In fairness, should rules for funerals be rewritten?

Moving forward six weeks, lockdown and social distancing still in place and what happens? The very politician who announced all the restrictions we would have to continue to observe proudly walking alongside the main mourners at the very large funeral of veteran PIRA figure Bobby Storey this week in west Belfast.

Deputy First Minister Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill was accused of flouting the rules she laid out for the rest of us recently and it’s not exactly clear how this can be dealt with by the Assembly. Leader Arlene Foster called on her to apologise. Others seek her resignation. The Prime Minister’s advisor Dominic Cummings similarly broke rules recently but gave an explanation and a fulsome apology on television. He kept his job.

It seems there is a ridiculous rule that no party but Sinn Fein can ask her to step down, as likely as a cuckoo making its own nest. It would be nice to know who made such a rule.

Flouting these Covid-19 rules has become a national pastime and perhaps it’s only the older generation which is obeying them to the letter. The young don’t appear to want to be bothered with them as recent events have shown. Premier League football celebrations continued long into the night in Liverpool recently those taking part obviously totally unworried that their behaviour could spark another lockdown and possibly cost lives.

We all have stories of deliberate flouting of the rules. It’s not just humans who can suffer from consequences of this devil may care attitude. It can also be devastating for wildlife. Young chicks died on Gull Island in the New Forest recently after the antics of a group of young partygoers who landed on the prohibited island by paddleboard, home to a family of rare birds with chicks. Obviously frightened, the parents of the chicks flew off and didn’t return until the disturbance was over, by which time the chicks had died through lack of food. Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, who owns the estate said it was ‘heart-breaking to observe the parents later bringing food to the dead chicks’.

Recently, on a television debate, I watched aghast a well-known commentator suggest it unfortunate that ‘young people had to be in lockdown to protect old people’. Clearly she doesn’t see what the rest of us see on a daily basis, young people doing exactly as they please, ignoring social distancing in particular. Covid-19 has put the brakes on us all and, perhaps, closed schools are a particular thorn in the side of the young as they are missing their friends and that sense of joyous freedom the end of the school year brings. They have no power to influence anything in their lives, but those of us in the older generation are equally powerless and the idea that the young are paying the price to protect us oldies is something I cannot see.

That Sinn Fein funeral this week will have done more to influence the young that the rules don’t matter. They were burying someone they regard as a ‘hero’ and it had to be a big show to remind the rest of us that their aims are as high as ever and normal rules don’t matter. After all, the second most important politician in the province was there upfront and comfortable with her presence and her role. So, what happens now if someone not so important decides to have the type of grand funeral they want for their deceased loved one, with a special church service and afternoon tea for all the mourners in attendance who have brought comfort to the grieving family? This is how we do funerals in this country but Covid-19 has put paid to this for so many families who have to be content with a spartan burial and no comforting conversations with friends over a cup of tea afterwards. It’s a great insult because we can only bury a loved one once. No one wants to willingly break the law so people give in and follow the guidelines. If the deceased is regarded as a fighting hero then the rules are clearly quite different.