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One of the models from Essential Anatomy 5, one of 3D4Medical's most successful apps. Essential Anatomy/App Store

How do you go from stock images to showcasing at the biggest tech event in the world?

3D4Medical had to reinvent itself when its stock images business began to decline but a shift in consumer electronics helped turn its fortunes around.

AT ONE OF the biggest tech events in the world earlier this year, where Apple unveiled its new iPhones and the iPad Pro, an Irish company joined Adobe and Microsoft in showcasing its software to the world.

3D4Medical might not be a household name, but in the medical world, it’s one of the top tools out there. Designed for medical students and professionals, its flagship app Essential Anatomy displays male and female models with 11 systems and over 9,000 anatomical structures.

Yet its rise wasn’t exactly straightforward. If anything, it was a little unconventional. Originally starting out life as a stock image company, it then moved towards apps instead when sales began to decline, and a change in direction was urgently needed.

“Our sales began to go down in the images industry in 2008/09 [and] we had to reinvent ourselves”, said its CEO and co-founder John Moore. “We actually had no choice… we had these 3D assets we spent five to six years making medically accurate so we knew we had something”.

3D4Medical / YouTube

Its release coincided with a major shift in personal technology, that is the release of the iPhone and the opening of the App Store to developers which happened a year later.

The timing wasn’t the only factor that worked in its favour. The fact it focused on a specific area, was a cheaper alternative to traditional university books based on anatomy, and simplified the process due to the limited screen and buttons – the iPhone’s screen was originally 3.5-inches so making sure the screen wasn’t cluttered was a concern – helped matters.

“We’ve been lucky for several reasons. The phenomenon of the App Store, it allowed us to have a window to hundreds of millions of people”, explained Moore. “We had very little money to do anything and we didn’t have our own sales force”.
We stuck to the formula and did the best we could on the technology side [in the hope] we would be recognised sooner or later and we were lucky… We did start to build up a following and we were self-profitable, we didn’t need any funding. Anytime we needed money, we would be promoted or something would happen.

That relationship with Apple certainly helped. It featured in a number of ads for the tech giant and has appeared on stage at two of its keynotes events, the most recent being its September event where its head of design, Irene Walsh, showed off its products during an iPad Pro demo.

In the latest version, the app has some new features including virtual operations where users can cut parts and model the effects of certain conditions like arthritis.

McLeonida / YouTube

The initial success came from word of mouth. While the medical section of the App Store wasn’t exactly packed – there was roughly a hundred apps that fell into that category – it was one of the more expensive apps to feature on the store but it went straight to number one because of what it offered.

“When we did produce it, it went straight to number one very simply just by pricing it right and because of the graphical nature, you could show your friend”, explained Moore. But that spread because people who were in medicine or learning medicine would bring iPhones to class and they’d be able to work things out on it. The people beside them would be able to see it and they’d go and buy it and it spread”.

And it gathered a large following among the medical community in the US and Europe. The team receive thousands of emails a day about its apps, according to Moore, which he says is invaluable in developing its products.

Moore says the first month of a new release brings with it more feedback and normally there are several updates within that period to deal with any errors or problems that may occur.

“Normally when we do a major release, we would get feedback really quickly”, says Moore. “There might be a mistake… somebody calling you to say that an artery should be one millimetre to the left [and] we have to correct that. We usually do several updates in the first month after a major release and then we leave it then for a while.”

We’ve a lot of medical professionals using this and if you don’t get it right, you get slammed, you really get slammed… If something’s wrong, they’ll let the world know.

AO9Z0546a 3D4Medical CEO and co-founder John Moore.

This year has been an eventful one for 3D4Medical. Alongside Apple’s keynote event, it took its first funding round earlier this year with life sciences company Malin investing $16.4 million (“We never got any funding in the eleven years. I mortgaged my house but that was the only funding we had”.) and recently opened up an office in Poland.

Its Polish office will focus on 3D design and will complement its other offices in Dublin, Russia, Ukraine, and San Diego.

While the main focus is on 3D models, the company is looking at moving into another area, that of record keeping. Since the app is already digital, it’s easier for doctors to show the patient what’s wrong and then save it to your medical records.

Moore says that a number of partnerships are already in place for this to happen and hopes that it will open up new avenues for the company.

Read: This conference is trying to turn the west into a hub for drones >

Read: ‘They were intrigued to hear about three Irish guys with no company… no product’ >

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10 Comments
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    Mute Alan Richard Scott
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    Feb 26th 2021, 8:57 PM

    To fecking late. Should have done it at the start. Backwards Ireland again. This really is getting embarrassing.

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    Mute JG
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:02 PM

    @Alan Richard Scott: what’s embarrassing is people calling Ireland backward and when people keep babbling on and on and on about it. Let it go now at this stage.

