Shortly after the start of lockdown, British households became hooked on the BBC’s adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People. The show’s protagonists, Marianne and Connell, fall in love at school and find each other again at university — first at a party, then in a bar, then in her rooms. In their own melancholic way, they live the undergraduate dream — love, growing up, intellectual pretension.
It couldn’t happen now. Trinity College Dublin, where Normal People takes place, has moved some of its teaching online and placed a ban on parties, in line with coronavirus restrictions. Students in university accommodation are no longer allowed overnight visitors.
Given there will be fewer in-person events, some new undergraduates are wondering whether they actually need to live in Dublin, says Eoin Hand, president of Trinity’s student union. Perhaps they can commute instead, “from Tipperary, Limerick and Mayo”, and save the €500-plus a month on accommodation. So much for immersing yourself in studies, societies and socialising.