A lady whose blog I follow lives in Ireland, and she often writes about how sad she is that her country has been basically locked down for over a year, to supposedly “fight the Wuhan Coronavirus“.  She often posts beautiful pictures of her area, Tramore, which does have lovely ocean vistas (and makes me want to hop the next plane to Ireland).  But my longed-for trip to the Emerald Isle cannot take place when all their borders are closed to the outside world.

This week, there is a very interesting article in National Review Online, by Michael Brendan Dougherty, about Ireland’s lockdown situation, and I found it quite interesting, and heartbreaking.  Talk about valuing Safety over Liberty!  Here are a couple of quotes from the article.

Ireland is running the most miserable lockdown in the Western world. Some countries, like the United States, have never been as strict. Others, like Israel or New Zealand, took harsher and more stringent measures than Ireland ever did, but did so for much shorter bursts of time, with the aim of relaxation. Ireland, however, seems to have a lockdown perfectly calibrated to be a marathon of penitence, anxiety, and misery. A brief relaxation is followed immediately by a terrible surge in cases, and the door slams shut again. It has never been strict enough to exit more thoroughly, as has been done in Australia and New Zealand, but the restrictions of daily life over 14 months have been much more difficult and emotionally taxing than anything known in America.

It seems that the Irish Health Nazis are literally running their country.

The government of Ireland, was effectively, if not quite legally, handed over to a National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET). This group of doctors and epidemiologists informs the public of the government’s restrictions, and lately has even taken to publicly criticizing the public’s level of compliance.

The rest of the article is very informative, and I suggest my readers follow the link and read the entire article. It makes me feel worse for my blogger friend, to get an idea what the real situation is over there.