Mayo native reflects on lockdown in Newcastle - it has not been easy

BALLYNEW, Castlebar, native Kevin McAleese, a former employee of The Connaught Telegraph and now retired from British Telecom in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, reflects on the Covid-19 lockdown in the UK:

This nightmare year, 2020, is coming to an end, but not Corona. People have been asked to lockdown again and it will not be easy.

This year has been extremely trying for everyone, but my family has had one great event, with our youngest daughter, Rebecca, giving birth to a beautiful baby girl, who they named Anya, or Dinky as we call her.

The hospital in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, after a busy time, with our son-in-law, Peter, on the frontline helping treat coronavirus patients, has brought many people lots of grief. There was also joy for families returning home with their newborn babies.

The lockdown prevented my wife Marilyn and I travelling to London to see our daughter Claire and granddaughters Josephine and Martha. I like London because I can meet up with some of my Irish pals in Dulwich.

The Irish community have had a difficult time during lockdown as they normally enjoy a pint and the craic with their mates after work. Sadly, everything has changed now.

When I first came to London, from Ireland, in the early '70s and joined the Castlebar Association with some ‘great’ Castlebar people, led by the late and great Tony Lavelle, we took our liberty for granted and didn’t have a care in the world.

Back in Newcastle now, the boss of the Tyneside Irish Centre, Tony Corcoran (a proud Mayo man and top violinist), was given some money by the Irish government to help Irish immigrants affected in any way by the epidemic and we subsequently delivered hundreds of food parcels to these people and looked after their welfare.

The biggest regret I have this year is that my family were unable to travel to Castlebar and Lecanvey to visit my sister, Margo, and do our annual pilgrimage climbing Croagh Patrick.

We all like to frequent Staunton’s Pub in Lecanvey for a bevy, with Margo’s son, Donagh, and his mates. Let’s hope Teresa Staunton’s pub and all the other great pubs in the locality can survive. The same goes for Castlebar’s great watering holes.

If we come through this, which I know we will, as we did a century ago with Spanish Flu, the Irish government must not let Ireland West Airport go under and the people of the west must make this a top priority and ensure their TDs do their jobs.

I have great memories of the airport, as I’m sure many other travellers have from places near and far. When working for The Connaught Telegraph many moons ago, delivering newspapers to Knock and Kilkelly, I passed the ground before a sod was turned for the airport and it would be a sin if it ever disappeared.

In conclusion, my final say is my late mother, Bridie, survived Spanish Flu in 1918, it returning on three occasions. At that time, there was little in the way of medicine around so let’s pray we can remain positive like the man in the USA, whose name I cannot think of, with the bad combover and orange foundation, and, look forward to the future and living the way we did previous to 2020.

Here’s to better times!