Thousands of frontline workers have been at the coalface of the Covid-19 pandemic. For those working in hospitals, residential homes and healthcare settings, it's been one the toughest years of their careers.
More than 12,000 healthcare workers became ill, and eight died as they worked to help the ill and elderly. Here, some of those workers share their reflections on an incredibly difficult year.
Ronnie Weston is the security manager at a Dublin hospital. It is often he or someone on his team who is the first to meet a Covid-19 patient, in need of hospital treatment. "It all kicked off the week after St Patrick's Day," he said. "We all became a family, because we didn’t talk much when we went home maybe.