Samaritans announced today that volunteers in Ireland listened for close to 73,000 hours during the Covid-19 pandemic, as the one year anniversary of restrictions approaches.
Some of the 1,500 volunteers spoke a bit about the different problems facing callers now, compared to March 13, when Ireland entered its first lockdown due to Covid-19.
Volunteer Aileen Spitere from Cork said that: “During the first lockdown what I noticed primarily was the amount of fear there was among callers.”
“Fear of getting Covid, fear of dying and fear of isolation. It was difficult. But even among our callers there was a feeling of us all being in it together.”