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Last night I watched the first part of David McWilliams' documentary "In Search of the Pope's Children" on BBC4 (it was already shown on RTE a couple of years back). The documentary was made in 2006 and as the last throes of the Irish economic boom were being enjoyed. As anybody who was reading his journalistic output at the time will know he had already been predicting the bust for quite a while but the style of the first part of the documentary was quite gentle. Rather than offer too many opinions on what was happening he let the cameras do the talking.
Anyway, the Ireland he presented was recognizable to me from visiting home these last ten years. The extreme materialism of the country always gave me quite a nauseous feeling and seeing it portrayed in this documentary brought back that stomach churning feeling. One interesting thing for me was the categorization of people into the Decklander and HiCo classes. Having been born into the middle classes I can see a lot of parallels between myself and the HiCos. Their search for something more than just an Irish Americana or Anglia strikes a chord. However, the portrayal of these people shopping for organic and luxury foods is also quite alien to me.
Nearly all of the people interviewed said that Ireland was a better country than it had ever been. The archival clips shown as part of the documentary clearly showed why. Though I didn't appreciate it when I was very young I grew up in a miserable country. Of course it is a better country now, it could hardly have gotten any worse. At the same time being better is not saying that the country is a success. The whole point of accepting the partition of the country was to set up an Irish state where the Irish language and culture could prosper. The state has not been particularly successful in that aim. Perhaps the recession years will allow the Irish state to develop a new ethos. Materialism seems to have replaced Catholicism as the dominant ethos in past couple of decades. I wonder what will take its place now that the state must go back to first principles.
Conservatives should be able to avoid asking for Clegg's help
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10 comments:
Well, apparently religion is experiencing somewhat of a resurgence. Living here the materialism crept up on me, it was just one day everyone had swish cars and huge TVs. Mind you my industry suffered from 2002 onwards, so while everyone else was living it large I was following a more prudent path, possibly more from necessity than a higher moral standpoint. I wouldn't pay a huge deal of attention to the Decklander/HiCo division, there are an infinite number ways you could partition any society, some are useful, others are amusing and others are just offensive. DMcW wants to sell books/documentaries, so his generalisations feed our own views back to us in many ways, but I enjoy what he comes up with and applaud the fact that he has the nads to not toe the line but think for himself.
Of course his division is purely subjective but it is an interesting division. Ireland became a country where it was more profitable to be involved in manual labour and taking a punt on the housing market rather than a country where smart work was rewarded. Every time I went back home I would have people only asking about Holland so that they could say they earned more or had more expensive houses even though Holland has clearly got a higher standard of living because of its historic wealth and the gas income.
My view has always been that society needs to stimulate education and the unnatural imbalance in Ireland in the last years seems to have led to a culturally bankrupt element in Irish society who are not very different than their counterparts in Britain. That is where the HiCo idea interests me because there always has been a strong minority in Ireland trying to counteract this by promoting a Hibernian alternative culture.
This is another area where I agree with DMcW. The Irish state should be an Irish homeland as Israel is to the Jewish diaspora. However, what is now the case is that many people in the 26 county state see their 'Ireland' as their country and regard the north as a foreign place and do not even extend the vote to Irish people living outside of the state. When I see the behaviour of some Irish people I wonder whether Irish independence (with the concomitant partition of the country) has achieved anything more than what could have been achieved by staying one Ireland in the UK.
The Irish state is not serving the Irish nation (which has far more people outside of the ROI). DMcW's idea that by looking after the diaspora the state can also help itself is not wrong. There is a worldwide network of strength available to Ireland but nobody is really tapping it. The Irish state does not know where I live, it does not know how many children I have. Registering citizens abroad and foreign births is basic but does the ROI do this, no. No wonder then that people like myself are lost to the state forever when we move abroad and our children with us. Poland is doing a far better job of connecting with my children.
Funnily enough, I think the North is actually less materialistic than the South. People here always want the physical goodies like quality houses, cars, furniture etc, but they're also very family-centred and value relationships and friendships and looking out for each other. There's plenty of cultural awareness as well, with new and revamped arts venues opening all the time. I think people here appreciate materialism without being slaves to it.