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    Mute Kevin Bury
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:05 PM

    @Alan Richard Scott: so do nothing … u would be moaning about that also

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    Mute Matt
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:08 PM

    @Alan Richard Scott: only backward issue we have is the people who vote these cabbages in.

    70
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    Mute Alan Richard Scott
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:14 PM

    @JG: but it is embarrassing. I can’t go outside 5KM but yet they allow they people into the country? 64000 people came into this country in the first 16 days of this month alone. It’s Ridiculous. Truth hurts.

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    Mute Alan Richard Scott
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:21 PM

    @JG: and what’s also embarrassing is if you look at the majority of EU health ministers, nearly all them have MEDICAL degrees or have been a QUALIFIED medical practitioner in the past. A degree in management consulting or international development is a akin to having a medical degree. It’s a joke

    41
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    Mute Alan Richard Scott
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:25 PM

    @Matt: like I said below we have a health minister who is not qualified for the job. Does not hold any qualifications relating to a medical degree. Neither did his Predecessor.

    46
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    Mute Cez Miname
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    Feb 26th 2021, 10:42 PM

    @JG: if the the cap fits – backwards or forwards. Here Ireland definitely falls in the could do much better much quicker much harder bracket. What’s really embarrassing is the “green jersey” heads like you. Spare a thought for the dying.

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    Mute Sean Lucas
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    Feb 26th 2021, 11:56 PM

    @Alan Richard Scott: it’s called essential travel. If you have essential business you can leave your 5km radius or go to Timbuktu via the airport. It’s not like people are coming here to kiss the Blarney Stone.

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    Mute Hear me now
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    Feb 27th 2021, 5:19 AM

    @Sean Lucas: wha…you think they are all here on essential business, all those thousands of people…can you back that up? Because The Taoiseach was not able to when challenged recently about it. Wakey wakey!

    22
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    Mute Sean Lucas
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    Feb 27th 2021, 9:26 PM

    @Hear me now: Not saying people don’t come through. I’m saying it is and should ok if it’s essential. It’s a misdirected directed red herring to blame the lockdowns on the tini tini numbers of travelers coming in from abroad compared to the rest of Europe. Look at big picture and dont be annoyed by the media misdirection and finger pointing. House party, dental trips etc etc. The world deals with this. Fixing our own communities from within, track and trace ran compently, and free testing for anyone regardless of being a close contact or not. These methods utilized by countries who havent been lockdown no where near as much as us. And gurss what, travel is not guarded by cops handing out fines in most countrys not adopting zero covid either.

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    Mute Fi Wyse
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    Feb 26th 2021, 8:58 PM

    Gas. They can enter the country with a negative test yet I can’t leave with one. But I can get back into the country with one. Outstanding.

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    Mute Kevin Barrett
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:53 PM

    @Fi Wyse: totally untrue

    17
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    Mute Jonathan Gildea
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    Feb 26th 2021, 10:04 PM

    @Kevin Barrett: explain?! He’s 100% correct

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    Mute Fi Wyse
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    Feb 26th 2021, 10:55 PM

    @Jonathan Gildea: He is a she lol

    11
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    Mute Sean Lucas
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    Feb 26th 2021, 11:57 PM

    @Jonathan Gildea: If you have a reason to leave the country of course your allowed to leave. It’s just not permitted if your traveling for leisure

    5
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    Mute Colm Malone
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:03 PM

    Last year I flew to and from a mandatory quarantine country for critical works.
    I quarantined – but all I got was 2 texts to say I had to quarantined. Nobody checked – nobody cared.
    The list is absolutely meaningless.

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    Mute Peter donnelly
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    Feb 27th 2021, 10:56 AM

    @Colm Malone: I traveled to belfast with my wife by train last week we were not once questioned about our reason for travelling ( which was legit ) we traveled by public transport the way the train was layed out we weren’t supposed to sit together but did….

    6
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    Mute James Bishop
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    Feb 26th 2021, 8:58 PM

    Turning into North Korea at this rate. Next we will be erecting gold statues of Micheal Martin.

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    Mute James Reardon
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:36 PM

    @James Bishop: his head would be melted down before a bird had a chance to s*** on it haha

    58
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    Mute Seymour business
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:05 PM

    It’s all bollox at this stage. They’ve really let us all down.

    103
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    Mute Hear me now
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    Feb 26th 2021, 8:57 PM

    Reactive lads… opportunity to be proactive long gone…better than nothing I suppose…Sigh!

