May 2020

Dear Sisters and Friends,

I enclose for your attention a newsletter of gathered articles, insights, newsletters, poems that have been brought to our attention by other Presentation Sisters in Ireland and in the UK. Also you will find Newsletters from organisations with whom the Justice Desk are aligned in both Ireland and the UK. Much of what consumes the airwaves is the bad and worsening news that is Coronavirus. Our means of working have changed, the health and welfare of all people trumps for the time being many of the issues that we work together to bring into a clearer focus. Both Ireland and the UK are dealing with the Pandemic in different ways but what is clear is that this will lift and when it does we need to be ready to embrace a new reality. We are being encouraged to save the best of what we do to push for a new way of living that takes the climate and biodiversity emergencies seriously. In Ireland we can see how there is a reach to those furthest behind, the homeless, the addicted, those in Direct Provision and the elderly and this is the first time that such a level of attentive provision has been shone on their issues and plight up to this point. Both the UK and Ireland have made provision for Covid_19 payments in order to facilitate the "lockdown". What has in effect happened is that we have brought into existence Universal Basic Income. Equally too there is now in operation a one tier health system that guarantees free healthcare for all during these difficult times. (Portugal has made all immigrants citizens in an effort to ensure that all could access healthcare). Trump who insisted on building a wall to keep Mexican immigrants in Mexico now needs them to stay to harvest food for all in the US. Equally the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) who have no status and live in fear of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are now holding the frontline as health care staff in many of the hospitals. Indeed many things have changed. Those who are poorly paid in zero contract hours in supermarkets are now essential workers and we are dependent upon them and more like them. We need to look at the "unlock" in terms of the health and welfare of all, we need to prioritise those furthest behind first and we need to consider the new normal through the prism of the SDGs.

I have been gathering references to the positive outcomes that may arise from this Pandemic and I would hope to share this with you in about a fortnight or so but on the day that is in it we must wish Colonel Tom Moore our warmest congratualations on this his 100th birthday. Sometimes heroes don't wear capes! They just raise £30,000,000 for the NHS