Covid vaccination and past vaccinations

2021 has been a hard year for many families and businesses. It was a year many of us had to work behind closed doors, while other workers continued to serve the public on a person-to-person basis. To the nurses, doctors and other hospital staff we must include the shop assistants who were available to serve the public throughout the pandemic. There are many other occupations, including teachers, who continued to provide services during the Covid pandemic and who continued to do so as new variations of the virus spread around the world. Controversy has arisen with the possibility of compulsory vaccination being imposed. Compulsory nationwide vaccination is nothing new in terms of Irish public health. In 1863 compulsory vaccination was introduced to prevent the spread of smallpox. A rare disease nowadays, smallpox was very prevalent in the 18th century and in the early part of the following century. It wasn’t until the 20th century that there was worldwide eradication of smallpox which in earlier times had a high mortality rate. Ireland of the early post famine years of the 1840s recorded approximately 1,500 deaths a year from smallpox. Smallpox deaths in 1871 were 666 at a time when it was estimated that one fifth to two fifths of those with smallpox died, while those who recovered were often blinded or left with pock marked faces. Athy’s Poor Law Commissioners who controlled the local workhouse were responsible for the operation of the State Vaccination Programme in the Athy Poor Law union area. The Workhouse minute books record the details of families who failed to bring their children to the vaccination centres following which fines were imposed. It is unclear whether those fines were ever collected or indeed were collectable given the level of poverty in towns and rural parts of Ireland at that time. Despite the apparent success of the vaccination programme there were further smallpox outbreaks in Ireland between 1871 and 1873 during which period almost 2,000 smallpox deaths were recorded in the Dublin area. The last major epidemic of smallpox in Ireland occurred in 1878/’79. Then the Dublin area recorded 1,490 smallpox deaths and here in Athy between 2nd July 1878 and the following 18th January 24 smallpox deaths were recorded in the local fever hospital. Included amongst the dead were five children, twelve labourers, one boatman, one governess, Richard St. John, jeweller and Samuel Connolly, a druggist, as chemists were then described. These were only the smallpox deaths registered in the Fever Hospital which had been built with funds initially gathered by the townspeople for a Mr. Keatinge following the destruction of his business premises by fire. Keatinge donated the funds collected for the building of the Fever Hospital. The Union Workhouse, as it was called, also had a fever hospital which I suspect was no more than a small isolated building kept apart from the main workhouse building. The smallpox deaths recorded in the Workhouse fever hospital during the smallpox outbreak of 1878/’79 have not yet been identified. During the past year there have been a large number of deaths, both nationally and locally, not all Covid related. However, funeral arrangements have been restricted and this has been especially difficult for families who lost loved ones. During the past year I lost three classmates, none of whose deaths were Covid related, but nevertheless Covid restrictions meant that many former classmates were unable to attend their funerals. Peter Whelan, Teddy Kelly and Pat Flinter were men I had known since childhood and their passing leaves me with sad but treasured memories of times past. Two other deaths this year were of men with whom I shared experiences for almost 40 years. Trevor Shaw I admired for his unwavering commitment to the social and commercial development of his hometown, while Toss Quinn was a highly respected lawyer, whose passion for Irish music and uilleann piping were the hallmarks of a truly cultured Irishman. The photograph shows two relatively young Solicitors with files in hand standing outside the Courthouse in 1992 taken by the late Gerard Osborne.