Martina Devlin

Masked up: A man takes a picture of the window display at a Dublin bridal boutique. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA

Martina Devlin Opinion In this age of equality, blatant inequality has left women more open to fall-out from virus

Women are not more clever, imaginative, constructive, hardworking or vibrant than men. Nor are they less so. Women are not more needy, idle, helpless, shrill or vulnerable than men. Nor are they less so.

Time to deliver: A postman walks past a Dublin mural inspired by the HSE ‘Hold Firm’ campaign. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA

Martina Devlin Opinion Dithering politicians have kept us in limbo for 100 days - we can't let this happen again

There's a Zen proverb which advises: 'When walking, walk. When eating, eat.' It means we should concentrate on the activity we're engaged in currently.

Testing times: Leaving Cert has been cancelled for this year and replaced with ‘calculated grades’.

Martina Devlin Opinion Why abandoning the Leaving Cert is the wrong decision at the wrong time

Granted, it's flip-flop weather, but does the Education Minister really have to embrace flip-flopping with such enthusiasm that he applies it to policy- making?

Gesture: Hearts are being knitted for people in palliative care – coronavirus patients are deprived of human touch and love from their relatives. Photo: Amber Cantwell/PA Wire

Martina Devlin Opinion Our country is tight-knit - but stresses of lockdown could see social fabric fray

How precarious the present feels, even as the parameters of our world are about to be extended by a few kilometres. Whether the exclusion zone is 5km or 2km, our reality remains shrunken.

Members of the public pass a mural in Portobello, Dublin during the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic in Ireland.
Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Martina Devlin Opinion Intensive caring and good dose of common sense will deliver a superior design for life

Once upon a time, we presumed intensive care was something which only happened in hospitals - now we know intensive caring can exist on a broader scale: community-wide, city-wide and country-wide.

The truth is our inattention turned these homes into a forgotten frontline

Martina Devlin Opinion How our neglect turned nursing homes into forgotten frontline of a Covid-19 war

An afterthought. A postscript. A scramble to play catch-up. And hundreds of people have died - some of whose deaths must have been preventable.

Testing times: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Health Minister Simon Harris and Cillian de Gascun, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, duing a visit. Photo: Aidan Crawley/EPA-EFE Pool

Martina Devlin Opinion Covid-19 wave hasn't hit yet but frontline testing could get us ahead of the curve

There is much we don't yet know about Covid-19. But there are some things we do know which could be used as part of the containment drive. Number one, we know it's highly contagious. Number two, we know people in frontline healthcare are more exposed to the virus than others in the population - among those who've contracted it, one in four is a health worker.

Message of hope: A quote from Seamus Heaney is chalked on a gate near Martina Devlin’s home.

Martina Devlin Opinion We all seek out hope but it's important to remember that lockdown is not forever

Abraham Lincoln borrowed a nugget of wisdom from medieval Persian poetry for a speech delivered six years before his assassination.

Restrictions: Cao Junjie demonstrates a safety pod he created to protect his two-month old baby from Covid-19, in Shanghai, China. Photo: Reuters

Martina Devlin Opinion Chinese quarantine a very different beast to light lockdown we're living with here

Where were you when the Twin Towers were hit? When the bank guarantee was announced? When the Princess of Wales died? I don't suppose too many people remember where they were when they first heard the coronavirus or Covid-19 mentioned. But it is epoch-defining. And it will impact personally on us all, in large ways and small.

Light reading: Paschal Donohoe always likes to have a book on hand.
Photo: Gerry Mooney

Paschal Donohoe rules out Taoiseach bid as he tells of hopes to write a book

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has an ambition - and it's not to be Taoiseach.