Ireland’s foremost public intellectual was at it again yesterday, taking to his weekly perch in the Irish Times (the newspaper from which he allegedly retired with some ceremony over a year ago) to bemoan the fact that of all things, the public has forgotten what it learned during Covid-19. The article began, as all good pieces do, with a personal anecdote:
How often do I think of Covid? Only about a dozen times a day, whenever I wash my hands. It was quite something, in my early 60s, to realise that an action I had been performing all my life had to be relearned. The automatic had to become conscious: more time spent kneading between the fingers, that twist of the thumbs, soap up beyond the wrist. But is this the only thing we learned to do better, the only dead habit we managed to slough off?
This article is premium content
Get unlimited access to Gript
Support Gript and get exclusive content, full archives and an ad-free experience
Subscribe
Already a member? Sign in here
