We are all struggling under the current restrictions.  But for the grieving it is much, much worse.  Under The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2020 all cemeteries have been closed.

Some parents were visiting their baby’s grave each day. Now they can’t. Some want to leave flowers where a loved one rests; others want to remove flowers. Now the gates are shut. The darkness of bereavement has grown heavier.

There is no health advantage to this closure.  Crowds don’t flock to a cemetery. We grieve alone, or with our family. We grieve privately, with respect and dignity. Cemeteries were the one place where social distancing has been practiced all along. Perhaps it is thought best to open with limited hours, or with increased signage, or to supervise in a trial way. That’s okay. We can live with that. Just don’t add to our grief for no good reason.

It isn’t right that you can walk around a park, but can’t kneel by a grave.  It isn’t right that a trip to an off-licence is essential, but remembering our loved ones is forbidden. It isn’t right that Northern Ireland is the only UK region to suffer such a blanket ban.

We are in this for the long haul.  There may be a second wave of the virus. Our response must be proportionate and evidence led. It must not create more suffering without good reason.

Stormont, we know you are busy. But please do the right thing. Allow us to mourn with dignity. Open our cemeteries.

“Consider well, my son. All men make mistakes.                                                         But mistakes don’t have to be forever,                                                                         They can be admitted and atoned for.                                                                             It’s the overbearing man who is to blame.                                                                      
Pull back. Yield to the dead. Don’t stab a ghost.”.  

(Seamus Heaney, Burial at Thebes)