Picture by No 10
Economics, they say, is the dreary science. It’s also one that’s hard to get your head around. I was watching a Fine Gael TD on the Claire Byrne Show on RTÉ the other night, and the way he was telling it, the south’s economy has really turned the corner, fastest growing economy in Europe, the people of that state are now about to enjoy the fruits of their hardship and sacrifice.
On Vincent Brown’s The People’s Debate last night, it was a different story – people talking about not being able to afford child care, people with makey-up jobs, a Health service that sounds more Third World than First. When a friend of mine from Canada was hospitalized a few weeks ago during a holiday in Dublin, her insurance allowed her first-class care. But the scene on the ground floor for those without private insurance, her husband told me, was like something from Dante’s Inferno. So is the south booming or in a Third World pit of debt?
Well, maybe some figures from last June would help throw light on what shape the south’s finances are really in. A good way of getting a grip on things like national debt is to link them to the individual citizen. When you do that, the south of Ireland’s debt is the second worst in the world. I don’t know about you but that sounds scary – €53, 863 per person. Maybe for generations to come, that will replace the facts-of-life talk between father and son: “Please sit down,son – I have something to tell you. There was once a man called Enda Kenny….”
The economists were telling us everything in the garden was rosy in 2007. Not one saw the crash coming. Yet we still indulge them, listen to their views.
I’d call that blind stupidity. Do we like being made fools of?
So how exactly would your party change these circumstances?
I heard that of the 42% of Europe’s debt forced on the Irish by the Troika, 26% (13/21ths) of it belonged to a relative of the German Chancellor, allegedly. Has anyone else heard this?
“It’s difficult to make a case for social justice and equality on one bended knee…” according to Graham Smith writing in The Guardian.
We are long past the time when Irish people could be caricatured as hewers of wood and drawers of water. The naked and unacceptable face of sectarianism may hold its nose in the north of Ireland as others turn their backs on the tide of equality that is flooding over the entire island.
“But methinks I see someone turn up his nose…” wrote Giraldus Cambrensis in the Conquest of Ireland c. 1126 – c.1223 which included many derogatory remarks about Irish people. In a similar vein, John Derricke published his Image of Ireland in 1581. Derricke did not look favorably on Irish people, and his book acted as a report for Queen Elizabeth I on the condition of Ireland at that time. In the book Derricke wrote “No Pies to plucke the thatch from house are breed in Irishe grounde” – pies being the word then in use for magpies. The history of magpies in Ireland and the folklore and superstition surrounding them has continued to surround the bird throughout the country to the present day, if the debate (?) on the BBC last night is anything to go by.
The days of tugging fore-lock tugging accompanied by “yes sor, no sor” are over, sor as Gaeilge translates as, a blood sucking parasite. It is up to the electorate in Ireland to deliver its verdict on the political birds of prey.
Do you figure the forelock-tugging peasantry were in fact insulting the local gentry to their faces?? I like it – sor…
I was flabbergasted at Edwin Poots’s open sectarianism on last night’s Nolan Show – the contempt, the hatred evident in his expression as well as his words. This, from a government, minister, is shameful.
One of the worst things about growing up Catholic in NI, was the knowledge that no matter how hard we worked, no matter how worthy or respectable we might be, there was a unionist majority and a unionist government that hated and despised us.
Judging from Poots’s performance, they’re still holding their noses when they have to associate with us.
I guess Poots, the DUP and many other Unionists will need to get a clothes peg and a tin of air fresher to keep the stench at bay when Catholics become the majority Mary….
The doleful facts emanating from the laboratory of dismal science Down Here, Esteemed Blogmeister, may be even more depressing that one imagines.
In a word (or five): Denis has lost his Menace.
No, that is not a misprint: one is indeed referring to the Michelin Man of Media Monopoly, the Swim Ring of Redmondism, the Inflatable Armband of Anglicisation, the Bouncy Castle Catholic, the Broth of a Buoyant Boyo, the Pneumatic Guru of a New Ireland, the heir apparent to a Hot Air Eireland, the Whoopee Cushion of West Britannia himself.
Denis O’Brian of Digitel has (gulp) failed to float.
