Surviving the Lockdown(4)

So last week we broke out of lockdown, headed out in glorious summer weather driving west towards the Shannon, top-down on the car, Leonard Cohen on the radio, next to no traffic on the roads and Ireland bathed in sunlight and looking as glamorous as it could possibly be. But there is a great sadness out there. All the wayside pubs were closed and shuttered up, all the village pubs too, and the town pubs and there were no pubs at the crossroads and not a shebeen to be seen from Dublin to the Shannon.    Ireland’s heartbeat flows through her pubs and just now you can hardly get a pulse, let alone a Drink.  Can there be anything more tragic or more poignant that Ireland without a drink?

We stayed at a country house hotel outside of Longford, Mountview.   They had a most fabulous Michelin starred chef who clearly exalted in being back in business and delivered food for the gods.   Outside of the hotel, there was nothing open but a few shops in the town, a town depressing enough at the best of times but now a ghostly shadow of its normal depressed state.   And it rained.  It rained an Irish monsoon.  There were no boats on the Shannon and it was too wet to walk along the river banks or anywhere else.

There are restaurants in the town but those still trading all closed around 6pm except for the Pizza Hut, and the restaurant at our hotel.   You can’t eat five-star gourmet food every night and if you don’t like pizza then you were reduced, as we were, to getting a take away from a sad-looking Chinese place, buying wine from Dunnes and going back to the hotel room to watch telly.

Indeed, the highlight of the break was the visit to Dunnes store, to be fair to Longford, a rather superior Dunnes store.

We gave up, left early, returning home to lockdown.

Normally in august we would be heading to the Edinburgh festival for the month Edinburgh is canceled and we must stay in Ireland.  If this is what to expect from staycations in Ireland, we are doomed.