At first they were merely numbers we heard about in nightly bulletins.
But Ireland’s COVID-19 victims have also become a roll call of heroes.
They became the 1,650 victims of the pandemic as we heard their stories and saw their faces.
As of last Friday, 1,032 of those who gave their lives were care home residents – 835 of them dying in the homes as they were ravaged by Covid-19.
They absorbed the “surge” of the virus that spared the nation’s hospitals.
Along with their families and doctors, many had made decisions not to be taken to acute hospitals in their final hours.
Also honoured in the ‘Ireland Remembers’ memorial hosted on RTE’s website - which includes every Dubliner killed by the cruel virus - are names of the people who the pandemic did not kill, but who were denied the final dignity of a traditional funeral – another cruelty of a plague that has left no section of society untouched.
The virtual roll call of unsung heroes includes people like Rose Hegarty, 84, from Finglas in Dublin, who died along with 23 other residents at St Mary’s hospital in Dublin’s Phoenix Park - one of the worst hit nursing homes in the pandemic.
Her family are leading calls for a public inquiry into the devastation in care homes.
A fellow resident at St Mary’s was Brian Murrayhill, 75, from Leitrim. Brian sent his daughter Chelsea a Facebook voice note on April 10. It would be the last time she heard his voice.
The virus also ripped through Dealgan House in Co Louth, where 23 people died.
Among them was Lily McArdle from Monaghan. She would have celebrated her 90th birthday on June 8, when Ireland is due to enter a new phase of re-opening.
Aslan legend Christy Dignam did much to keep the nation’s spirits up during lockdown. Then Covid-19 took his father and biggest fan, Christy senior, in his 80s.
GAA hero Fr Tom Scully achieved legendary status in his native Offaly, managing the county football team to an All Ireland final appearance against Kerry. He died just one month before his 90th birthday.
Dubliner John ‘Sean’ Murray, 85, who read the Irish Mirror every day and played for Sligo Rovers, was the 611th victim.
Doreen Fitzpatrick, 89, died in Dublin’s James Connolly hospital.
Well-known Dublin solicitor Sean Gallagher lost his fight with COVID-19 after bravely battling for weeks in the ICU of Dublin’s Mater Hospital.
The average age of those who died is 82 but many were younger.
Dubliner Susan O’Neill touched the nation with a heartbreaking letter from beyond the grave that her sister read on Liveline.
The 64 year-old left the letter in the glovebox of sister Lorna’s car for her to find. It spoke for many when it simply said: “How can I put into words how much I love you?”
Dublin cabbie Michael Glynn from Tallaght was fondly known by his colleagues as “Mick The Moan,” just a hint of another colourful life cut short by Covid-19.
The heart-wrenching photo of Padraig Byrne desperate to sneak a last parting glance at his 70-year-old brother Francis’s body through the bedroom window of a Dublin care home was one of the defining images of the pandemic.
Sixty nine-year-old Longford native Ann O’Rourke left her husband, three children and five grandchildren heartbroken when she lost her own battle.
But perhaps the epitaph for 89-year-old Teresa Kelly from Cavan best sums up the selfless generation that has born the brunt of this cruel plague.
It poignantly states, ‘A Simple Life’.
But like many hundreds of her lost peers, the humility hides a life less ordinary, one filled with giving and being loved. Lives that can never be forgotten.
