There's one group of people we really shouldn’t forget about when all of this is over – the animals spitting at our frontline defenders.
There have been multiple claims of incidents where front-line emergency staff have been allegedly spat on in the course of their duties.
This is not new. For years, we have had people throwing rocks at firemen, assaulting ambulance crews and spitting at gardai.
But in the middle of a national public health emergency, with our frontline workers stretched to the very limit and a mounting daily death toll, it’s not just thuggish behaviour.
At the very least, this is threatening to kill a public servant in the course of their duty at a time of national emergency.
And it should be punished as such, even if we have to change the law to do so.
In the 1980s, Cork city, like many other areas across Ireland, had a serious problem with joyriding.
One response was to designate Spike Island – also known as Ireland’s Alcatraz – as a prison for youth offenders.
Today, Spike Island is one of the country’s most visited tourist attractions. Back in the 1980s, it was a fortress prison on a barren island – a grim place that nobody wanted to do time on.
It had stone cells, howling winds and the odd boat to bring across anybody who was brave enough to visit the inmates.
By itself, Spike didn’t “solve” the joyriding problem. And prison is not the answer to all of society’s issues. But you can bet those cold cells gave young offenders pause for thought. For many of those who ended up out there, it was a short, sharp shock, a serious lesson in how actions have consequences.
Go to any court in Ireland and you’ll see thugs in the dock who have 100 previous convictions.
If a 30-year-old has 80 previous convictions, you don’t have to be Judge Judy to work out that maybe the criminal justice system is not having the desired effect.
Which brings us back to our coronavirus spitters. One legacy from our troubled history is that we have loads of old forts and prisons dotted in some of the most out-of-the-way spots.
Yes – they are mostly derelict and need serious fixing up. But that’s an opportunity and not a problem.
Shovels, picks, buckets and brushes with a few months’ hard-labour would do wonders for the buildings and the attitudes of those who spit on our gardai.
We can’t have them back on our streets until they have learned to behave like human beings.
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