The Fight For Resilience

Writes Ciaran Dineen - Editor In ChiefI couldn’t help but be struck by the dulcet tones of French President, Emmanuel Macron earlier this week, but the message he had for France and for the world was far from sweet. “We are at war” claimed Macron, who has imposed similar lockdown practices in his country as seen in Italy and Spain. For once it seems that the world isn’t actually split apart in the face of such uncertainty, in fact it would appear that while the enemy is currently winning, it stands alone on the battlefield.A few weeks ago I’m sure pretty much everyone in UCC was taking COVID-19 with a pinch of salt, but it has gone on to disrupt all of our lives, some of which will never be the same ever again. I’ve spoken with quite a few people in the last week who aren’t Irish but live here and I’ve asked all of them how they would best describe us and our history as a nation. The common adjective that rolled from their tongues? Resilience.Resilience, I think is perhaps one of our greatest strengths and over the coming weeks, months and even years, we are going to need a great deal of it. While many of us have grown up in the eye of the recession, this I feel could be our biggest test, because now more than ever, we are out of our comfort zones. In tough times we have rebounded, dusted ourselves down and made the best of terrible situations, an admirable characteristic. However, our strength comes with numbers, and we are a nation that is obsessed with coming together to face adversity, this time we can’t rely on that if we want to come out of this on the right side. Social distancing and isolation is not our forté and on this occasion, a rousing rendition of The Fields of Athenry (see Euros 2012) isn’t going to cut it. This time around, our resilience needs to be matched with our patience and while many of us won’t see some family, friends and colleagues for this time, we must remain strong and remember that our love for them is what drives us to remain resilient.Firstly I want to thank every member of the Express family for their contributions in this Edition, which is potentially our last (but I remain hopeful). They have given a hell of a lot to put this paper together, in particular Byline Editor, Cian, and Designer, Fiona. Congratulations to all of those who were elected last week to the 2020/21 UCCSU. I wish you all the very best.As always happy reading.Take care,Ciaran.