WATCH: Michael D Higgins poem used to ask Ireland to #HoldFirm with lockdown

The HSE is running a new campaign called Hold Firm, inspired by the words of President Michael D Higgins, written in his 1993 poem, ‘Take Care’. 

The 60 second TV ad aired for the first time last night. The campaign is also on radio and social media.

For the last number of weeks and months, everyone in Ireland has taken steps to flatten the curve, to protect our health service and save lives. These actions have reduced the impact of COVID-19 on the country and our health service. Now we need to motivate and inspire people to keep going with those actions that help us to stay safe and protect each other.

Staying away from the people we love and the things we enjoy is not easy. It’s not us. But, this is us – taking care of each other, supporting our colleagues on the frontline and essential services, and the people most at risk in communities all across the country.

Take Care, a poem by President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins (1993)

In the journey to the light,

the dark moments

should not threaten.

Belief

requires

that you hold steady.

Bend, if you will,

with the wind.

The tree is your teacher,

roots at once

more firm

from experience

in the soil

made fragile.

Your gentle dew will come

and a stirring

of power

to go on

towards the space

of sharing.

In the misery of the I,

in rage,

it is easy to cry out

against all others

but to weaken

is to die

in the misery of knowing

the journey abandoned

towards the sharing

of all human hope

and cries

is the loss

of all we know

of the divine

reclaimed

for our shared

humanity.

Hold firm.

Take care.

Come home

together.