Archive for Lockdown

Five Years at Home in Maynooth

Posted in Biographical, Covid-19, Maynooth with tags , , , , on August 26, 2025 by telescoper

I’ve received a number of bills and renewal notices of various kinds over the last few weeks, indicating the anniversary of me completing the purchase of, and moving into, my house in Maynooth. In fact it was five years ago today that I wrote a blog post occasioned by the fact that I’d collected the keys to this property, though it wasn’t until the following weekend that I actually stayed overnight here for the first time.

I was very lucky to be able to able to buy this property in what turned out to be a short window in the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions in the Summer of 2020. There were plans to return to on-campus teaching in September with drastic restrictions on the number of students in each venue. That plan was subsequently changed and then changed again to move almost all teaching back online, and then again to move again into a “Level 5” lockdown.

I was Head of Department back then. My memories of that time were immense levels of stress and frustration, constantly having to change our teaching arrangements with very little support from the University as well as shouldering a full teaching load. In order for the institution to carry on functioning, all teaching and support staff to do huge amounts of unpaid overtime while the institution built up a massive financial surplus. I could say more about the callous indifference to staff and students alike shown at that time by one particular member of The Management, but I think I had better save it for when I’ve retired.

Given the enormous workload I had then, it was to be almost another year before I had time to collect most of my belongings from my house in Cardiff and longer still before I managed to sell it and pay off the mortgage I took out to buy my house here. All this was much more complicated than I expected when I moved to Ireland!

Anyway, many of the things I’d planned to do when I moved here still aren’t done. I bought some old furniture from the previous owner with the intention of replacing it with new, for example, but I somehow never got round to that. Nor have I replaced the old windows, gutters, etc, yet…

One thing I have done is change the refuse collection. When I moved in I took over a contract with  Bord na Móna (literally “The Turf Board”), a company set up in 1946 to supply peat as a form of fuel but now diversified into other activities such as collecting and disposing waste. Over the last year the service provided by this company has degenerated to the point of complete unreliability. When I looked around for a replacement I found that Bord na Móna was also significantly more expensive than its competitors. Earlier this summer, therefore, I swtiched to a company called Greyhound which so far seems much better organized and is about 2/3 the price. That meant I had two sets of wheelie bins cluttering up my garden for about two months until Bord na Móna got around to removing theirs.

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Pandemic Memories, Five Years On

Posted in Biographical, Covid-19, Education, Maynooth with tags , , , on March 13, 2025 by telescoper

At the start of my Computational Physics lecture at 9am this morning I suddenly remembered that it was the corresponding day five years ago that Covid-19 pandemic restrictions were introduced in Ireland. The date for that was Thursday March 12th 2020, while today is Thursday March 13th 2025, but it was the same stage of of the semester, the Thursday before St Patrick’s Day and the mid-term Study Break.

One thing I remember quite well from that day five years ago was that I told my Computational Physics class to keep an eye on their email during the day as I thought an announcement would be made. When it came – around lunchtime, if memory serves – it was much stricter than I had anticipated: from 6pm that day, all schools, colleges and cultural institutions were to close until 29th March. Few people believed that would be the end of it, and we were right!

I had a computing laboratory session that afternoon, which went ahead, but some students understandably left early as they had to find their way home. The next time I interacted with any students it was online, and remote working carried on for many months, not just the two weeks originally planned. I did not envisage it would last so long. Nor did I imagine how little support teaching staff would receive from management. Indeed, the University saw the opportunity to build up large surpluses during the lockdown, all generated by the huge amount of extra, unacknowledged and unrenumerated, work put in by academics and support staff. That’s all money that should have been spent on the education of students. It was never going to be easy to teach during lockdown, but deliberately withholding resources made it far harder than it had to be.

Among other things, the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions played havoc with my perception of the passage of time and messed with my memory. I remember some things very clearly, such the lecture and lab on the day the restrictions were announced, which seem like they happened a few weeks ago never mind five years. Other things are like ancient history. Several major life events took place during the Covid-19 period period that I find it hard place in chronological order without looking at written records (including this blog).

I am not an expert on such matters but it seems to me that the isolation, disruption of social interaction, and the loss of familiar routines imposed by work are among the things responsible for distorting one’s perception of the passage of time and powers of recall.

It was not just the disruption to routine of course. There was also a genuine fear of becoming infected. From time to time after my last in-person class on March 12th 2020, I wondered if I would ever see those students again. I also made arrangements to write a will. For a time it looked likely that intensive care facilities in Ireland might be overwhelmed so I felt it important to make contingencies of that sort. Fortunately they weren’t needed. As far as I know the Coronavirus never reached me, though I think even those of us who were never infected by Covid-19 were definitely affected by it.

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Psychological Time

Posted in Biographical, Covid-19, Education with tags , , , on June 21, 2020 by telescoper

So, the Summer Solstice for 2020 is now in the past. It’s all downhill from here!

As the Solstice approached last night I was thinking back to the Vernal Equinox which had happened this year on March 20th, exactly three months before. That was at the end of Study Week in the Spring Semester but the students did not return the following week and we switched to remote teaching. I find it astonishing to think that was just three months ago. It seems like ancient history. Not only that but several major events took place during that period that I find it hard place in chronological order without looking at written records (including this blog).

I am not an expert on such matters but it seems to me that the isolation, disruption of social interaction, and the loss of familiar routines imposed by work are among the things responsible distorting perception of the passage of time. I have tried to impose a regular pattern on my day during this time but only with limited success. I suspect it’s not only me who has felt like this over the past weeks and months!

It’s not just the disruption to routine of course. There was also a genuine fear of becoming infected. My last in-person lecture was on 12th March, the Thursday before Study Week. From time to time I wondered if I would ever see those students again. I also made arrangements to write a will. For a time it looked likely that intensive care facilities in Ireland might be overwhelmed so I felt it important to make contingencies of that sort. Fortunately they weren’t needed. As far as I know the Coronavirus hasn’t reached me. I certainly haven’t had any symptoms, though I haven’t actually been tested.

Overall I found the lockdown very difficult at first but I think adjusted reasonably well despite (or perhaps because of?) having very peculiar dreams.

Now that the Covid-19 restrictions are gradually being wound down hopefully some measure of routine will resume and the sense of disorientation will fade. Time will tell.

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