It’s another warm spring day, with a slight haze in the air that wasn’t present yesterday. I get out for a walk in the afternoon after my usual morning routine of going through job postings and studies. There’s a package waiting for me at Mail Boxes Etc., so I do a familiar route heading eastward on Pearse Street to the Docklands, then across the Samuel Beckett Bridge, and finally circling back to city centre. Lots of people are out enjoying the sun, many in shorts.
The popular Grand Canal Plaza in the Docklands:
Seagulls practising social distancing on the Talbot Memorial Bridge:
The walk is a good opportunity to catch up on some podcasts. I listen to a couple of recent episodes of the Echo Chamber Podcast, a progressively political Irish podcast, about the housing crisis in Ireland. The panelists discuss topics around the lack of supply of affordable housing in Ireland, such as the panicked buying trends where properties have been going for significantly above asking (even during COVID-19 when bids are placed on properties sight unseen, only based on virtual tours), the impact of foreign investors on the rental market, and the idea of levying a tax on vacant luxury units that sit empty due to owners being unwilling to reduce rent prices.
Did you know that the word “boycott” originated in Ireland? (I didn’t, it’s something I just learned from a podcast today.) The word can be traced back to Captain Charles Boycott, an agent of an absentee landlord in Ireland, against whom the “boycott” tactic was successfully employed in 1880 after a suggestion by Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell and his Irish Land League, a political organisation whose aim was to abolish landlordism in Ireland and enable tenant farmers to own the land they worked on.
In COVID news, Taoiseach Micheál Martin addressed the national during the 6 o’clock news to announce some minor easing of restrictions over the next month. Some of the most notable changes to the restrictions:
• The 5km travel restriction will be extended to a county-wide limit from April 12th; cross-county travel will be allowed up to 20km from home.
• Also starting April 12, people from two households will be permitted to meet outdoors (although not in private gardens) and two vaccinated people from separate households can meet indoors.
• A partial return to construction from mid-April.
• Resumption of some sporting activities including tennis, golf and under 18 training from April 26th.
• In May, non-essential retail services will be allowed to offer “click and collect” and hairdressers will be allowed to open.
Until next time….
