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The coronavirus has so completely infected our lives that it makes perfect sense for Tony Holohon to receive star billing before Bruce Springsteen on the Late Late Show (RTÉ One, 9.35pm).
Nphet’s chief medical officer and president takes a cautious and, to the best of all, optimistic tone as Ryan Tubridy’s first guest on a Late Late that includes two solid hours of talk, tragedy and laughter.
Holohan’s determination is impressive. For a moment, it’s like being back in March when we were all carried up high in genuine solidarity with each other. Plus, it’s a reminder that the Late Late Show still holds a central place in the national conversation. The murmurs about his fall into irrelevance are perhaps exaggerated.
“It’s not easy to tell them to stop having fun,” Holohan says of the young people, demonized lately for being young. “They have had to bear a great burden.”
He also cautions against the temptation to point fingers. The goal of the six-week level 5 lockdown we are targeting is not to assign blame – it is to reduce the spread of the virus.
“If young people get this infection it is not their fault. They are not to blame, ”says Holohan, who recently returned to office having taken a step back for family reasons.
It’s a decent performance from Tubridy. The host’s routine criticism is that he’s good with fluff, not strong enough to hold guests around their necks. However, he is on point here when he asks about the tensions between Nphet and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.
“It’s very good,” Holohan says of her relationship with Varadkar, though the ghost of something that’s almost (if not quite) a smile slides across her lips.
However, while he strives to be as optimistic as possible, his final message is not especially lighthearted. Christmas is not canceled. But it won’t be Christmas either. And after that, the fight will continue until a vaccine is found.
“There will be things this Christmas that will have to be different,” says Holohan. His tone is friendly. It’s hard not to feel a chill.
There is quite a lot of poster in the Late Late this week. Movie star Matthew McConaughey joins Zoom, as does former Fox News host Megyn Kelly (“If Trump wins on November 3, I won’t be the least bit surprised.”) And there is a moving interview with the family of Seán Cox who suffered a brain injury when he was assaulted at a football match in Liverpool in 2018.
“I would have walked on hot coals, for Seán,” says his wife Martina, in the studio as Sean and their children are joined by Dunboyne’s video link. “You just have that instinct inside you: fight for everything.”
She is also critical of the healthcare system, suggesting that the family had been left to their own devices after her husband’s discharge from the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaoire.
“They told me I have a marathon ahead of me. We had to blaze that trail ourselves. ”
This is contrasted with a dash of rock ‘n’ roll courtesy of Bruce Springsteen. Beaming from New Jersey, he tells Tubridy that he will move to Ireland in case the unthinkable happens again: “Trump will lose. If not, give me room in Ireland. ”
She also reveals that her anti-depression medication keeps her demons at bay and reflects on how, as she ages, death becomes more central in her life (a reflection of her childhood and grandparents’ funerals).
Strangely, Springsteen and Holohan are on the same page regarding the coronavirus. When asked if he anticipates a tour in the near future, Springsteen echoes Nphet’s boss with the message that this nightmare is far from over.
“I don’t think the virus will go away,” says the voice of American workers. “We’re just going to find better ways to handle it.” If Holohan walks away again, maybe they should put Springsteen in charge. The outlook would still be bleak. But at least the melodies would be good.
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