Yes. The word is spreading faster than a virus that we have some victims in the area.

By the latest count there are twelve who have it. Naturally the Powers that Be aren’t saying where exactly they are. Naturally we know exactly where they live. This is rural Ireland. We know everything local.

The population of the area is around the two thousand mark, give or take a couple of hundred. Twelve out of that lot is pretty good odds. At 167 to 1, I wouldn’t back that horse, nor would I buy that raffle ticket, so I’m not worried. I won’t be licking their doorknobs, not will I be ringing their doorbells. In the extremely unlikely chance I will meet one of the victims in the street I shall politely decline a proffered hand [with a suitable apology] nor shall I hug them. If they look like they are about to sneeze I shall give them a wide berth. That’s called common sense.

I am actually surrounded. There is a little cluster up the road and a little bigger cluster down the road. I don’t know any of them socially so any past encounter in the street would merely have been like two ships passing in the night.

Skobieville is another matter. I hear there is a major cluster there in one of the hotels that was commandeered to house immigrants. That isn’t in the least surprising as those hotels and hostels are a hotbed of Virus around the country along with meat processing plants [for some strange reason]. I will just remember to avoid Skobieville.

But I rarely go there anyway.