As time goes by, I seem to be talking to friends, family and colleagues about the things we miss the most. Conversations flow into reminiscence. There is an air of sadness, but also hope. Generally, the things mentioned are simple pleasures: “I want to eat a meal that I don’t have to cook”, “I want to have a coffee with my friend and look at her actual face”, “I want to drive to the beach.”

The bucket list things don’t get a look in. Nobody has said: “I want to climb Machu Picchu” or “I want to do a bungee jump.” Maybe we don’t want to mention those big-ticket items, because we are afraid that the dream is now ever more distant. Or maybe psychologically we just want to deal with the phases as they come and not get too far ahead of ourselves.

Amii's office in the Irish Farm Centre.

The Taoiseach has laid out the roadmap from phase one commencing 18 May to phase five on 10 August. When I last left my office, I cleared the whiteboard calendar, but I didn’t delete the events that were in my diary. When I look to see what calls I have scheduled for the day, I am reminded of where I should be, or would be if things were “normal”.

Although the roadmap is there, there are several potholes we could still fall into

Even 10 August won’t change the run of cancellations. Huge effort goes into events way before the actual day takes place so it’s unlikely that anything close to that date will go ahead. Each of the five phases have a set of triggers which will allow us to progress from one to the next so, although the roadmap is there, there are several potholes we could still fall into.

One thing that we are now sure of, and the clarity will be helpful to parents, is that schools will not reopen until September. This means that children will be at home for an extended period of time and on farms at a time when they would not previously have been.

This is a busy time and the dangers are very real. We have partnered with ESB networks and AgriAware for a farm safety competition. Farmers are innovative and I am sure that many of you are putting additional safety measures in place. We would like you to share those with us so that it can inspire others.

Despite all the cancellations, there is no point in wishing our lives away for “normality” to return. There are too many people for which this will never come. This week we print Enda Murphy’s “Losing our loved ones to COVID-19” . This has been referred to among our team as the “piece we never want to have to print”, but the reality is that we can’t put it off and we shouldn’t.

As an example of love, life and death and the concept of not putting things off, this week 104 years ago on the night of 3 May, Grace Evelyn Gifford married Joseph Plunkett in the chapel of Kilmainham Gaol, just hours before he was executed. The lyrics from the song penned to commemorate this act of love seem strangely apt as we long for the simple things, number one being time with our loved ones:

As we gather in the chapel here in old Kilmainham Gaol,

I think about these past few weeks, oh, will they say, we’ve failed?

From our school days, they have told us we must yearn for liberty.

Yet, all I want in this dark place is to have you here with me.