'We must remember': Graham Norton helps unveil covid memorial in Bandon (2024)

“One of the perks of getting older, and there are a few, is that places, events and people can spark memories, they remind us of things and they bring us back, and we say ‘that’s like the time when we...’,” he said.

“And that was one of the most terrifying things of the covid experience. Because it was unprecedented. It didn’t remind us of anything. We had nothing to call back to. There was nothing to anchor us in that experience.

“It was terrifying heading into it, not knowing when, how or if it would end. And now that it’s over, it’s totally understandable that we want to just move on, and never think about it again.

“Even now when you see those two-metres apart signs on the supermarket floor, it sends a shudder through you standing in the queue for your groceries. And of course, we must remember — particularly young people and older people who were disproportionately affected."

"It’s terrific that this is being memorialised with this beautiful artwork in memory of what we all went through, what we sacrificed, and the people and things that we lost.”

The artwork was created by clients of the HSE’s Bandon Day Care Centre, based at the town’s landmark Allin Institute building, and by local transition year students, who all worked together with artist Anne McManamon in the months after covid to create clay tiles.

The tiles, which express the daily rituals, habits and friends that helped them through the crisis, are set in a tablet created from Kilkenny stone. An excerpt from Rebirth, a poem by local poet, Catherine Ronan, is also carved on the stone.

It has been installed in a newly landscaped riverside area just outside the Allin Institute — a building Mr Norton said played a large role in his childhood.

He recalled attending beetle drives and 'bring and buy' sales there as a child, and how his father tried and failed to teach him to play snooker there.

He said he was delighted to unveil the artwork because his mother avails of the day care service and warned him to be available to launch it.

“She’s very fond of everyone, they’re very good to her. It was a three line whip that I should go up to it today,” he joked.

Funded by Avondhu Blackwater Partnership, West Cork LCDC and LEADER funding, Creative Bandon’s Marguerite McQuaid said the memorial project was an effort to make sense of the devastation of the pandemic, and “our tentative emergence to normality”.

“It is so wonderful to have Graham as a Bandonion and artist performing the unveiling. Without the comfort of the culture and entertainment at that time — he epitomises what got us through the pandemic,” she said, as she hailed the bravery of the older people who engaged in the project.

Among them was Bridie O’Mahony, 96, from Bandon, who attends the day care group on Tuesdays.

“Covid was difficult. I live on my own, and it was a lonely time,” she said.

“But this project was lovely. The teenagers came along, and we joined in, and it was great.”

Bandon Grammar student, Darragh Walsh, created a tile featuring surfing which he said helped him through lockdown.

“Covid was hard, and as time when on it got harder and harder — you couldn’t see your family or friends, or go outside your two kilometres which got quite dull after a while, and online learning was tough too. It was hard to motivate yourself to do the work,” he said.

St Brogan’s student, Sabrina Webb, said readjusting to 'normal life' after covid has been difficult but it was great to work on the artwork project.

“It was nice to talk to the older generation and see how the pandemic affected them,” she said.

Noreen Walsh, the clinical nurse manager of the HSE Bandon Day Care Centre, said the project really helped people return to normal life.

“Everything closed down. And it was difficult to support our clients because we just closed down and we were gone for a year and a half,” she said.

“I was redeployed five times, my first time was into the community hospital where they had a serious outbreak and I was so stressed out.

“But we had great volunteers and every month we divided up the areas, and we would do a drop, like flowers, a card, or teabags, just to let them know that ‘we were still here’ and we would wave at them through their windows.

“And when they came back, they said ‘thank you’ for keeping the connection.”