As the pop-up for Every Story Matters took place in Enniskillen on Tuesday (February 6), The Impartial Reporter visited Fermanagh House to speak to some of the people who shared their stories of life during the pandemic with the inquiry team.

Why did you come today to share your story?

Eileen Drumm BEM, Enniskillen

"I was representing people with disabilities because we were totally discriminated against during Covid. They gave us the letters that we were vulnerable but we weren’t told about how to use PPE, some of us couldn’t even put on our masks so we were vulnerable that way, some of us couldn’t even do the test and the biggest one of all was when we had to go the airport [St. Angelo Airport, Enniskillen which was used as a testing centre]. When that story was run by me, I was furious, I simply thought, we can’t do that, we can’t drive and then we have to do the test on ourselves.

“I was delighted to get to tell the story today, I wanted to represent people with disabilities. My job last night was contacting friends and people with disabilities so that I could relate their stories [to the inquiry team] and I could speak for them.”

“I took it upon myself [to speak today] as I knew someone had to do it and we couldn’t be left out again.”

Ashley Robinson, LisbellawImpartial Reporter:

“I feel it is very important for people in rural communities to share their story with Covid because we have so many differences compared to those in the mainland, and we have a different experience.

“I spent quite a bit of the pandemic in England, I was in Northampton in a ground floor flat without a garden where we had 20-minute limits on walking outside. We only got to go outside for 20 minutes a day and to do our shopping and as time went on I was able to come over here and see my mum and my brother were living the dream outside all day in the sun.

"I went almost a year without seeing them at one point because there were restrictions with flights. It was quite isolating, we lived so far away from our own family, my partner's family were three hours away from us and we had just moved to Northampton so had no friends.

“We lost some family members, and you were only allowed 14 people at the funeral and for me, funerals are a very big part of our culture and we couldn’t do any gatherings before or afterwards. There was no open casket as they didn’t know how Covid would spread so it was very impersonal and matter-of-fact.

“I think a lot of people felt quite betrayed by their government and there is an element of not being listened to and not being heard and I feel like this will help people get closure as well as help them moving on from the trauma that they faced during that time.

Cyn Potter, Belleek

Impartial Reporter:

“I thought it was important, I was luckier than most. I didn’t get Covid, I had bronchitis in the first few weeks of the Covid, the experience I told wasn’t just mine as I wasn’t living here then, I was in Cornwall and knew people within my village were struggling and I thought it was important to help them out.

"I would knock on the windows and end up talking through the windows and we’d do that during the lockdown, I could drive and most of them couldn’t so I had a list and would get them the things they couldn’t get. I found a lot of people, even the people who could get out were struggling with mental health, I know I struggled. I just think it's important that we put better support in place for when this happens again. There is going to be another pandemic, hopefully not in my lifetime.

Every Story Matters is your opportunity to help the UK Covid-19 Inquiry understand your experience of the pandemic. To share your story visit: https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/every-story-matters/