02 May 2020

Sunshine in pre-pandemic
carefree days in Valencia

Sunshine in January in Valencia … part of the three-page feature in the May 2020 edition of the ‘Church Review’ (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Some weeks before the outbreak of Covid-19 or the Corona Virus pandemic, before Italy and Spain went into ‘lockdown’ and virtual isolation, I spent a few carefree days in Valencia, on the east coast of Spain.

I was conscious that week that back in Ireland there was snow, ice and freezing temperatures. But in Valencia, the oranges were ripening on the trees, the skies were blue, and the temperatures were in the high teens.

Little did I know, even in the weeks immediately after I returned, that Spain would go into lockdown, and that Ireland follow in quick succession.

Now, those carefree days seem a distant memory, overtaken by today’s sad circumstances. But I recall them in a three-page feature, illustrated with colourful photographs, in the current (May 2020) edition of the Church Review, the Dublin and Glendalough diocesan magazine edited by the Revd Nigel Waugh, Rector of Delgany.

But, more about Valencia and those carefree, pre-Covid 19 days tomorrow afternoon.

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