It has been described as the biggest Irsh stock market flop since 1992 when the high flying Tony Ryan withdrew his IFP for GPO from the Wall Street exhange. Not the first touchy Irish Midas to fail to walk the w. and t. the talk in New Yawk.
Flotation once again, not.
If Guinness Peat Aviation was all about turf (and its apparent unsuitability as an aviation fuel) this latest flop has more to do with surf. It was simply unthinkable that the hitherto Unsinkable Denis would plummet from his lofty summit, submerge and (gulp) touch bottom.
Could it be that the 6.8 billion dollar man, the highest ranked Hibernian on the Forbes Rich List is in danger of (gasp) not even making it on to the Newtownforbes Rich List? That would be Newtownforbes, County Longford, saving your presence, m’lud.
Could it be that, not only were the 6,800,000,000 Dead Presidents that DOB was used to wheelbarrowing around so ostentatiously were borrowed but that the (whisper it) the wheelbarrow itself was b for borrorwed?
Spare a thought, too, kind passer by, for the kennelful of Gnashers which the once-menaching Denis kept in his Sindo Stable. Can it be that the bailiffs have already begun to confiscate their stockpile of peashooters, water pistols, plungers, rubber boomerangs and catapults?
If so, this is nothing short of a Gnational Disaster.
“Spare a thought, too, kind passer by, for the kennelful of Gnashers which the once-menaching Denis kept in his Sindo Stable. Can it be that the bailiffs have already begun to confiscate their stockpile of peashooters, water pistols, plungers, rubber boomerangs and catapults?” Don’t forget their laptops, carefully coated in venom. With a double coating for the keys S and F…
Spot on, Esteemed Blogmeister.
LToP, one always thought of as being text for Leaning Tower of Pisa. More likely these days to be Leaning Tower of Lap Tops.
Now that the DOBlin media monopoly is toppling.
The FG people on VB last night were obnoxious, including the three in the audience. The people of Tallaght soon gave them their answers & hopefully will follow threw in the election.
In spite of all the corrupt ways of the free state parties I fear Sinn Fein won’t change anything if they ever get to power in the south. All it will take is a phonecall from peacelover Hilary Clinton or barrack buster Obama to Gerry Adams et al and they will back off from anything that resembles fairness or socialism.
Vincent brown was absolutely correct when he challenged Sean Crowe on the shinners view on water charges before last years by-election in Dublin. The shinners were quite willing to play along that they opposed water charges but refused to lead the people and urge them what to do. When the anti water campaigner won the by-election the shinners then decided to become ‘totally anti water’.
A hint to future leadership by Sinn Fein, you can look no further than Martin mcguinness preparing the ground for an other climb down, this time it’s welfare. Absolutely pathetic but expected mind you. Nationalism have become so desperate that the very threat of a stormont collapse has them snookered. It’s so desperate tha mcguinness is threatening us with the tories. Jesus indeed weeps. If the tories decide to over rule everyone and install their regime on us there is an alternative. Sinn Fein can lead the way and campaign for civil disobedience i.e rate strikes etc couldn’t they? Alas that won’t happen as it is increasingly becoming clear that nationalists parties are being paid to subdue and dampen any inkling of rebellion in bellies of nationalists.
For once I am in complete agreement with Wolfe Tone
yes i would agree with you,their in a cul.de.sac now once direct rule comes back their in the wilderness,
I think Sinn Fein are opposed to Direct Rule for a number of reasons Wolf Tone:
1. Having direct rule back goes against SF’s key plan of getting as many powers as possible out of Westminster and onto the island of Ireland. They have already got Policing and Justice powers here and many others. The next due was Corporation Tax powers. Direct Rule would undo much of what has been achieved.
2. There’s no getting away from the fact normal people here in the North of Ireland are much, much better off under devolution than under Direct Rule. We have no water charges, lower student fees, no prescription fees, etc If Direct Rule returns all those benefits will be gone and we will be left at the mercy of unaccountable Tory ministers. Obviously SF oppose this happening.
3. If Direct Rule comes in, its likely that any advantages to Welfare achieved under the Stormont House Agreement will be lost. We will have exactly the same cuts as what has been happening in Britain, there wont be any protections for any claimant.
