Everything done over the last 21 months was clearly a big success and totally worth it then
Even now, after all we've seen, I'm occasionally surprised at the utter stupidity that continues to occur.
What I can never understand is the level of compliance in the Republic of Ireland compared to Northern Ireland.
In Northern Ireland, despite possibly the strictest indoor mask mandate in the world (masks are simply mandatory in every indoor location which the public have access to - with the sole exception of while seated at a religious service), compliance is low and enforcement is non-existent. . Nowhere outside of a few major events and venues (which were strongly recommended to) required vaccine passports until they were made mandatory. I haven't been asked for contact tracing details since October 2020.
There is absolutely zero nationalist/unionist or Catholic/Protestant divide - this is not an Irish/British issue. Nor is it a gradual increase in strictness as you near the Republic - it is an abrupt change at the border.
In the Republic of Ireland, mask wearing is near-universal. You will simply not get through life without wearing a mask regularly unless you are visibly severely disabled. Bus drivers will shut the door, shopkeepers will ask you to leave. This is despite exemption criteria being even wider than in the UK, and it being very clear that refusing service to someone unable to wear a mask
is disability discrimination, with several businesses heavily fined for doing so.
Many businesses are being stricter with what documentation they will accept than they are required to be, often refusing foreign or paper documents, in case of "fakes" - even though it's the customer and not the business that's guilty of an offence if fake proof of vaccination is used, provided it was checked.
Some hair and beauty businesses are voluntarily refusing service to the unvaccinated. Some hospitality venues are voluntarily refusing service to elderly people who have not received a booster vaccine. Nobody sees an issue with mandatory exclusion of those unable to be vaccinated for genuine medical reasons from society "for their own protection".
Contact tracing is taken very seriously for some reason. Use of the contact tracing app is still very high. I even had a staff member in a cafe phone the number I gave "to check it's correct" - and I had to come up with an excuse on the spot as to why my phone wasn't ringing ("Oh, my phone hasn't worked properly in the Republic since Brexit"). They actually seemed to be doing this to everyone.