Gobshite Nation
Somewhere between my stint on a Russian Trawler and Manchester United winning the treble, Ireland got rich. Stinking rich. And as a result everyone, overnight, turned into a gobshite!
How did it happen?
Socio-Economics is not my area of expertise, but it seems that everyone in this country nowadays is a bloody expert on the subject. Don't ask me how. I don't remember there even being a class in socio economics at any school I attended. One noted commentator, who's only talent is stating the obvious, even moved his area of expertise from financial advisor to socio-economic commentator, when his prediction that the property market would crash left him with egg all over his face. But, seeing as though everyone is having a stab at socio-economic commentating, the following is my 2 cents. Be warned though, this ain't gonna be pretty....
I grew up in a working class suburb in the 70's. My schoolteachers were 60's idealists who were held in a position of respect by parents who didn't have the advantages of the kind of education system offered now to their children. If you treat an idealist with respect, you will inspire him or her to be the best they are. So my generation have probably become the best educated generation in the history of the state. The only drawback in our education was the lack of diversity and multi culturalism and this, sadly is being reflected in the country today, as our uneasiness with immigrants is seriously impacting the way we live.
When we came out of second level education at 17 years of age in the eighties, there was NO future. Ireland was a far cry from what you see today. It wasn't a country of endless shopping centres and high rise IT companies. It was an urban wasteland of glue factories and boiler makers all laying off staff on a weekly basis. The country was finished. So everyone went to college. Everyone was poor enough to qualify for a state grant so you didn't pay fees. I was lucky enough to get part time work as a bus conductor to finance my living expenses, so we went to college to get more of an education.
Then when we came out and stuck our big toes for that summer in the big pool of the real world, and there was still nothing happening but doom and gloom. So some of us went back in to the collegiate womb. I eventually emerged from my education as the nineties were dawning. 1990, a bleak, bleak year. The only queues in the country were for Unemployment benefit. Cinemas were closing down. We were a dirt poor country. Everyone was emigrating. Then something happened.
Ireland qualified for The World Cup in Italy.
People who had been living in a grim day to day existence simply said "Fuck It". Ireland had qualified for the first world cup in it's history, and folks were going on holiday. For many it was their first time out of Ireland. But they went and they endeared themselves to every nation on the planet and the euphoria that gripped the country for those three weeks had a ripple effect. People began to feel good about themselves. Tourism went up and up, when Irish people go away they bring everyone home with them. There was working class families in Coolock hosting German families one week, Dutch the next and Italians for Christmas dinner. There was a sense of community. The media had a field day. This attracted the attention of huge corporations like Intel and Hewlett packard, who invested heavily. The workforce was the best educated in europe, the media spotlight was on the Irish travelling support in Italy, the government, in fairness to them, used this as a way to source foreign investment. Within 10 years we would become the jewel in the EU crown. But the downside is ...
The downside is, that it happened too fast. The average price of a 3 bedroom house in Dublin went from 40,000 pounds in 1990 to 400,000 in 2006. People had new cars. Disposable income. Credit cards became the norm. We couldn't take it in our stride. We started behaving like caricatures of rich people. We became class focused and would try to play golf. We were like the pigs in animal farm. We made, in short, arseholes of ourselves. And we continue to do it.
In short, unless this country hits a serious recession, there'll be no real Irishness left, we will become another corporate sponsored territory in the global multi national universe. We will be expected to behave like our corporate brethren accross the globe. Our political correctness will have to be aligned with the manual for GLObalCorp. We will have the same policies and procedures for everything. You will be able to travel from Dublin to Los Angeles to London without noticing a difference.
The future doesn't look bright for this country. You can't stand on the terraces at Lansdowne Road unless you have a corporate admission. You can't get up front at a concert unless you are a member. Membership, they say has it's priveleges. Me, I'm with Groucho Marx. I want out. Out of this soulless excuse for a country that keeps digging itself into a bigger and bigger cultural void. Out, of this smoke free, self gratuitous, avarice ridden cess pit. Out, of this logo-ed up society.
You see most of the corporate recruits don't remember it any other way. I do.
I want the old Ireland back. I want to be a poor country again. I want high taxes and butter vouchers. I want buying a record to mean something more. I want it to be a sacrifice again. I especially want it for the younger generation. I want the eighteen to twenty five year olds to be poverty stricken. I want them to wear secondhand clothes. I want them to have to walk to work on the morning before they get paid because they have no bus fare. I want them drinking generic brand lager from cans instead of designer alco-pops. I want them with a packed lunch. Because, let's face it, there's nothing more annoying than a rich twenty year old....
