Anniversaries are usually a good time to reflect on what has happened over the previous 12 months. It was around this weekend, last year, that word came through of the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in the Republic of Ireland.
I remember that Saturday evening very well. It was a leap year and the day was 29 February. I was at home watching TV and my phone rang minutes before the Nine News on RTÉ One.
The caller told me that the first case of Covid-19 had been confirmed here. Looking at my notebook from that evening (the first of what are now 26 books) the late evening announcement was because authorities wanted to contact all the close contacts of the case before alerting the media.