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While the famous chime bells mark the passage of time in the quarter hour, the doors of St Coleman’s Cathedral in Cobh remain closed, as are the rest of Co Cork city.
In the water, one of the few ships in the port, the Petronus, is making its weekly trip to Ringaskiddy, but the city’s deep-water pier, which was due to receive around 100 cruises and more than 240,000 visitors to Cobh this year. , It’s quiet. and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.
The coronavirus has had a major impact on the economy of the historic city, cutting off its local and foreign visitors and, like towns and cities across the country, shutting down its local economy.
But starting Monday, Phase One of the Government’s roadmap will be launched to ease Covid-19 restrictions and reopen Ireland’s economy and society.
Among the measures is the reopening of garden centers and hardware stores such as that of the Hallahan brothers, Dave and Shane, on Harbor Row in Cobh.
The brothers closed the doors of the family business, the hardware store, in late March, but continued to attend to emergency requests and make deliveries.
Dave Hallahan said he changed his business model. They now make up to 70 home deliveries each day and spend much of their afternoons responding to emails.
“We have always had a very good core of loyal customers, but throughout all of this we have won, I guess with the blockage and restrictions in the area, we have gained a lot of new customers within the Cobh area than in the future I would like to keep them and keep them on the local shopping island. “
When they reopen the store doors on Monday, it will be monitored very carefully with a working one-way system.
Dave said he is apprehensive because it will slow down the business, but they need to go back to the way they handled the store before closing and restrict the numbers to the store, cordon it off and only deal with one person at a time.
Henrick Verwey runs a wholesale plant and flower business in the city that supplies garden centers, local authorities, hotels and bars.
When the restrictions came, he said, like everyone else in the business, he panicked, and then panicked again when things got really busy.
He said the confinement coincided with an early Easter and good weather and people were looking for flowers. Demand from your local Supervalu and local coal dealer Tony O’Shea for their plants skyrocketed.
“You know it could have been a total disaster, it will actually be a reasonably good season and I am sure people are eager to go to their garden centers to get a full range of plants that they have been unable to get.” in the last few weeks, “he said.
A year ago, chef Jacquie O’Dea and her husband Henry opened Seasalt near the city’s waterfront, but closed in mid-March due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Last weekend they reopened offering a takeaway menu between Thursday and Saturday.
“It was great to see our clients again, people who thanked us for the reopening, which was great, but yes, it’s a challenge, until there is a vaccine, it seems like we won’t be able to sit more than six people here. At any time, so it’s probably 18 months in the future for takeaways. ”
But she said she hopes to be creative as a chef.
“There is a lot of learning involved, but we will get there, there is no question about it, we have to get there because it is our livelihood and I love what I do.”
The nation’s oldest lawn croquet and tennis club in Rushbrook should celebrate its 150th anniversary with year-round celebrations, but for the past eight weeks its nine courts and two croquet fields have been closed.
They are now ready to reopen on Monday, but club president Eddie Ronayne said tennis will be played under very strict conditions.
Along with the subject of the Tennis Ireland guidelines, the club has developed its own to oversee the game.
“Obviously we are very aware that we have a duty to take care of our players, so, for example, everything will be in a reservation system, players will only be allowed to play singles, they will be given an assigned time of one hour and Fourth, but they will only be on the court for one hour and five minutes because they will have to stay in their car until the court is free. “
Ronayne said he believes the strict conditions are worth it because people are eager to get back to exercising and it’s good for mental health, too.
“I am aware that we have many front-line workers at the club who need a little space to go out and play a game of tennis and disconnect from the stress of the current situation.”
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