A State of Emergency by Richard Chambers

Author:Richard Chambers [Chambers, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-01T12:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12: The Blindside

Professor Philip Nolan was pacing around the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham with his phone clamped to his ear. It was the first weekend of October, and NPHET was scrambling with texts and calls flying in all directions. After three months, Dr Tony Holohan was back in the frame. It was clear that a swift change in direction was coming.

‘Here’s what I think he’s going to do …’

‘Well, this is where we are …’

‘It’s likely to require more action.’

Spending the weekend in Schull in West Cork, Dr Colm Henry turned to his wife and said they should head out to a restaurant for dinner. Why? ‘Well, we won’t be out again for a while.’

Holohan, deferentially known as ‘The Boss’ by many of his senior colleagues in NPHET, including Deputy CMO Ronan Glynn, was concerned about the virus’s re-emergence. He had been for quite some time.

In August, despite everything going on at home, the CMO was keeping a close eye on proceedings. Privately, he felt the focus had become too centred on three counties – Kildare, Laois and Offaly – and not the country as a whole. It’s understood that Holohan texted Glynn at the time offering counsel. ‘Stick to your principles, stand up to the political pressure, make the calls. Don’t be afraid.’

Holohan was scheduled to return to his desk at the Department of Health on Monday, 5 October, but things were moving quickly. Far more quickly than anyone might have imagined. On Thursday, 1 October, Glynn led a NPHET meeting that came to a consensus: Ireland did not need to move up to Level 3 restrictions. We would stay at Level 2. Further action couldn’t be ruled out in the future, with the Acting CMO raising strong concerns about the growth in clusters and outbreaks.

On the same day as Glynn’s NPHET meeting, news of Holohan’s impending return broke, flashing across journalists’ screens as an Irish Times news alert as they waited to pepper Minister Stephen Donnelly with questions at a briefing.

The minister’s first reaction was one of praise and joy, speaking about looking forward to working alongside the CMO, of whom he remarked, ‘sure he became a national hero when Covid arrived’.

But there would be no hero’s welcome. The weekend that followed would rock the relationships between the CMO, the Minister for Health, the Government and the HSE to their core.

Holohan arrived at the Department of Health ahead of schedule on the Friday, meeting with Ronan Glynn to review the data. By then, the cases from Thursday and Friday were available. ‘This just isn’t good enough,’ he said as they scrolled through the HPSC data. In the previous two weeks, Ireland had had 2,000 confirmed cases. In the week up to Wednesday, 30 September, there were 1,100 cases. By the Sunday, the number was up to 3,000 cases.

‘Certainly, Ronan knew and was deeply concerned about the direction things were going,’ says Professor Philip Nolan. ‘We had been engaging with Government to say they needed to take radical action pretty quickly.

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