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    Mute Paul Wylie
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:08 PM

    Easiest thing to do is close all airports and ports to foreign visitors only allow goods into the country

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    Mute Fuschia31
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:23 PM

    @Paul Wylie: that would be the obvious thing to do and anyone with a bit if cop on would knows that, but they’re rich mates wouldn’t be happy with them if they did that. It’s easier for them to keep us ‘little people’ in lockdown with no end in sight than to upset Dennis or Larry

    94
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    Mute Lindsey Madden
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:41 PM

    @Paul Wylie: yes and then it will only be a matter of time until we have the “Irish variant”.

    There is so much circulating virus in this country, the only way out of it is to innovate.

    Use a mix of remote and in person learning to create necessary social distancing for pupils, deploy appropriate testing criteria for schools (do away with the “casual contact” designation for classrooms) and use criteria for toggling class and schools to remote learning for two weeks when needed. Deploy antigen testing in congregate settings.

    Use every hospital bed, public or private, to deal with this crisis. It’s unjust that only insured patients can be admitted to non COVID hospitals. Given the sacrifices every citizen is making in this country to deal with this crisis, it’s actually grotesque!

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    Mute Sean Lucas
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    Feb 27th 2021, 12:02 AM

    @Paul Wylie: What about the people coming to survive machines, do business that is vital towards are recovery etc. It is not that simply unfortunately. Putting the initial travel that brought the virus in aside, travel is not the reason we have high cases etc.

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    Mute Mr Bordello
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:00 PM

    Ah the ol let’s keep denis and his mates happy to fly in and out to validate their tax status , they’re not even trying to hide it anymore.

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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:29 PM

    Misleading title. We don’t have mandatory quarantine and the government voted against it this week. 2000 people entered the country from Brazil in the last 28 days. Only 600 of them turned up for testing and 50 of them tested positive. It would be safe to assume the other 1400 also had a high infection rate. 5500 people arrived here from high risk countries during that same period. The government are being criminally negligent at this stage.

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    Mute Jo H
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:00 PM

    Our pretend mandatory quarantine list that does not actually exist!

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    Mute Barty
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    Feb 26th 2021, 8:57 PM

    And where the fox trot uniform kilo is Brazil

    58
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    Mute David Duffy
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:03 PM

    @Barty: on the first list.

    25
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    Mute Thomas Armstrong
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:03 PM

    @Barty: Brasil was the only country from South America on the red list yesterday with only Austria from Europe, UAE from Middle East and 17 countries from Africa however that list is still not good enough I’m sorry to say.

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    Mute Sean Lucas
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    Feb 27th 2021, 12:03 AM

    @Thomas Armstrong: why? I think we are going too far on this as is. Travel post May is not responsible for the numbers and lockdowns

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    Mute David Duffy
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:02 PM

    We need to extend this to badly hit EU countries, North America and mainland UK soon.
    There will always be people who skirt the rules by flying in through Belfast and driving down, but its a small fraction of the people arriving that do that.

    52
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    Mute Thomas Armstrong
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:28 PM

    @David Duffy: Personally I would had UK #1. Followed by Portugal then Spain with North America and that’s the 3 Canada, US and Mexico next. Can the Europeans come to fish our waters that no matter which countries they are from needs to be a No No.

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    Mute Lisa Malone
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:29 PM

    @David Duffy: mainland UK are in a better position than us . Plus they have 20% of their population of circa 67 million vaccinated whereas we have 5% of our 5 million vaccinated

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    Mute Thomas Armstrong
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:36 PM

    @Lisa Malone: UK vaccinated numbers is lower than what was published this came out yesterday. Also there 2nd jab is not going to plan less than 2% has got it and remember they started in December 2020 reason is not enough vaccine to go around and its a huge problem

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    Mute Sean Lucas
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    Feb 27th 2021, 12:06 AM

    @Thomas Armstrong: If the virus is here the is no need to ban countries. Only logical reason is new strains. UK one is out one at this stage. USA strain is actually less contagious than ours. Would be kinda silly in my opinion

    4
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    Mute Joe Harney
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:07 PM

    And what if they don’t quarantine what do they get? A scolding from Stephen Donnelly perhaps? Are there any checks in place to ensure this is being adhered to?

    51
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    Mute Jan Janet Coyle
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:29 PM

    @Joe Harney: Thats what I want to know who’s making sure they Quarantine Absolute Joke

    29
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    Mute Dr Quirkey
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:01 PM

    Yet Americans can fly right on in and “self quarantine,” not a bother.

    50
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    Mute Thomas Armstrong
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:18 PM

    @Dr Quirkey: US Military fly into Shannon daily. They have a base there. They can walk into Shannon Town without a worry may even go down the road to Limerick or go up to Ennis. That’s Home Isolation

    40
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    Mute Johannes Baader
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:35 PM

    Just for example Namibia: 7 day incidence 60. Ireland 97.
    Germany last week downgraded Namibia from high incidence to normal incidence country hence no need for pcr test or quarantine upon return.
    Where is the Irish logic?? All pure activism if you ask me

    26
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    Mute Eddie Michael
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    Feb 26th 2021, 10:09 PM

    A YEAR LATE MEHOLE…..all incoming travellers….