How did it happen?
Socio-Economics is not my area of expertise, but it seems that everyone in this country nowadays is a bloody expert on the subject. Don't ask me how. I don't remember there even being a class in socio economics at any school I attended. One noted commentator, who's only talent is stating the obvious, even moved his area of expertise from financial advisor to socio-economic commentator, when his prediction that the property market would crash left him with egg all over his face. But, seeing as though everyone is having a stab at socio-economic commentating, the following is my 2 cents. Be warned though, this ain't gonna be pretty....
I grew up in a working class suburb in the 70's. My schoolteachers were 60's idealists who were held in a position of respect by parents who didn't have the advantages of the kind of education system offered now to their children. If you treat an idealist with respect, you will inspire him or her to be the best they are. So my generation have probably become the best educated generation in the history of the state. The only drawback in our education was the lack of diversity and multi culturalism and this, sadly is being reflected in the country today, as our uneasiness with immigrants is seriously impacting the way we live.
When we came out of second level education at 17 years of age in the eighties, there was NO future. Ireland was a far cry from what you see today. It wasn't a country of endless shopping centres and high rise IT companies. It was an urban wasteland of glue factories and boiler makers all laying off staff on a weekly basis. The country was finished. So everyone went to college. Everyone was poor enough to qualify for a state grant so you didn't pay fees. I was lucky enough to get part time work as a bus conductor to finance my living expenses, so we went to college to get more of an education.
Then when we came out and stuck our big toes for that summer in the big pool of the real world, and there was still nothing happening but doom and gloom. So some of us went back in to the collegiate womb. I eventually emerged from my education as the nineties were dawning. 1990, a bleak, bleak year. The only queues in the country were for Unemployment benefit. Cinemas were closing down. We were a dirt poor country. Everyone was emigrating. Then something happened.
Ireland qualified for The World Cup in Italy.
People who had been living in a grim day to day existence simply said "Fuck It". Ireland had qualified for the first world cup in it's history, and folks were going on holiday. For many it was their first time out of Ireland. But they went and they endeared themselves to every nation on the planet and the euphoria that gripped the country for those three weeks had a ripple effect. People began to feel good about themselves. Tourism went up and up, when Irish people go away they bring everyone home with them. There was working class families in Coolock hosting German families one week, Dutch the next and Italians for Christmas dinner. There was a sense of community. The media had a field day. This attracted the attention of huge corporations like Intel and Hewlett packard, who invested heavily. The workforce was the best educated in europe, the media spotlight was on the Irish travelling support in Italy, the government, in fairness to them, used this as a way to source foreign investment. Within 10 years we would become the jewel in the EU crown. But the downside is ...
The downside is, that it happened too fast. The average price of a 3 bedroom house in Dublin went from 40,000 pounds in 1990 to 400,000 in 2006. People had new cars. Disposable income. Credit cards became the norm. We couldn't take it in our stride. We started behaving like caricatures of rich people. We became class focused and would try to play golf. We were like the pigs in animal farm. We made, in short, arseholes of ourselves. And we continue to do it.
In short, unless this country hits a serious recession, there'll be no real Irishness left, we will become another corporate sponsored territory in the global multi national universe. We will be expected to behave like our corporate brethren accross the globe. Our political correctness will have to be aligned with the manual for GLObalCorp. We will have the same policies and procedures for everything. You will be able to travel from Dublin to Los Angeles to London without noticing a difference.
The future doesn't look bright for this country. You can't stand on the terraces at Lansdowne Road unless you have a corporate admission. You can't get up front at a concert unless you are a member. Membership, they say has it's priveleges. Me, I'm with Groucho Marx. I want out. Out of this soulless excuse for a country that keeps digging itself into a bigger and bigger cultural void. Out, of this smoke free, self gratuitous, avarice ridden cess pit. Out, of this logo-ed up society.
You see most of the corporate recruits don't remember it any other way. I do.
I want the old Ireland back. I want to be a poor country again. I want high taxes and butter vouchers. I want buying a record to mean something more. I want it to be a sacrifice again. I especially want it for the younger generation. I want the eighteen to twenty five year olds to be poverty stricken. I want them to wear secondhand clothes. I want them to have to walk to work on the morning before they get paid because they have no bus fare. I want them drinking generic brand lager from cans instead of designer alco-pops. I want them with a packed lunch. Because, let's face it, there's nothing more annoying than a rich twenty year old....
posted by Derek Keogh | 1:43 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home