is for all the players of sports – no, not the so-called elite ones – but the ordinary lads and girls youngish and oldish, who cannot go out onto the fields and hit a ball either big or small because of the times we live in. Not even 20 minutes in the pool or gym is allowed. Nothing against the ‘elitists’ here either – as at least they have given us something to watch on ‘the box’ during those dreary winter nights – but in normal times, sport should really be for everyone.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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