Ben Lowry: We should heed the advice of the woman who launched the applause for the NHS and make next Thursday the last

For six years I lived in a semi detached house in south Belfast.
By Ben Lowry
Published 23rd May 2020, 11:29 BST
Updated 23rd May 2020, 12:01 BST
People stand on Westminster Bridge to applaud NHS workers on Thursday April 23. The incident became controversial because of the crowding and lack of social distancing. Ben Lowry says: "It was when the applause tipped into unpleasant sentimentality" Photo: Aaron Chown/PA WirePeople stand on Westminster Bridge to applaud NHS workers on Thursday April 23. The incident became controversial because of the crowding and lack of social distancing. Ben Lowry says: "It was when the applause tipped into unpleasant sentimentality" Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire
People stand on Westminster Bridge to applaud NHS workers on Thursday April 23. The incident became controversial because of the crowding and lack of social distancing. Ben Lowry says: "It was when the applause tipped into unpleasant sentimentality" Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire

I met the neighbours on the other half of the house within hours of moving in, and those in a detached house next door within days.

It took far longer to meet the people on the other side of the street.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

As can happen in a neighbourhood, I rarely saw the residents of the three houses opposite — one directly opposite, one to the left, and one to the right.

One of those three households I never knowingly met. Perhaps I passed them in the street but never registered it if so. I lived in close proximity to people for six years yet never knew them.

The weekly applause for the NHS has reduced such lack of interaction between neighbours.

I thought applause a great idea when I saw it on TV in Spain and embraced it for here as a demonstration of support for people who did not recoil from putting themselves at risk in an emergency.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But my enthusiasm flagged when it tipped into unpleasant sentimentality. The crowded scenes on Westminster bridge a month ago were ostentatiously virtuous and embarrassing and breached social distancing.

But while there were Thursdays around that time when I did not come out, I have latterly re-engaged because, as in streets across the UK, it has generated a communal spirit in the road where I now live.

I have met people I hadn’t met since moving in 18 months ago. This is incidental to the aim of the applause, which is to convey gratitude for those on the Covid frontline, but it is at the same time a fitting by-product of the national communal mood.

Rather than let the applause fizzle out, we should heed the architect of the applause, Annemarie Plas, and make this Thursday, the tenth, the last.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Let us hope the NHS is not hit again, but the applause will return if it is.

• Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter deputy editor

• Ben Lowry: If this island must be different, why not come out of lockdown faster?

Related topics:Ben LowryNHSBelfastSpain