Did you know that the south of Ireland has the fifth largest number of billionaires per capita in the world, with only Hong Kong, Cyprus, Switzerland and Singapore outranking us? Larry Goodman and Michael O’Leary are reported as being worth $1 billion each, but they’re only in the half-penny place beside Patrick and John Collison who own the tech company Stripe and are worth $11.5 billion. Each.
Such financial figures tend to punch a gaping hole in the view of some unionists that the south of Ireland is a backward, parochial place. Unlike 100 years ago, it’s the north that’s flailing around, happy to grasp the benefits of the protocol while in the same breath denouncing it as treachery.
But then those of us who swell with pride on being told that Rory McIlroy is worth around $100 million maybe overlook the fact that there’s another side to this rich coin, and that’s inequality. There are record numbers of Irish people who haven’t a roof over their heads, who struggle to put food in their children’s mouths, who are living threadbare lives of suffering.
Do the rich deserve to have all that money? Should we not say “They’re talented and work hard, good luck to them”? Or do we say that the south’s rich list could together solve the financial difficulties of those at the opposite end of the scale, and that these swollen bank accounts are shameful with so many Irish men and women depending on food parcels to stay alive and on hostels or assigned hotel rooms to protect them from the ravages of winter?
What’s more, the “I’m talented so I deserve it” line doesn’t really wash. Because life’s card-game gave you a sweet hand isn’t necessarily any credit to you, just as those who are dealt hopeless hands can’t be blamed either.
Let’s face the reality: equality in Ireland is a hypocritical lie, and it’s our worst impulses that have us hailing our super-rich and condemning our down-and-outs.
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