77 death notices were posted on RIP.ie in April 2020 for Laois, a record high number for a single month for the county.
Gerard McCarthy of Maynooth University and Pádraig MacCarron of the University of Limerick carried out research which shows that a total of seven counties in the country recorded their highest ever death notices in a single month in April.
Dublin, Kildare, Laois, Meath, Louth, Cavan and Monaghan all had more deaths than any other month from 2010 to present.
While in Carlow, Cork and Kerry, the number of death notices in April 2020 is the highest number of postings in any April.
RIP.ie was set up in 2006, however there are counties with 0 death notices up as far as 2009, hence the pair begin their analysis 2010 onwards. During this period RIP.ie has compared well with official mortality statistics, particularly from 2014 onwards.
According to the researchers, the increase shows what they call the ‘excess mortality’ that we are experiencing due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
While not all of the 77 people who died in Laois last month passed away due to Covid-19, it is the case that some of them certainly did.
1,234 died from Coronavirus in April in the country but the Department of Health does not give a county by county analysis, so this research by Maynooth University and the University of Limerick helps to give us more insight into the true impact of the virus.
Gerard McCarthy and Pádraig MacCarron say: “Nationally, the number of death notices posted on RIP.ie in April 2020 for the whole of Ireland are the highest on record, but comparable with January 2018 and 2017 when there was a bad flu season.
“Typically deaths peak in Ireland in the winter are associated with respiratory diseases, including the seasonal flu. The number of death notices posted typically decreases going into April, whereas there is a spike associated with the coronavirus in 2020.
“Comparing the magnitude of this spike to the seasonal peak in winter of other years, it could be argued as comparable to the numbers of death notices posted in previous years (January 2018 was the previous maximum).
“There is increasingly heated debate about whether the unprecedented measures implemented to combat the spread of Covid-19 are necessary to maintain, if excess mortality is comparable to that of the seasonal flu.
“However, this picture of the national situation, where Ireland could be on track to keeping mortality to that of a bad flu season, belies a more complex geography of the pandemic in Ireland.
“While we have focused so far on the regions where there have been elevated levels of posting to RIP.ie, there are 15 counties that do not show any indications of excess mortality based on postings to RIP.ie.
“This is surely an indication of how successful the implementation of the restrictions has been.
“There are, of course, practical issues with using data from RIP.ie such as multiple postings for the same bereavement, where the deceased has lived or was linked with multiple counties. Duplicates were removed systematically from this analysis.
“RIP.ie was set up in 2006, however there are counties with 0 death notices up as far as 2009, hence we begin our analysis 2010 onwards. During this period RIP.ie has compared well with official mortality statistics, particularly from 2014 onwards.”
You can read the full study here.
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