He told us he was going to do it. Last week, he said he'd be saying it for the last time this week. But what a way to go out.
On Friday’s Liveline, Joe Duffy gave us an epic poem by way of saying goodbye to his iconic pandemic catchphrase, "51551 wash yer hands".
For almost 16 months, listeners have heard the phrase regularly during the programme. It’s been a hashtag on social media, it’s become akin to a mantra, but today its race is run (so to speak).
You should still wash your hands, of course, but the pandemic has taken us to a place where, Joe feels, "The soon that we hoped for, is now."
He's said it thousands of times over the last 15 months, but today @joeliveline officially retired "51551 Wash Your Hands". And he penned a very special poem for the occasion. "The soon that we hoped for, is now." @RTERadio1 @rteliveline #WashYourHands pic.twitter.com/VSZFA5Llka
— RTÉ (@rte) June 11, 2021
Wash Yer Hands
The job in hand was
To hand write a poem about
(51551 Wash yer) hands,
I don’t know if I heard it, first-hand
Second hand or third hand,
But, hand on heart,
From my soft hands who never did a hard day’s work in their life,
I tried to write this goodbye to
(51551 wash yer) hands
But It was out of my hands
So I hold my hands up,
I did get a helping hand
I went,
Cap in hand,
I said can you,
"Give us a hand,"
And I left it in their hands
And then by their own hand they wrote
"My hands are full,"
So they couldn’t lend a hand with
(51551 Wash yer) hands
I thought I could count my friends on more than one hand,
but my hands were tied, unless I could get
…. all hands-on deck,
I got poets with time on their hands, they held my hand,
And with a guiding hand, using a hand book,
I have to hand it to them
We hand made this poem, and hand signed it ,
But it was too… heavy-handed,
We realised, the task was out of our hands,
Because, we don’t have gifted hands,
Hands up or hands down
That was the hand signal
That the poem
(51551 wash yer) hands
Had got out of hand
So now,
I will wait hand and foot,
As you hand me down your
Handouts,
your hand-printed,
handsome words,
Your golden hand-shake
As you tell me we all have the whole world in our
(51551 wash yer) hands
Lavez-vous les mains
Nigh do lámha
Wasche deine Hande
Lavati lay
My life is in your hands
But it was the healing hands
The gifted hands, the holding hands, the open hands
That had the whip hand
When the right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing,
We got the upper hand,
as hand in hand,
We came through a pandemic,
a hand demic that was a hand full,
not from the hand of God,
As we said:
"Get your dirty, filthy hands offa me"
As it got out of hand,
We did not hold our hands, but we did
(51551) wash our hands
And now we have more time on our hands, hands free,
We will wash our hands of this pandemic
This hand-demic
because we can-demic
And so, with a freer hand, raise a glass
Of clear water,
To every son and daughter,
Mother and father, uncle, and aunt,
Siblings and friends to the end,
To all those we missed and lost
And loved from a distance
To the anonymous 5155 ones washing their hands
For the clean hands, thank you,
For the healing hands, thank you
For the hands that wiped away tears,
Take a bow,
The soon that we hoped for is now
So, by a show of hands,
we say goodbye to
(51551 wash yer) hands
You can listen Joe Duffy reading his poem by clicking play in the image above and you hear Friday’s Liveline in full by going here.
