Lovely taxi drive into Limerick. Everything is so green and lovely. The university grounds where I’m staying are beautiful and sit along the banks of the River Shannon which is said to be full of salmon. Straight into the conference with some very inspiring speeches and sessions. The focus on health equity and poorer nations and areas is what I love about this conference.
It’s so apparent how much the Irish love their music as it’s peppered throughout the conference and within the first few hours I’ve heard wonderful fiddle, violin, and bagpipe music and even a display of uillean pipes, a traditional Irish bagpipe that uses air from a pump in the armpit. It was played by someone from the Irish Traveller community- a presentation explained to us that they are a genetically distinct group that has very similar health and social status to marginalised indigenous groups around the world. They are synonymous with the term gypsy but this is not an appropriate term to call them any more. It is believed they separated from the Irish settled community in the 1600s and stayed genetically separate since then.
The afternoon was rounded off with a very inspiring presentation by Dr Mike Ryan from the WHO, a well known face thanks to covid. Being Irish a lot of the Irish doctors were so excited and clearly proud of their compatriot’s role in the pandemic.
There was a lovely social evening organised but unfortunately jet-lag hit me suddenly and I went to bed at 6 pm and didn’t get up till the next morning only waking up once.
