Miriam Lord: Leo calls a nation to double arms as it faces Covid-1916

The Emergency has returned.

This time with a companion: The Shock.

Another Seamus Heaney moment in Government Buildings, although this time without the usual quotation. But when the Taoiseach briefed the country again on the Covid-19 crisis, his theme was very much one of hope and history, and how we must all pull together and make it rhyme.

He brought the latest news from the Cabinet table to a country anxious to hear it. With him, a number of key Ministers and Ireland's chief medical officer, Tony Holohan.

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They would tell us the Government’s next moves in the “coronavirus emergency”. We don’t know what it was like in homes around the country as the populace awaited this communication, but in the Government press centre, the atmosphere was unusually quiet.

For the purposes of social distancing, all the seats had been ripped from the small auditorium and replaced by chairs set at double arms’ length from each other.

So the place was full of spaced-out journalists and spaced out Government Ministers. No wonder the mood was calm.

Twice in his statement, Leo Varadkar referred to "The Emergency", with a capital "E". For the day job, his main speechwriter is a historian in Trinity College. This could also explain the Taoiseach's rousing invocation of the brave men and women of 1916 as he concluded his address.

On day number something of these days when every day is now known as “what day is it today?”, it was time for another word with the people. Would this be a ticking off for slapdash distancing? A dollop of hard medicine for crimes against virology?

Was this going to be the dawn of the much anticipated Lockdown Day?

It wasn’t. The Taoiseach doesn’t even like the word. It has confusing meanings, he said. It lacks clarity.

Maybe, but not if it is implemented to the letter, without creative interpretation. It might happen yet. But the Government and its advisers are not adopting hard tactics in its campaign against the virus.

"The Shock" will happen to the economy. This is what Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe called the ferocious buffeting the economy is about to get.

But where fighting the pandemic is concerned, it’s all about community co-operation, following the medical expert-based Government guidelines with iron resolve.

Make the grade

This was far more carrot and very little stick from Leo Varadkar and his team as they issued the nation with its latest report card in the early days of this crisis. It was the sort of report most pupils would be more than happy to bring home.

“Keep it going – you’re doing great” was the overall assessment. Although, as is always the case, there is room for improvement and greater achievement.

It appears that the concerted efforts of people to observe social distancing and temper their behaviour in the sneezing and handwashing department have been working.

“Too early to tell for sure but we believe it is making a difference,” said the Taoiseach.

And you could almost feel a little tremor of pride and a shiver of hope course through the national veins.

"The Irish people have risen, they've risen to that challenge . . . we are beginning to see early and encouraging signs . . . Now is the time to do more," encouraged Simon Harris, whose hair is getting more grey with each passing press conference.

Tony Holohan, who seems to be everywhere at every time to such a degree that perhaps he must have been substituted by a Tony Hologram, had encouraging figures to bolster confidence a little.

He talked of “intensive, sustained, public health action”.

There are restrictions and the Taoiseach rattled through them. There was little surprise in them, except perhaps that they might not have gone far enough.

As Jimmy Walsh, a former member of the Dáil press gallery, remarked to us about the universal need for social distancing: "It's better to be 6ft apart than six feet under."

Better times are yet to come.

National cause

The politicians call efforts to stem the tide of coronavirus “the great national effort”.

Private hospitals “will operate effectively as public hospitals under section 38 of the Health Act for the duration of the Emergency”, it was decreed.

“There can be no room for public versus private when it comes to pandemic,” said the Minister for Health, who also said that now “we can no longer reach out with our hands, we must reach out with our hearts”.

Normally, phrases like that would have hardened commentators reaching for the sick bag. Ditto “we need everybody in this country to be a hero”.

But these are not normal days.

Where do we get measured for our capes?

“If we’re being honest it’s all a bit surreal,” admitted Simon.

There was information and there were figures from Donohoe and Ministers Regina Doherty and Heather Humphreys, who all seemed on top of their briefs.

Leo Varadkar was asked if he had anything to say to reassure people at home who will be afraid.

"I think we're all a little bit afraid and it's perfectly natural and normal to be a little bit afraid. You know, we can all see what's happening in Spain, what's happening in Italy, only two or three hours' flight from here and that frightens us all."

Contrast his answer with Donald Trump’s when the US president was asked the same question last week.

Things may be bad here, but we’re luckier than others.

At the end, Varadkar recalled the 1916 commemorations and the men and women they celebrated.

“I never believed that we would be called upon to match their courage or their example, but today we are.

“We will be tested, but we will succeed. Our greatest generation was not in the past.”

Words to bolster a flagging nation, off with renewed vigour to find the pike in the thatch.