Ireland cancels all St. Patrick’s Day parades amid coronavirus outbreak

N ^ | March 9, 2020 | Jackie Salo

[nickcarraway]

The nation of Ireland has canceled all St. Patrick’s Day parades, including the massive Dublin festivities, over concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

The decision to nix large gatherings for the March 17 holiday was made Monday by a new government subcommittee on the virus, national broadcaster RTE reported.

The celebrations are known for kicking off the country’s tourism season with 500,000 revelers from around the world flooding the country of 4.8 million each year for the various parades in its towns and villages.

[real saxophonist]

Savannah won’t cancel.

[BluegrassCardinal]

Imagine taking the early 1950’s Polio epidemic and applying it to 2020. People would literally go insane.

In 1952 there were over 58,000 cases and 3,000 or so of those resulted in death. The virus was awful in children, many of whom would suffer from some form of paralysis, or spend time in an iron lung.

[cloudmountain]

I can't say that I blame them.

[campaignPete R-CT]

Pull up the shades.
Open the windows.
Do spring cleaning.

[hanamizu]

The virus was awful in children

---

I believe an alternate name for polio was infantile paralysis. Like Wuhan, polio could be quite mild, like a bad cold; bad, temporary weakness of a limb very bad, paralysis from the waist down; awful paralysis from the neck down—living in an iron lung; and less remembered now, death.

As a little kid, the iron lung terrified me. TV would show little kids lying on their backs with a tilted mirror to see the world bravely reading propped up books, turning the pages with stick in their mouths. March of Dimes even had little iron lung banks to put your dimes in.

[I want the USA back]

muzzies will be rejoicing, as Ireland denies its cultural heritage.

[BluegrassCardinal]

My mom told me she was terrified of contracting to polio as a child. During the height of the epidemic, she would have been 6 or 7. If that wasn’t bad enough, that generation of kids moved on to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 62. Pretty scary time to be alive.

[hanamizu]

“...that generation of kids moved on to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 62. Pretty scary time to be alive.”

---

Yep, talkin’ ‘bout my generation! There is a movie, “Matinee”, that captures the spirt of the early 60s and the missile crisis perfectly at least from the perspective of my then adolescent mind. Being in the fallout shelter with the cute girl from school.

[Hatteras]

Let's have a go, bejesus! Choose your weapon...

[The Sons of Liberty]

Ireland cancels all St. Patrick’s Day parades amid coronavirus outbreak

Head straight to the bars then?

[Mrs. Don-o]

Ireland’s citizens denied their cultural heritage quite awhile ago, when they enthusiatically threw themselves into the filth-pit of no-fault divorce, abortion and sodomy.