42 November/December 2020
OPINION
Y
OUTH IS about the only thinī˜Ÿ
worth havinī˜Ÿ, and that is about
the only thinī˜Ÿ youth has.
Unfortunately a global pandem
-
ic has challenged even this iron
law of cynicism and regret.
Nature gives youth a great deal, but ap
-
pears to be the only force on its side - this
generation are maturing in a society typiļ¬ed
by housing crises, limited job opportunities,
boundless inequalities and a planet that ap
-
pears to be wilting before our very eyes. As
such, anxiety among the young had hereto
-
fore become remarkably prevalent in Ireland,
the youngest country in Europe.
The last thing the these already precarious
By Zoƫ Jackson
McGrath
As Covid takes everything from the Young, Society and the Media
single them out for even rare breaches of the rules
Young people work disproportionately in retail, hospitality and tourism
- these sectors have been devastated by the fallout of the virus.
Unemployment among those aged 15-24 in Ireland, even pre-lockdown, is
estimated at 51 per cent compared to 26% in the population generally.
conditions and pessimistic outlook of this
generation needed was an all-encompassing
Act of God or Nature (or the last hoorah of
Twentieth-Century Man).
It appears the received wisdom on Covid-19
is often purveyed by those who seem to have
forgotten what it is to be young. Pope Fran
-
cis condemned the ā€œcruel abandonmentā€ of
the elderly in his third encyclical published
in early October. He is not wrong. The elderly
and those with underlying medical condi
-
tions - the most vulnerable among us ā€“ are
undeniably the most strongly aī˜ected by the
pandemic. Inī˜œIrelandī˜œapproximately 90% per
cent of those who have died with Covid-19
are over 65, a demographic which has been
Covid leaves Youth
with nothing
to waste
being young in Galway