4. If Direct Rule returns then it will destabilize everything here and leave a dangerous vacuum open to extremists from both sides. Obviously SF don’t want this to happen. They also don’t want it to appear to the electorate in the South that they are causing the issues in the North and cant take tough decisions. Yes they don’t want to appear hypocrites either, implementing cuts in the north but opposing them in the South but I think most of the South will know how unstable the North is and why SF didn’t want to rock the boat too much, so they had no other choice but to bank the compromises they got in the Stormont House Agreement.
I think SF will ultimately implement the Stormont House Agreement but at the same time still make clear they oppose these cuts but in the interests of stabilizing the North will do the unpleasant task of implementing them. Hypocritical? Not really. I’m sure if we were a normal society, without paramilitaries or sectarian lunatics, SF would oppose these cuts to the bitter end, including using civil disobedience. But here in the North we have far, far too much to lose by allowing Direct Rule to return.
WT, I am not a socialist, but am a realist and would rather see Sinn Fein take tough decisions in the interest of all of the people on this island whether is be in stormont or in Dublin. This is one country and one people and to be honest would not like to see civil disobedience led by any party on this island.
Civil disobedience is a unionist tactic, but they are blinkered with vile sectarian hatred as we have seen in recent days and it hasn’t really worked out well for them to date.
There are going to be millions of people flocking to these shores next year to be here for the Easter rising commemorations.
Civil disobedience in the north would make it a no go area hurting the people who live here in their pockets.
Had the troubles museum at the maze been up and running, every single one of them would have visited the north and spent money here. A troubles museum would be the single biggest tourist attraction on this island rivalling nessie for Scotland and would bring billions into the economy here on a long term basis for both northern and southern Ireland but taking the monopoly away from Dublin.
Had the stadium at the maze been built, it would have paid for itself when garth brooks was unable to play Dublin.
This was stopped because unionists couldn’t stomach the GAA benefitting from it.
We need responsible government and 32 county policies on this island with more all island cohesion over health, policing and tourism etc…
We need 32 county policing structures with teeth to deal with cross border smuggling and criminality.
If Sinn Fein need to back down on welfare in the north in order to get through policies that will benefit the whole country, then I hope they have the courage to do so.
I would expect the Tories will struggle to push through changes they want via direct rule.
The unions will call strikes and if all of the parties united against direct rule cuts supporting the unions it could be a nightmare for them.
It is not Sinn Fein should fear direct rule but the british government.
If the parties get their poker faces on I am sure they could get a good financial settlement in return for taking the hassle of direct rule from them.
I would be gunning for 1 billion but lets see what they can come up with although unionist parties including alliance seem to be playing the Tories hand and have already accepted the grand sum of zero. Well done there lads
Unionism is a ball and chain on this island. When will they outgrow the Wayne’s world style “we’re not worthy” attitude to dealing with england.
Sorry it isn’t one country there are two countries if you cant get that right how can you possibly make a logical argument?
Neill, i do understand the country was divided north and south with Britain keeping control over 6 counties.
I really do get that.
I get that unionists want their own little backward territory where they can march all summer, burn Irish and catholic symbols on bonfires, sit in bars singing up to their necks in fenian blood watching their little territory football team playing.
I even get that you now want catholics to join in with the anti Irish celebrations.
But the truth is, there is a growing younger nationalist minority and declining older unionist majority (figures speak for themselves).
I will be happy to discuss how unionists would fit into a future all Ireland.
I will be happy to discuss how nationalists would fit into a shared northern Ireland.
But if all you want to say is if nationalists in the north want to be Irish, go live in the free state then there isn’t a lot more we have to say to one another.
I have heard what poots had to say and it isn’t the future i want for my children.
It is time you started facing the facts that we are here and we aren’t going anywhere.
What are you going to do about it?
“Sinn Fein can lead the way and campaign for civil disobedience i.e rate strikes etc couldn’t they?”
That is going to happen anyway.
Agreeing the welfare budget is one thing, implementing it is another.
The unions have made it clear what they are going to do.
Perhaps it is time for joint authority and for the republic to start playing a bigger role on behalf of its citizens in the north.
The South’s economy is definitely in a better place than where it was in 2011 but its people are not reaping much of those benefits. Far too many people are suffering in poverty.
Would SF make a difference if in power? Yes, I believe they would but much of this would be fuelled by debt and higher taxes at first which wouldn’t be sustainable. It might seem obvious but Ireland need’s serious economic growth in order to sort out problems to do with poverty and high debt levels.
