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Under the circumstances, Mary Lou McDonald was probably the right person in the right place when two Kerry aerosols began to be discharged indiscriminately directly behind her.
In fact, there were three aerosols. The other from Cork.
Across the floor from the chamber, Róisín Shortall, co-leader of the Social Democrats, watched the horror unfold. You may have been wearing a large mask, but it is very noticeable by the furrowing of the eyebrows, the squinting, and the intensity of the glow.
Róisín was not impressed.
Who could tell if the aerosols flying around the head of the Sinn Féin leader were harmless or infectious?
The good doctors at NPHET, once they get over Leo Varadkar’s aggression, could do worse than monitoring Mary Lou’s health very carefully in the coming weeks. She is a Covid-19 survivor, one of the first victims of the new pandemic who tells a sobering story about her encounter with the disease and overcoming its long aftermath.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald: I wasn’t expecting that sudden burst of drizzle. Photography: Nick Bradshaw
Six months ago he contracted the virus. The science on the duration and lasting strength of post-Covid immunity is incomplete. In Dáil’s chamber on Tuesday, caught in a diffusion vortex, she presented the perfect case study.
When the feverish emissions of Michael Healy-Rae, Danny Healy-Rae and Michael Collins rapidly escalated to dangerous levels, at least Mary Lou was wearing a mask. She must have been grateful for this when the TDs who sat closest to her – a full-throated trio from the Independent Rural Group – began to howl at the top of their lungs.
All disconcertingly unmasked.
‘Coughing attack’
Danny doesn’t wear one because, as he recently explained, “it gives me a coughing fit.” His brother’s compliance with the Dáil chamber guidelines is spotty. Michael Collins is a fan of the clear plastic visor, although he tends to the carefree look of “showing it on the shelf in front of you” rather than the fashion of “wearing it around your face like you’re supposed to.”
The outburst came when Cork South-West TD Collins brought up a topic close to his heart: the service he organizes, together with his two colleagues from Kerry, to transport mostly elderly people to a clinic in Belfast so they can have life. change cataract operations.
This is a job that local TDs shouldn’t have to do, whether it’s helping patients fill out necessary paperwork or hiring buses to take them north for treatment. The operations are financed by the state under an EU directive, but people who need them are expected to do it themselves.
TDs love to include references to their districts in the Dáil registry.
“In the next week and a half, I have men and women from Skibbereen, Durrus, Bandon, Baltimore, Ballineen, Carrigaline, Ballinlough, Ballyvolane, Dublin, Kinsale, Goleen, Midleton, Kealkill, Tipperary, Clonakilty, Dublin. . . “
Affected smile
Micheál Martin started to smile, along with almost everyone else on camera. Michael Collins was hurt.
“It is no laughing matter, Taoiseach. They are going blind under your watch. “
DHR agreed, from a couple of rows back.
“No. It’s not a laughing matter,” agreed DHR, rowing with his disgust.
But Micheál couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. It was the blatant recitation of constituencies that infuriated him.
“It’s the second time you’ve laughed and people aren’t happy about it,” Collins shuddered, shamefully interrupted mid-tour.
The Taoiseach thanked his county colleague for his work in securing seats for voters on his bus to Belfast. He said a new facility is planned for Cork that will have the capacity to perform 2,000 cataract operations a year.
He then expressed grudging thanks for the service provided by Michael and the Healy-Rae brothers before sliding in the sense that it has served them well as well. “A game changer for you too, electorally. . . “That’s how she put it.
His words caused consternation. The Healy-Raes screamed badly.
Michael Healy-Rae was trashing. He took off his mask and let it rip. But the cap stayed on.
“It’s not fair!” Danny stammered.
“That is a sarcastic comment. It’s under you! Michael splashed. Mary Lou looked around, looking somewhat concerned. The roar intensified.
“Ah, look, come on, come on. Look guys, you need to relax, you need to relax a bit now, ”Micheál reassured, stirring the pot.
Danny, outraged, declared it an insult to people who need operations.
Particles
The Taoiseach struggled to make himself heard above the din. The air was full of aerosol particles.
Mary Lou’s hand flew to her face and mask, unconsciously checking it was there. The three TDs around her were spitting crazy.
Still smiling, Micheál calmed things down further.
“I was reliably informed that MP Healy-Rae approached people outside of Mass to say, ‘I can take you on the bus if you want your waterfall fixed.’ The woman in question said: YOU SHOULD REJECT THAT! “
In fact, it did not. That was an incandescent MHR, leaping before the Taoiseach could finish his sentence.
“You are a disgrace!” She yelled, puffing maskless in her seat over Mary Lou, as DHR vented loudly to her brother’s left and Michael Collins howled from the right across the narrow aisle.
We never heard what the woman said at the church doors.
When the three of them exploded into a dizzying drizzle of drops, we prayed for the effectiveness of the Mary Lou mask.
Micheál smiled. He did not raise his voice.
“Ah, relax,” she reassured him.
MHR exploded.
“And DON’T tell me to sit down!”
Through the roof
The decibel level skyrocketed. “I never told you to sit down,” Micheál murmured, amused.
The man who tells me to sit down is the Ceann Comhairle and not you! “
Michael Collins’s roar added to the din, his transparent visor out of order.
Micheál’s voice rose a cork octave. “That’s the truth!”
It took a while, but everyone calmed down when MHR received a phone call on camera.
So the Taoiseach reminded thunder without a mask that the state paid for the operations in Belfast.
That made them explode again. “Who said anything else?” Snarled the sparkling Healy-Raes, crying like babies.
Maybe they should wear bibs and masks. It is not that they use them.
Róisín Shortall couldn’t let the matter pass.
“The Ceann Comhairle should consider reminding members of the public health councils regarding the use of masks.”
Good luck with that, Róisín.
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