While most people were happy to be back in pubs, hairdressers and gyms after the lifting of the Level 5 COVID-19 restrictions, for others it was about being able to see their loved ones again.
It was a long second lockdown for nursing home resident Phyllis Fagan and her daughter Jackie Brannigan but being reunited made it all worth it.
Phyllis, 82, is a resident at Tara Winthrop Private Clinic in Swords, Co Dublin, and her daughter found it difficult to be away from her for so long.
Jackie told Dublin Live: “Getting to see mammy was the best thing ever.
“I hugged and kissed the life out of her when I saw her, it's very hard on her because she didn’t quite understand why I couldn’t come in.
“She has dementia and some days she’d recognise me but others she wouldn’t. But she’s always full of stories for me, telling me about how she’d just been in town and I just let her on. Sometimes she thinks she’s visiting me.”
However, it has been an incredibly difficult year for the family as Phyllis was one of the first people in the country to get COVID-19.
Jackie said: “She’s 82 and she also has COPD so we were prepared for the worst. But she got through it. She’s a fighter.”
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