A book I highly recommend people to read is: “The Generation Game” by the Irish economist David McWilliams. To cut a long story short, McWilliams makes the case that Ireland has a massive asset, an asset that very few other countries have and that is its Diaspora, the Irish Diaspora. There’s tens of millions of Irish Americans in the USA, millions of Irish Canadians, Irish British, Irish Argentines, Irish Mexicans, Irish Australians, Irish New Zealanders, etc that hold a very strong connection to Ireland. A lot of these people are highly educated (Just this week a man from Ireland who lives in the USA won the Nobel Prize in Medicine), wealthy and influential people. McWilliams makes the case that we should deepen our links with our diaspora, set up policies and laws that make it far easier for the Irish Diaspora to invest here and even have Irish citizenship.
McWilliams takes the reader to Israel and looks at how the Israelis are deepening links with Jewish people worldwide, the Jewish Diaspora. One example is Israel has summer schemes in many countries, particularly in the USA, where Jewish American/British/etc teenagers go to Israel every summer and for them to develop a very strong connection to Israel. This scheme has been successful and McWilliams advocates a similar scheme to be set up in the USA/Australia/etc funded by the Irish Government, in order to deepen Ireland’s links with the descendants of the Irish diaspora. The Irish Diaspora is much bigger than the Jewish Diaspora, so the scheme could be so much more successful for us.
McWilliams also takes the reader to South America where he meets the descendants of the Irish Diaspora there. He points out a case where an Argentine girl, of Irish descent, who knows English and Spanish fluently, is highly educated, has been an Irish Dancer for years but when she applied for a Work Visa to Ireland she was refused. Its cases like these, McWilliams says, that stumps growth in Ireland because that girl could’ve easily have adapted to Irish life and openly embraced an Irish identity while at the same time contribute to the economy with her skills, in this case much needed language skills.
I recommend David’s books, they really are great reads, I think a TV show was made by RTE based on The Generation Game and it may be on Youtube so its worth a check. But this is what Ireland has to do, it has to grow itself out of poverty and debt. Don’t be confined to trade with the European Union but embrace and promote policies that is healthy to Ireland, the Irish economy and to Irish society.
With all due respects Ryan you have made a convincing excuse for unionism to dig in its heels even more with your above points. The bottom line for Sinn Fein is they fear direct rule. The unionists know this and now all they have to do is say no to any shinner policies they don’t like. Eventually Sinn Fein will relent.
I also beg to differ whether people are better off with stormont than direct rule. I recall during the troubles the British state going out of their way in the propaganda war by impressing upon the public what a great wee place we have here in Northern Ireland. In fact they even had regular feel good advertisements to the theme of ‘wouldn’t it be great if it was like this all the time’ etc.
Now their propaganda war was backed up pouring lots of money into schools,hospitals,roads and anything else that countered the republican campaign. The point they were making was no matter what republicans do, and in spite of it Northern Ireland is and also could be a great wee place. Sure look at all the good hospitals,schools etc etc. Just imagine if the men of violence stopped. The people of Northern Ireland could have a great wee place.
Now fast forward to the end of the troubles and to the present day and the British state are not really interested in hospitals,schools and the like tha much is obvious. Now I ain’t for one minute arguing that the violence should come back to our streets, I am merely pointing out that the British poured millions of pounds into the six county economy to counter irish republicanism. And now that they have their former foes where they want them, they can now get them to reverse all the money that they HAD to begrudgingly pour into the north because their enemy is propping up stormont.
Sinn Fein have a lot to lose if direct rule returns. Most people who aren’t connected to the political protagonists here won’t lose a great deal. If the pesky Brits wanna inflict austere cut backs on us then bring it on that’s what I say. Civil disobedience may even bring people together. The charade on the hill most certainly isn’t.
Don’t get me wrong Wolfe Tone, I’m not saying Sinn Fein doesn’t have a red line when it comes to Stormont, they would bring it down if they weren’t benefitting from it and I doubt very much they would allow it to be used as a weapon against them. Unionism also needs Stormont to survive too. Paisley himself only went into Stormont in the first place because the British Government threatened Joint Rule with Dublin if he didn’t.