Life in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and indeed globally, has been transformed in ways that were barely imaginable just less than a month ago. Five voices reflect on the radical changes wrought as the world reacts with resilience, kindness and agility to the effects of a submicroscopic pathogen

Shelagh Fogarty
Radio and TV presenter and journalist

“Nothing feels right.” Words whispered to herself by my mother just moments after the Prime Minister delivered that grave statement, revealing the degree to which we were going to have to withdraw from daily life for who knows how long?

She is right, of course. Grandchildren unable to hug granny and grandad, adult children staying away from their ageing parents, friends meeting in strictly designed circumstances, two by two, six feet apart and not for long. Nothing feels right about that.