Derry woman’s plea to local people from Italy’s COVID-19 epicentre

Speaking to the Journal from the Italian city of Bergamo in northern Italy, Fionnuala Ní Chraiftigh (28) from Culmore said that the tragedy that has unfolded in her adopted home over the past few weeks has been swift and devastating.

In the past week alone there have been 400 deaths in the city - which has a similar population to Derry & Strabane - and 5,000 cases of coronavirus.

Fionnuala, a teacher in a bilingual primary school, described the constant wail of sirens and tolling of church bells as hospitals struggle to cope, morgues fill to capacity and funeral after funeral service is held.

Speaking from lockdown, she said: “Over 400 people have died in a week. It’s a scary thing for me because I know how small this society is - it reminds me in so many ways of Derry. I don’t want to see this level of devastation repeated in Derry.”

Fionnuala said that the schools there were closed quickly after the first cases emerged in late February. “Originally there wasn’t that many cases. Then the numbers went up every day. In March they did the lockdown, and because a lot of people left the area they closed Lombardy.”

When the scale of what was happening became apparent, Fionnuala said her family in Derry made arrangements for her once she came home, but she decided to stay in Bergamo. “It was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. There were so many risks involved in going. A lot of the people who had been tested here were asymptomatic and I was worried I could have picked it up and be carrying it.”

But Fionnuala said she stays in touch with her family every day via phone and Facetime, and the young Derry woman is making the best of living in isolation, and catching up with people. Speaking about the current situation, she said: “It’s definitely made me more emotional, even in terms of the community spirit here. I have lived here since two and half years ago and I never really immersed myself in feeling part of the community, but over the last few weeks you can’t help but feel part of the community here. From back home as well so many people have been messaging me to say they are thinking about me.”

Like many in northern Italy, Fionnuala said she was at the outset “completely oblivious” to the scale of the threat people were facing, and many felt it would probably blow over within a week. “We thought it would be grand, when the schools were closed at the start we thought there was no way they would be closed longer than a week. We were so ignorant to the fact that this was as serious as it was because we hadn’t seen it before, and that is why in Italy the doctors and people are trying to shout out to the rest of the world, don’t be ignorant like we were, see the effects, learn and listen.

“It was unknown then that it would get to this and that it would be this rapid. No-one was prepared for the volume or intensity.”

In lockdown, Fionnuala gets e-mailed permission slips to visit shops and pharmacies (thousands of fines have already been issued to people found outside without justification) but there are strict social distancing regulations in place which she urged stores to put in place in here. “When you are in the supermarket staff are really protected. You have to queue up and be 1.5 metres apart and only a limited number are allowed in at a time. At the counter you are not allowed to put things on until the person before you left and then a staff member cleans everything. Shop workers are really exposed and should be protected.”

Fionnuala said she is worried now about how people will cope when the pandemic ends, as life for the traumatised residents of Bergamo will never ever be the same again.

‘Stay home as much as possible’

A video message from Fionnuala sent to and shared by SDLP Foyleside Councillor Mary Durkan has been watched by ten of thousands of people over the weekend.

In the video she states: “Hello Derry, I send you this video from lockdown in Bergamo. Bergamo is a beautiful city in the north of Italy that has always reminded me of home. It’s a gorgeous walled city, it has an amazing community spirit and it is almost the same population size as that of Derry City and Strabane District.

“When the schools closed here just a few weeks ago there were no recorded cases of COVID19 in Bergamo. A few weeks later there are over 4,000 cases and in the past week alone there has been over 400 deaths.

“The hospitals can no longer cope with the number of cases of COVID19.

“The army has been deployed and the crematoriums are full.

“We sit in our apartments and we listen to the continuous sound of sirens and the church bells that mark the mourning of so many loved ones in our city.

“I don’t want to have to ever have to correlate my experience here to that of my beautiful city of Derry, so please do your bit to protect your community.

“Stay home as much as possible, Keep your children home, social distance, wash your hands regularly, self isolate if you are showing symptoms, limit your trips to get essential services and avoid social occasions.

“A little sacrifice now will go a long way in protecting the town that we all love so well.”

SDLP Colr. Mary Durkan also urged people to heed the warning.

Writing on social media she said: “We are all in this together. By staying apart from each other, we are sticking together!”