in vain

Van Veen's hard work looked to be in vain as he missed five match darts, but Humphries was equally wasteful and fell to a fourth consecutive loss to the Dutchman.

"Unless lessons are learned, and fundamental change is implemented in Northern Ireland, the human and financial cost and sacrifice of the Covid-19 pandemic will have been in vain."

That the wood looked suspiciously like the remains of a ruler Penelope had searched for in vain just the other day was a fact she chose to ignore.

As for Penelope, even as she jogged along, trying in vain to keep the galloping children in sight, the “do not think of elk” principle was in full force.

"It isn't really about giving the patients back what they lost, because that's not possible, but sort of almost making sure their suffering wasn't in vain, that we do learn from this," she says.