How are you coping in Dunshaughlin?

COUNCILLOR GERRY O'CONNOR, MANAGER DUNSHAUGHLIN COMMUNITY CENTRE

We actually closed the centre before we were told to close it. I had bought €1,000 worth of paint so we  could paint the building. That meant we could keep the nine staff going but then the lockdown came in. It’s certainly a quiet place at the moment. We would normally have a footfall of 88,000 to 90,000 a year, and that includes 300 members of the gym and we have 1,100 students from the community college on our books.
We have gone through hard timed before – in 2010, we had a debt of €150,000 and just before Christmas we had cleared that. At he moment, we are down €2,500-€3,000 a week. I suppose one good outcome from all this is that we can hear the birds singing and nature at work. There are plenty of people out walking. I see lads whose daily walk would be the pub but they're now putting in the full two kilometres.
I’ve just ended a Zoom meting of the Municipal District. We get regular updates from the council CEO Jackie Maguire and we were able to discuss finance, roads, etc. This time of year would normally the time we would be rolling out our roads programme but that’s not happening because of the crisis. Of course, there are financial implications for the county council from all this. I’d believe we’re about €7 million or €8 million down since the crisis started.
This can be a very lonely time for many people, especially those cocooning and those who live in rural areas. It’s difficult for people’s mental health. Very often, some people over 70 wouldn’t see another person from one end of the week to another.

ANN O’LOUGHLIN, SECRETARY, SPECIAL OLYMPICS

The club was started by the Campion family – Nicky, Hamill, Laura and their parents Gerry and Rosaline. We have 22 members but we’re always open to new members  We competed in the North Leinster Athletics last year and we were thrilled to come in at third place and of course thrilled with our medals. We’re keeping in touch with all the members and their parents during this difficult time. I’m coping very well myself. We are very lucky to also have our three grandchildren here with us. We are blessed that we are all here together.

Dunshaughlin Garda station. Image © Google Maps.

GARDA DEREK HALLIGAN, COMMUNITY GARDA

I’ve been in Dunshaughlin  for 25 years and a full-time community Garda for 10 years. Myself and Garda Barbra Kelly cover the Ashbourne district which includes Ashbourne, Laytown, Duleek, Ratoath, Dunboyne, Dunshaughlin. We would normally have school programmes going in the 40 primary schools and 10 secondary schools in the district and would cover things like online safety, drugs and personal safety.
We also liaise closely with Neighbourhood Watch schemes and then there is the text alert system. We have 40 groups in that and is very useful to the Garda and the community. At the moment, of course, with the schools closed our worked is mostly concentrated on checking in with elderly people who are cocooning to see if they need prescriptions delivered from pharmacies and that kind of thing. People living on their own can be very vulnerable so we can check in with them if they need us. We’re at the end of the phone if anyone needs us.

PETER KAVANAGH, OWNER, PHARMACIES DUNSHAUGHLIN AND RATOATH

We have been in Dunshaughlin in business for 35 years. There have been challenges along the way but Covid-19 has provided the most interesting challenge. We have a very professional staff. Indeed, without them we wouldn't be able to operate. We rely on them to do everything safely during this crisis. We're following all the guidance and, of course, limiting the number of people coming into the store – just two at a time and then only into the well of the door. They are then addressed by staff behind screens.
The GAA are fantastic, really, for the way they have volunteered to make deliveries to those cocooning and to the vulnerable. It's extraordinary the amount of volunteerism that is around. Things were a little bit difficult at the beginning of the crisis because people were worried they wouldn't get their supply of medicines but we weren't fearful of that because we knew there would be continuity of supply.
Things have settled down very well now. People have got used to social distancing and then we are lucky with the amount of space we have to conduct our own operations. Most of our customers would be already well known to us and we know when someone needs that special extra bit of care.
Of course, there are many people who are quite well able to fend for themselves. As for my own family, we all live in he same house. We have two graduates with us who can't go to work. Our son Jack does a lot of work online. However, the biggest problem for us is the poor broadband service where we live – it's really very difficult and very slow. We're about 300 yards from the last fibre boadband installation and it's very frustrating for us.

Dunshaughlin Main Street. Image © Google Maps

BRIDGET BENNETT, PRINCIPAL, COMMUNITY COLLEGE

We have 1,075 pupils. Before Covid-19 broke, we had already worked on a programme called Schoolwise  (an education platform for secondary schools to manage teaching and learning). We made it very clear to everybody that even though the school was closed, the work would continue. We have about 100 staff and in fairness to them they have risen to the challenge presented by this crisis. I only know of one or two staff who had to self-isolate.
We have 954 families in the college and of course, every family is different with different challenges and ways of operating. We have to take into account that some students may be looking after parents and supporting them, others will also have young children to contend with, and there may be frontline workers in some families.
There were some difficulties at the start of the crisis when some students found it hard to strike a balance between work and their time off and perhaps other duties. And there is always the problem that they miss the class environment and miss their fellow students.
We don't hold Zoom meetings of staff or anything like that but people are on the phone a lot. This is a very busy time for school management but we all try to get along as best we can and that we all come out of this safe and well. That's the main thing.

PAUL HEALY, OWNER, SUPERVALU

We have the best of staff here, that's the first thing I would say. We have 106 between full-time and part-time. At the beginning there was a huge surge in demand, absolute panic buying for the first three weeks, but now it has settled down a bit.
The main effort was to get supplies replenished. The volume of work was beyond any expectations and the volumes going through the store were huge. Normally, we would see a higher footfall but a smaller spend. With Covid, we saw huge volumes but lower footfall. It looked as if people were determined to cut their visits to the store by buying higher volumes of goods.
We did all the protection measures for staff and customers. I think as the HSE increased its warnings and guidance on protection and distancing, people got the message and fell into line. We don't know where the panic buying on toilet rolls came from. There was never any chance that we would run out. You're right, the Americans rushed to the gun shops, we went for the toilet rolls. We had 30 to 40 pallets of toilet rolls before the Covid thing started. I don't know how many individual toilet rolls that is, but it's an awful lot. We have 2,000 cases in the store.
Things have settled into a certain routine now. We have even divided our management into shifts – three on from 7 to 2 and then three on from 2 to 9. Our delivery system has changed drastically. Before Covid started, we did five deliveries a week. Now we do 500 a week. That helps in a number of ways – it keeps large volumes of people out of the store, and it helps the cocooned and the vulnerable.
We couldn't do any of that without the fantastic volunteers from Dunshaughlin GAA and Royal Gaels. There are a lot of stores closed in town and if I could say one thing to the owners and staff it would be that we will be here for them when this is all over.

ANN POWER, SECRETARY, HILLVIEW RESIDENTS

We have about 50 houses here which were built about 40 years ago and our residents' association is very active. Our Chairperson is Denise Smith and our Treasurer is Louise O'Meara. We are very, very lucky here in that we have a fantastic community spirit, we always look out for one another. There are newer residents here and they have joined up with the association.
The association set up its own Facebook page at the beginning of the crisis so that if anyone needs help, they have phone numbers available to them. I have my husband here, and my daughter and her little son. I know boredom is a big problem for everybody but I think we're coping. I don't go out myself. If I need shopping my daughter does it for me.
Thank God for the phone. Now I'm getting used to the technology. I have grandchildren in Navan and Bellewstown and a son in Waterford but I'm able to do Facetime with them. Then I can get Mass online. If don't get it from Dunshaughlin, I'll get it from Navan, and the other day I got it from Athboy. I feel so, so sorry for anyone who has a bereavement at the moment.