It shocked a nation at the time.
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A number of years ago, an Irish couple died in their home. John Glennon (66) and partner Deborah McEvoy (63) were found on their bedroom floor on January 14th, 2014.
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They died due to the cold. They were afraid to turn on their heating too much, fearing putting themselves into serious financial debt.
To quote the then Irish Independent…
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“The postmortem was carried out by then deputy state pathologist Dr Khalid Jaber. He gave hypothermia as the cause of death for Ms McEvoy. In Mr Glennon’s case, Dr Jaber found evidence of a heart attack with an element of hypothermia and on a background of poor nutritional status. Neither had alcohol or medication in their system at the time of death and no food was found in their stomachs. “ LINK
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Right now we are going through a serious cold period while being major attention drawn in other direction through daily Covid updates and TD’s are trying to create PR soundbites or trying to grab media attention for own reasons.
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Sadly, so far, I have not heard one speak loudly of the current cold. I’m sure some have, but they have likely been drowned out by others with other topics.
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The government and opposition are distracted by Covid and other issues as ever. This is understandable. However, I say we much also get back to basics of every day living too.
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We must orientate our thinking to a point where we must accept Covid to some degree, is here to stay. We must orientate the way our departments and private lives operate to better cope with Covid. In short, it’s here to stay, we must adjust, learn to cope and move on. This also means going back to addressing other issues. This includes seeing that NO ONE is left afraid to switch on a simple heater.
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When the couple died, many in Ireland were shocked. “How could this happen in this day and age?” Many asked! Well, it did – and unless we deal with this matter more so as cold spells re-hit, a tragedy of the past could hit us again. Cold truth.
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So, thinking practically, the government of the day needs to NOW (not in a month or year) go to the oil suppliers, the power companies, the heating suppliers of many kinds – and say to them, “Whatever the home heating bills are, please, please do not cut anyone off unless it’s an absolute necessity!” If any have asked it before, they must re-state it again.
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Money owed by those near broke or those seeing incoming bills that will put them broke, should NOT be allowed to become a reason for people to turn away from hitting a heat switch. We have to live now. In this particular situation, we should pay later – when we can, at a rate we can, at a rate we can come to agreement later with heat/power suppliers.
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Those that really need help right now, must be greater reached out to.
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If anything good is to come from the tragic deaths of John Glennon and partner Deborah McEvoy, it’s that lives of many must come before profits of an elite, when we look at what’s really important during a nasty cold spell.
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People worrying about where their next meal and how to stay warm, must be re-concentrated on. Elected on all sides have allowed themselves to become too distracted by other matters not so lifesaving important. They and us must re-triage what we consider is vital to the maintaining of lives in Ireland and further prioritise words and actions accordingly.
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We cannot best mother nature and what it will do in regard to cold weather. However, like Covid and more, we can recognise such issues and then deal with them – and deal with them better. Too many have dropped the ball about the basics of what it takes to daily life survive. It’s time they and us, must re-evaluate our attention directions, our thinking – and pick up the ball again. The right ball – at the right time.
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Dear elected, do what you can to ensure there are no further hypothermia deaths in Ireland. Act and speak up now. Let’s cover the basics of life and go from there. Let’s not lose the run of ourselves in all the current political antic noise.
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Food, heat, health and shelter. Basic priorities.