As one of around 80 Irish publicans carrying on the tradition of doubling up as the local funeral director, Jasper Murphy has seen first hand how the pandemic is preventing people coming together in good times and bad.

The doors of his McCarthy’s Pub and Restaurant in the small southern Irish town of Fethard have been shut for large parts of the last 10 months, with Covid-19 restrictions also limiting mourners at funerals to as few as 10 for much of that period.

In ordinary times, family and friends might remember a loved one over a meal and a pint at McCarthy’s, but that’s not possible with the country locked down again after a devastating third wave of infections led to more Covid-19 deaths in January than the previous eight months combined.

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