Iodine Tablets

"Do you remember your tree? Your own unique Irish native broadleaf tree? The one that the Government planted for you to mark the millennium? Séamus Brennan sent you out a certificate with a scientific-looking number on it and a statement of where your family's very own tree was to be found.  Bertie Ahern launched the project at Avondale in December 1999. The official propaganda described it as "a visionary millennium project to help rescue and restore a number of the country's native forests". (Irish Times, 11 April 2006) Well I never got my tree nor the certificate - nor the Millennium candle which is why I have held on to the iodine tablets because they are one item from the State that did arrive in the post successfully. But it also reminds me of a previous response by the Irish state to the nuclear threat  which was Bás nó Beatha - a booklet full of advice in the event of nuclear explosion which was issued to all households in 1960s.  Naive guidelines now, perhaps, in these less innocent times. "