Explaining ... to Americans
Created | Updated Dec 22, 2005
It isn't all shamrocks, leprechauns and buxom
maidens dancing at the crossroads anymore!
My Irish husband Tony and I have recently moved to Birmingham UK
and I am writing a weekly blog explaining Europe to my fellow
Americans. For the holidays, we visit Tony's family in Dublin, so
I thought this would be a good time to post part of the talk I
gave this summer about Ireland today while teaching in an American
college program, Semester at Sea. You can find the other blogs at
www.gypsyteacher.blogs
pot.com.
'A Yank in Finglas'
I'm not an historian, or anthropologist, or economist, or
sociologist. I'm a 'marketeer' and deal in perceptions. So these
are my perceptions of the changes in Ireland in the 15 years I've
been going there. Before me:
In the 19th Century - long before I got there - the population
of the whole island was about nine million. During the famine, 1/3
died, 1/3 left (including my great grandparents and maybe yours)
and 1/3 stayed.
1990: On my first bus tour, our guide said there were three
million people: one million pensioners, one million kids or
unemployed and one million who supported the rest by working,
including him, he pointed out. Mary Robinson was elected the first
woman president and the economy began a complete turnaround as a
result of almost 20 years of membership in the European Union.
1992: When I returned for a whole summer and met Tony, Ireland
was a net debtor in the EU, taking out more than it put in: 'Get a
grant, build a wall,' Tony told me. I heard that at one time
unemployment among men in their early 20s in Dublin - the main
workforce - reached 25%.
Tony had always worked. He was legally separated from his wife,
because there was no divorce or hope of divorce. During the
abortion referendum, on the evening news I saw cloistered nuns
brought out of convents to vote. All elements of the referendum
were defeated. Tony had just bought his family house in Finglas,
North Dublin, from his siblings, for 25,000 Irish pounds or about
$36,000.
1993: When I moved there to get my PhD and live with Tony,
overall unemployment was 16% and I heard that the only way to dent
it was for one full county to leave. There was an Emigration
Office - that's outward emigration - on O'Connell Street to help
people leave and we called them a lot when Tony was planning to
come back with me to the States. The Irish government gave huge
tax breaks to companies to come in and create jobs, particularly
in the rural west; my university had
'EU development' signs all over it. Ireland began having the
highest growth rate in the EU.
I had to go to the Immigration Office - that's incoming
Immigration - for my work permit to teach at the university. I
remember talking to a friend of Tony's at a pub who said Ireland
would never have the same problems as Britain: 'They'll never come
here.' I told him that every time I visited the Immigration
Office, there was an Indian family with a kid. A different family
every time, but always a family. My impression was that they had
come to London, got tired of living with the Brits, came to Dublin
where everyone was friendly, and decided to stay. They were
European citizens so they could stay.
1994: When we left for the States we sold Tony's family house
to his niece for 34,000 Irish pounds, or about $50,000. There was
no tax on houses under a certain amount - God bless socialism.
1997: When I came to defend my dissertation Tony's niece had
sold the house, now in 'Finglas Estates', to the next door
neighbour for the equivalent of $100,000. Divorce had been
legalized through referendum, but no one knew how to do it.
Seminars were held for attorneys on 'how to divorce people.' Mary
McAleese had been elected their second woman president and she
still is.
1999: The biggest changes appeared when I went to celebrate the
new millennium. Not only were there job notices in the newspapers
and help wanted signs in the windows, there were also recruitment
ads on the radio:
'Aah, you're home for the holidays. Isn't it great
to be seeing the mam and the family? Wouldn't you like to stay now
that you have your degree from the States or Australia or Britain?
Why not come back?'
Absolutely unheard of before. The B&B owner we stayed with,
Agnes, had grown kids with families living in the UK, Australia
and the US-an attorney, an accountant. They came back. They hadn't
wanted to leave but
there weren't any jobs. Now there were jobs. Since then there has
been a 41% increase in asylum seekers from other countries, mostly
Nigeria, Rumania and China. Tony had seen on the TV news a line
outside my little Immigration Office. The crowd waiting to get in
had grown too big, so the officials just shut down. 'Go home! We
can't handle it!' That's so Irish. Leaving those poor people
standing in the rain. Social services
brought food, blankets, etc. Which is also very Irish.
2000: Tony was divorced. The Catholic Church had said that
divorce would ruin the family, but there were parents who had been
separated for years and had new partners. Unemployment was 4%;
Ireland was averaging a 9% growth rate.
2002: When we visited Dublin on our first Semester at Sea
voyage, the euro had been introduced. Inflation was 5%, higher
than the Eurozone. Ireland was almost as expensive as Norway, our
next stop. For the weekly radio spot I wrote, I interviewed Tony
about immigration. He said, 'For centuries, the Irish went
everywhere else. Now it's our turn to take people in.' The
Irish culture has always included hospitality and helping
travellers and it still does. But now? 'Aah, we didn't think you
were going to stay.' The new immigrants aren't going home. They
move in next door, take a job and marry your daughter.
2004: We visited Tony's family last Christmas. On Boxing Day,
we were at a bus stop in Ashbourne, County Meath, the next county
north of Dublin. It used to be a little town with two pubs; now
there's a huge Tesco. About 12 people were waiting for the bus. I
told Tony, 'You and your daughter are the only Irish here'.
I'm an American, his daughter's husband is French, there were
three Polish, three or four Chinese, a few Russians. We could tell
because we heard them using the phone booth to call friends to
pick them up. We found out the buses don't run on Boxing Day.
2005: Still a 3-4% growth rate. Still 92% Catholic in the
secular EU, but it is now legal to divorce and also to travel and
get information on abortion. Although abortion is still illegal.
Unemployment is about 5% and Ireland is now an EU net contributor.
64% work in service industries. Ireland never had a real
Industrial Revolution, so there isn't much manufacturing.
So far, no Jean-Marie Le Pen has emerged, a politician to lead
the right-wing, anti-immigration segment who call talk radio to
complain. But these changes are a real test of Irish
hospitality.
As William Butler Yeats would say, again:
All changed, changed utterly.
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