Write a commentNewry man Niall Ruddy has made it on to the world-celebrated National Geographic website, with a photo essay showing his experience of last month's emergence of South Korea from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ruddy, 36 travelled to South Korea in 2011 and has been there ever since, now living in the city of Busan, South Korea's second most populous city.
The full-time student is currently studying for his MFA in photography and enjoys the freedom of expressing himself through photography.
There have been 260 deaths from Covid-19 in South Korea since the crisis began. Busan is a city with a population of over 3.5 million and although they never had a complete lockdown masks are worn everywhere.
Niall explains "The situation in South Korea at the moment is that we have seen things slowly opening up again. We never had full lockdown, we only had instructions from the government to avoid non-essential travel in the city. Everyone wears masks and there is hand sanitizer everywhere. Testing have been free if you were in contact with a confirmed patient and available for a low cost to anyone else that wanted it. Health care is generally very good and very cheap."
A recent renewed outbreak in South Korea has caused bars and clubs to close once again. "Within the last week there have been two significant outbreaks due to younger people going to clubs. People maybe got a bit too comfortable and stopped being careful. There are fears of a second wave but things, again, have been contained very well. Bars and clubs are closed for the next while and public schools are still closed." adds Niall.
There isn't a large Irish population outside of Seol but the Busan does have a GAA club of course - Laochra GAA! Niall while not involved with the club knows quite a few of the people who are.
Outside of his studying the Newry man enjoys the challenges of self assigned photography projects and also plays in a local punk band called Ghosts.
You can check out his National Geographic Photo Essay at NATGEOTRAVELLER.IN