    26
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    Mute Bren Dunne
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:41 PM

    If only we knew about this a year ago we could of prepared for it…

    23
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    Mute Alan McDonagh
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    Feb 26th 2021, 11:09 PM

    Larry got his cheap labour in so all is good

    28
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    Mute Ní neart go cur le chéile.
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:14 PM

    Did the gov consider there are lots fake PCR test certs and dodgy PCR tests facilities in the world as well?

    22
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    Mute Michael Hanley
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:18 PM

    What about the border. This legislation is a complete waste of time because the brits will be opening up travel in a few weeks with their vaccine passports so it will be impossible to keep new variants from getting into the south

    23
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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:30 PM

    @Michael Hanley: The NI border is not a reason to do nothing.

    18
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    Mute Michael Hanley
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:35 PM

    @Declan Doherty: not saying it’s a reason to do nothing but unless Northern Ireland are going to quarantine every incoming person including mainland UK for two weeks in a hotel then us doing it is not going to make any difference

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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:46 PM

    @Michael Hanley: I don’t agree and you are using the north to justify doing nothing. The numbers arriving through our airports speak for themselves. Mandatory quarantine would make significant difference and NI is not a good reason to do nothing.

    11
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    Mute Sean Lucas
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    Feb 27th 2021, 12:11 AM

    @Declan Doherty: We have the worst performing airports in Europe (bottom three consistently.) Personally I believe this is just a red herring. Making very little odds and is just there to try to look like they are doing something. Fixing track and trace would be far more beneficial than the hotel nonsense

    11
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    Mute Diar O Doc
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:01 PM

    Must be an error in your report… it seems to be missing Brazil?

    18
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    Mute Kevin Collins
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    Feb 26th 2021, 11:01 PM

    @Diar O Doc: Read the entire article…

    13
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    Mute Jonathan Gildea
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    Feb 26th 2021, 10:00 PM

    This is the imagonary list of mandatory countries for imagonary isolation! If only we had imagonary TD’s who could actually implement this!

    15
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    Mute Margaret O Neill
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    Feb 26th 2021, 11:44 PM

    Why can’t we follow the New Zealand. We are an Island too. Just shut it down and be done with it once and for all. Also with Clergy asking for churches to be opened for Easter Services, they are safe places …. lads must be missing the Christmas dues and Sunday
    Collections!!!

    15
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    Mute Sean Lucas
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    Feb 27th 2021, 12:08 AM

    @Margaret O Neill: if we did that last year maybe. They will have a hard time unsealing. If we did that we would literally be doing the worst of both worlds in my opinion.

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    Mute Paul Cunningham
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    Feb 27th 2021, 12:42 AM

    @Sean Lucas: I think we are doing the worst of both worlds right now tbh. All of the lockdown with none of the benefits. At least a harder lockdown and mandatory quarantine would put focus squarely on the individual here to do their part and not from abroad.

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    Mute Sean Lucas
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    Feb 27th 2021, 1:09 AM

    @Paul Cunningham: For personal reasons I would not like zero covid. For logical (in my eyes) it’s also near the end and fighting for zero covid could drag this out a lot longer. However, I do agree with you that these rolling lockdowns are the worst of both worlds. I supported a zero covid strategy last year even though it would of hurt my industry. However, I don’t think it’s the way to go entering the later portion of the crisis. Unless most of the world opted for this approach it would cut us off and make it extremely difficult to unseal.

    5
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    Mute Lindsey Madden
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:16 PM

    Putting most of Latin American and African travellers into detention centres on arrival into Ireland? Yikes!

    12
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    Mute Kevin Collins
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    Feb 26th 2021, 11:05 PM

    @Lindsey Madden: The quarantine measures are not based on nationality and apply equally to Irish people that have visited any of the listed countries.

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    Mute Martin Laird
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    Feb 27th 2021, 8:13 AM

    To late but what do you expect we’ll wait and see what else gets in

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    Mute Marguerite Hoiby
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    Feb 27th 2021, 10:15 AM

    Why is the UK & USA not on this list????

    6
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    Mute Sean Lucas
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    Feb 27th 2021, 9:37 PM

    @Marguerite Hoiby: UK strain is here. US strain less contagious than ours. Would back no sense to put either country on the list. Also both vital trading partners and employers in Ireland.

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    Mute Frank Gibney
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    Feb 26th 2021, 9:13 PM

    Cape Verde a joke

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