THE MANAGERS of a bar in Donegal have introduced a fine jar whereby anyone who says the word 'Covid' must place €2 inside it.
Managers of the Alt Bar in Killea Christopher Moore and Conor McDevitt came up with the idea after they became sick of people speaking about the virus and the pandemic.
"As its table service here we're getting involved in everybody's conversations and we sort of knew what everybody was chatting about," Christopher told RTÉ Radio's News At One.
"No matter what they started talking about, it always came back to the virus.
"We just thought we'd try to bring in an atmosphere where people could talk about common things. It's quite strange that people aren't talking about the weather here in Ireland anymore - they're chatting about the virus.
"It was nice to see people chatting about normal things like football and daily events going on. It was just to try and change the atmosphere of the bar, to make it more upbeat and give people a place where they can go and relax."
The jar has raised €280, meaning the word 'Covid' was used 140 times by people in the bar.
"Everything rolls back to 'it'. If you're talking about football, you can't have crowds at football because of it. If you're talking about where you went, you talk about what has been enforced there.
"It's very hard to avoid but we do notice people putting time and effort into chatting about other things."
All funds raised will go towards Donegal Hospice, a charity close to Christopher's heart as his mother spent some time there.
"They do a fabulous job," Christopher said.
The bar has since set up a GoFundMe page which allows people to donate directly to the Donegal Hospice, which can be found here.
