The virus was traced back to three aid workers, who were brought back to Ireland for care. Although all precautions were taken, medical staff in the hospital were unknowingly infected. Once this happened, it was very difficult to contain the spread. Ireland is a small country, and there is a high rate of movement around the country.
The mobility of the population, coupled with the small military and the closeness of many rural communities ensured that within weeks, the infection zone had spread nationwide. The decision to close the island was made at a european level. Irish leaders, some already ill, teleconferenced into the summit where this decision was made.
A blockade of Nato ships surrounded the island, and RAF patrols sanitized the airspace. Fourteen light aircraft and seven helicopters were downed at sea during this time. Full alert procedures were followed.
Food and humanitarian supplies were airdropped, but these were not enough to sustain the population at large, and the objective here was largely cosmetic. Rioting and street violence was lower than expected, although high levels of illness may have contributed to this.
There were some strange celebrations as the island of Ireland was fully reunited - in death, some would say.
National radio and television continued to broadcast for forty-three days after the quarantine. The final broadcast was catholic mass, from the chapel in the RTE studios. This broadcast is particularly difficult to listen to, as the priest suffers violent convulsions during the service.
Fifty days after the quarantine was enforced, surveillance flights stopped showing significant signs of organised life. Individuals were observed in most urban areas, and some caravans of 15-20 heads formed in rural areas.
It is not envisaged that the quarantine will be lifted within the next 12 month period. Targeted supply drops will continue, and contact has been made with most groups of survivors. Urban areas will be difficult to access, and are overrun with vermin feeding on the dead (seemingly immune to the virus).
Finally, it is worth remembering the last words from the Irish taoiseach, teleconferenced into a United Nations general assembly twelve days after the quarantine was imposed.
‘What you have decided to do here (severe coughing) is not to help a nation, but to amputate a...a cancerous limb. We cannot survive this... and yet we cannot, in good conscience fight. (Long pause) We cannot say...we cannot say we would argue differently were we in another position. With limited resource, and without support we will survive as a people. (cough) Ireland will remain forever one of the nations of the world.”
