Longford Leader columnist Mattie Fox: Lockdown will not end anytime soon

The GAA are expecting to lose around €60 million as a result of the current pandemic, but I doubt very much if it will stop at that.

There’s much talk of when the championship will be played, yet nobody considers if it will be played, at all this year.

Everyone assumes that the entire lockdown will suddenly cease, and we’ll be back to normal living almost immediately.

There’s no way I can see that happening.

It’s my honest belief that this could drag on until the end of the year, and maybe at that stage we’ll have a better handle on it.

I have a sense that the health specialists - whose word we better listen to - will be caused to be ultra cautious in allowing a return to normal services very quickly.

It would be a terrible setback, if we became too relaxed, or became lulled into a sense of false security, because if this virus was allowed to take any hold at all, large sections of the country would be wiped out.

Ireland is being very diligent in seeking to secure medical supplies in a market gone crazy.

It is not so easy anymore, to simply order supplies and they will be available.

It is not that simple.

Market forces are still at play in this awful scenario, and we must appreciate how effective our medics are in procuring their needs although they are being challenged all the way.

The inclusion of Bono has reaped great rewards, and is highly effective internationally in terms of contacts with leaders of various countries.

In some cases causing those same leaders to visit the factories and ensure that Ireland receives proper supplies. It is that pressurised.

But in terms of the GAA, this lockdown will not end anytime soon.

I cannot see matches being played in Croke Park, or any venues where people gather, for a very long time.

The fact is, and I will repeat it again, that in truth nobody knows.

Most things can be assessed by mathematics, but even the best mathematical brains are unable to properly assess when this virus will cease to be a threat.

Until then, we need to stay focused on reality.

Not expectation. Reality that is staring us in the face.