You may be old enough to remember when you would bang your fist on the top of the television to steady a flickering picture. It feels like that watching the European soccer championships as we flicker back to normality.

A sharp bang and we have suddenly gone from empty stadiums to fans back cheering and filling stands.

And during that unprecedented time, unprecedented decisions had to be made on behalf of us all

Like the Bobby Ewing shower scene, it made watching all of those matches with no fans feel like a bad dream.

Of course the past year may seem like a bad dream, but it was reality. And during that unprecedented time, unprecedented decisions had to be made on behalf of us all. Looking back, there were some hurlers on the ditch who wallowed in the disruption making political hay on the back of it all. These people deserve to be called out.

Time will tell if some of the decisions were wrong

Be it those campaigning against lockdown to those campaigning that we weren’t locked up enough, it was a constant no win situation for decision makers. And for political opportunists and social media malcontents, free of ever having to make a decision beyond their smartphone, it was like a rollercoaster. They swung and swayed to avoid being on the same side as any Government or National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) decision made to try and navigate us through the storm.

Time will tell if some of the decisions were wrong.

But who reading this would have made all the correct decisions throughout, whereby we would not have had to do what was done at any particular time to arrive at the situation we are at right now? To listen to some politicians and commentators, it was like sitting beside a person at a football match shouting against the referee no matter what decision he made for either team.

In other words, to be straight about it, there will always be contrarians who never want a good outcome

Self-appointed know-alls did all they could to spite and disrupt the broad national effort to follow simple guidelines to steer us through this. You know the sorts who were ranting and raving for a ring of steel and closure of airports at one point who then slammed the policy of mandatory quarantine when it became Government policy.

In other words, to be straight about it, there will always be contrarians who never want a good outcome because it disrupts their modus operandi which is to exist through chaos and misery. To them, responsibility is not a virtue, but rather a subservient choice. Meanwhile, most of the rest of us live our lives by celebrating success and progression while lamenting failure and unfairness.

As we stand back and look at how this horrific virus has destroyed so many lives across the world, apart from the obvious neglect in a few countries, could the people charged with making big decisions in this country have done anything better or worse to arrive at the situation we are now in?

Caught in the middle are politicians and medics

Close the airport – what about the Stobart job losses? Close the pubs – the hospitality industry has been decimated. Extend the PUP – it’s time people were allowed back to work. Vaccinate the elderly – but what about teachers? The GAA clubs caused the third wave – why can’t we have full stadiums again?

Caught in the middle are politicians and medics charged with making life or death decisions and who will never get any credit from a thankless public. Just take a look at the various opinion polls throughout.

Fond farewell

It’s the end of an era as RTÉ midlands correspondent Ciaran Mullooly hangs up his microphone this weekend to pursue a new career path. Ciaran has over three decades of solid journalism behind him including a stint on Ear to the Ground. He will be missed. Best of luck my friend!