RTÉ's Arts and Media Correspondent Sinead Crowley recalls the switch in assignment which saw her reporting live from the most famous conference room in Ireland.
In terms of my own work, a lot has changed since I filed my first working from home diary. At that time I was still working full time as Arts and Media correspondent, and most of my reports concerned the devastating blow dealt to the arts sector industry by Covid-19 restrictions.
Shortly afterwards however I was assigned to covering Covid-19 itself and soon found myself down at the Department of Health, reporting live from, as one friend put it, the most famous conference room in Ireland. Some people wondered if the move from Arts to Health was a difficult one for me, but to be honest, the basic journalism remained the same.
It is our job as reporters to absorb information, ask questions and then tell the story to the audience in an informative and accessible way. As the briefings were filled with numbers, graphs and trends, it was important to remember the people behind the statistics, and the lives and families that had been forever changed by Covid-19.
Thankfully, I was able to take a break in August and the four of us, my husband Andrew and our two sons, travelled firstly to Waterford, and then to Kerry. Some miracle of timing meant we hit the best weather of the year, and were able to cycle, kayak, surf and swim on some of the nicest beaches in the country.
It was a more active holiday than usual but the weather made it feel like a real break, although it was hard to 'get away from it all' when it seemed the entire population of Dublin had travelled south at the same time.
But we had a great holiday and the surfing in particular was a highlight for everyone. I used to surf when I was younger and had always dreamed of getting the kids involved and thankfully, they loved it as much as I did, and were, of course, far better than me within hours.
Culturally speaking, online services were our best friends. I used the BorrowBox app when the libraries were closed, the boys became expert at playing Among Us and we all watched a lot of TV. The Americans on Amazon Prime was the adults' series of choice during the summer and, now that the nights are long, the four of us are making our way through the Marvel Universe on Disney+, with me nerdily checking various websites to make sure we are watching in the 'correct' order - chronological, no arguments please.
Scoil Uí Chruadhlaoich is a much more viable institution this time, thankfully. The information flow from the boys' school is great, there was clearly a lot of work put into facilitating home learning and the children are getting their work done, even though they reckon the múinteoir baile (that would be me) is a lot stricter than the real life version.
If there is one thing the current generation will take away from Covid-19 it's that school is not so bad actually. Whereas in the pre-Covid days an open-ended break might have sounded like a great idea, when it comes down to it most kids would rather be back in the classroom.
The fact that the parks have remained open has been a great help at Am Lón Mór. However, I'm also very conscious that we as a family are privileged to have enough technology, broadband capacity, space and the basics, like heating, to keep the whole show on the road and to attempt school at home without any of those things would be very tough indeed.
I returned to the arts beat, but things were still far from normal there. Filming in an empty Stradbally on Electric Picnic weekend, with sheep grazing where the stages should have been, was a stark visual reminder of everything that had been lost by artists, and those who work alongside them.
Supports were put in place and very much welcomed by the sector, and online streamed gigs. Performances supported by, among others, the Department of the Arts gave employment to many, while giving audiences at home much needed entertainment and indeed comfort. But all involved in the sector are counting the days until we can, to use that now-loaded word, 'congregate' again.
And then the Covid figures rose again and I found myself back at the Department of Health, back looking at numbers, back thinking of hospital beds and trends and families who had no clue at the start of 2020 that this was how their year would end.
And it all feels very different now. There are no banana bread recipes on social media, very few articles suggesting we use this time to learn a new language or train for a marathon in 5km loops of the local park.
There is just the acknowledgement that things are difficult, and may well get more challenging before they get better. But they will get better. And all we can do in work, home school and in our own heads is to stay quiet, be gentle with ourselves, try not to count the hours passing slowly, and work towards those better days.
One of my favourite Irish novels is Solar Bones by Mike McCormack, and I can't quote the last lines in their entirety because my two pupils might be reading this and múinteoir has her image to maintain. But I can quote most of them:
... there is nothing else for it but to keep going, one foot in front of the other
the head down and keep going
keep going
keep going to -
You'll have to read the book to find out the rest. But it's a more fulfilling yarn than Tiger King anyway.
Read Sinead's first 'At home with . . .' account back in April 2020 here
