Whether we like it or not the Covid restrictions are all but over and they came to an end at Croke Park last Sunday.
The fact that 40,000 fans were allowed to mix and drink with hardly a mask in sight at the All-Ireland Hurling Final also proves there is one law for the GAA and another for the rest of us.
From here on in, the public cannot be expected to take the restrictions seriously when the country’s biggest sporting body doesn’t appear to.
Like much else in Ireland, when it comes to whether or not an event goes ahead or how it is regulated, it’s down to influence and who you know.
If we’ve learnt anything from the unravelling of the Covid-19 restrictions is that, like farmers, the GAA can play fast and loose with how the regulations are applied.
Huge crowds gathered and the drink flowed and all restrictions were thrown to the wind but there were no sanctions.
Contrast this with the situation a few weeks earlier when much smaller crowds drinking in Dublin city centre were baton charged.
Like the US withdrawal from Afghanistan the Irish Government’s retreat from the restrictions has been chaotic.
Although the Chief Medical Officer has given the green light to open air events “if everyone is vaccinated” it didn’t appear to apply to the huge crowd milling in and around Croke Park and the pubs in North Dublin.
The tens of thousands of workers in the live entertainment sector, who are due to have their PUP payments cut next month, must be wondering how they can get a gig from the GAA.
They might also ask how they can get the heavyweight support thrown behind a one-off yuppie festival while their businesses and careers lie in ruins.
Funny how the pressing need for the Electric Picnic to go ahead seems to have taken precedence over the plight of so many workers in the entertainment industry who have been idle for 18 months.
As the fight to save the Electric Picnic became a dog’s dinner, the country’s most senior law officer was apparently called in to dig this upmarket shindig out of a hole.
Leo Varadkar and the Attorney General becoming involved in an outdoor gathering, what could possibly go wrong?
I suppose he has form, didn’t he get the Tanaiste off the hook following Merriongate and in the process blew existing Covid regulations out of the water.
The rot set in after Katherine Zappone’s soiree at the posh Merrion Hotel to celebrate her made-up job as Ireland’s free speech envoy at the UN.
Leo was at what appeared to be an illegal gathering but it was a classic case of Better Call Saul the Attorney General was drafted in to provide cover. He decreed that, unbeknownst to every hotel and restaurant in the country, not 50, but 200 people could attend such outside functions.
Unfortunately the country’s top law official appears unable to work his magic for future events in way he could for past ones and the Electric Picnic will not go ahead this year.
But Leo and the Attorney General becoming involved only serves to highlight the confusion and lack of Government planning surrounding the lifting of restrictions.
There is no plan and no timeline for an entire industry that has been as good as abandoned.
To be fair to those behind Electric Picnic, unlike Croke Park last weekend, the organisers would only allow people to work or attend the festival if they are fully-vaccinated and demand a Covid Cert to confirm their status.
It is now time for all outdoor events to be allowed as long as public health advice is followed.
But what is needed most of all is clarity because at present there is nothing but confusion with NPHET now ahead of the Government and local authorities when it comes to loosening restrictions.
There must also be a return to indoor events for those who can prove they are fully vaccinated or show a negative PCR test.
When this allows the public here to travel to most European cities, attend a concert and then fly back to Ireland it’s just silly that someone can’t go to a similar performance locally.
Then again, this is Ireland.
