The deal was signed late on Friday, March 27, the same evening former taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced in a specially scheduled speech on RTÉ television that the country was going into lockdown to suppress the spread of the coronavirus. “I am asking us for a time to forego our personal liberties and freedoms for a greater cause,” he said.  At a press briefing earlier that evening, Irish health officials had confirmed that there had been 302 new cases of the virus reported that day, and three deaths.  Given the gravity of the situation, the HSE urgently sought to ready Ireland’s…

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