The HiCo side of things (where I sit and observe) has strong parallels to the upper middle class interests in the UK for the last 20 years, the worst examples of them being parodied in the Ross O'Carrol Kelly books, I wouldn't hold them up as examples of how to attain a uniquely hibernian identity. As DMcW points out it is more to do with tribalism; where money was the tribal division before, now the concept of 'taste' comes to bear with associated snobbery still well in place. Ah, I suffer from it myself, for some reason I view rural money as more desirable than urban money, there is no rational reason for this.
The diaspora thing is a fine suggestion, beset by the dangers of paddy-whackery. You are a member of it, what would you like to see done? As an idea it's fine, but it's essential to get a dialogue going to establish what's in it for all parties concerned.
Nick,
I don't think that north got the chance to go as crazy because it is not self-governing which is a good thing if you don't want to make the mistakes that Iceland and the ROI did ;-) Also, one of the few positives of the division and tribalism in the north is that it promotes far more awareness of identity and stimulates culture in turn. Even the much maligned Ulster Scots movement is promoting cultural awareness.
I think that the south still has a very rich cultural output (e.g. I read more books by Irish writers than any others), it's just that there is a very big group of nouveau riche who prefer to think about material possessions rather than valuing culture, heritage, nature etc.
GU,
"The HiCo side of things (where I sit and observe) has strong parallels to the upper middle class interests in the UK for the last 20 years"
I wouldn't agree with this. I think that the HiCos are basically the evolution of where we came from. Our schooling was typical of the ambivalent Irish attitude of that time towards Irishness. Sure we had Irish debating and hurling but the main sport was rugby and we were more or less being moulded into Anglo-Irish people for want of a non-religious term. At the same time there was the practice amongst some of the Catholic upper middle class of sending their children to Protestant schools.
The same parents now put their children in Gaelscoileanna, becoming more Irish now has cachet. If a percentage of all of these Gaelscoil children bring up their children through Irish the paradigm shifts. That is a relevant shift and that is one reason why I regret bringing up my children away from Ireland (though obviously not a good enbough reason to make me move back).
"The diaspora thing is a fine suggestion, beset by the dangers of paddy-whackery. You are a member of it, what would you like to see done?"
The term paddy-whackery often comes up in this kind of discussion. As you know Irish people (moi inclu) are never far from being on the defensive and I think that this term is often thrown out there to make it seem as though only people who live in the 26 county state can understand Ireland.
I see it a bit differently. There are hundreds of thousands of first generation Irish outside Ireland and millions of second generation Irish. When it comes to defining Irishness we have the curious situation whereby many Irish people in London live a more markedly Irish life than those in Dublin. C'est la vie and all that but my view is that the Irish state needs to be a well from which the Irish nation can drink. Ireland being a version of England is just not good enough.
I outlined a few basic idea on how the diaspora could be engaged before in my post on cherishing the Irish diaspora.
What's in it for Ireland is that the country can tap into the financial muscle, the knowledge and the networks of the Irish diaspora. As an Irish person abroad I would be more than willing to do my bit for Ireland if the country was doing something back for me and my family.
There was a comment on Slugger a few weeks ago which sums up how some people now see the Irish state. I showed it to my wife and she was not disagreeing with too much based on her visits to Ireland.
http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/93-pro-irish-language/
This 93% pro is disneyland stuff, like the same folk who go on about a
'United Ireland.' Ah sure feck a United Ireland, most truely say, deep
down..... but come on Man United.
And feck the old language too, they really and truely say, deep down....eh?
Coz if folk really cared they’d be all able to speak it. Lamenting bout the
old lost language rather than learning and using it, is just typical of
dear old Paddy. Most folk in Europe seem to manage to speak a number of
languages as well as their own native tongue, but not poor old Paddy.
So let's have English all the way then. Just admit it, that it is now our
national language. Ah sure ain't we all vitually English today I
suppose,.... dear old gaelic Ireland is long dead and gone. Those former
English rulers and settlers did a marvellous job and made a wonderful and
lasting irreversible impression…....... mope, mope!
So come on now, don't be the closet Brits anymore, Come out…and fullfil
that wish, of being out and out Eng-a-lish…….and let's have more pleeze of
all what’s great, like the kings and queens of England such as Henry the
VIII, Contemporary culture vultures lot’s to see on the ever impressionable
ZZZZZZzzzzzzzombie TV… ah, the X Factor, quiz shows and Britain's Got
Talent, lovable presenters like Piers Morgan and Chris Tarrent, oh and
campy old Simon Cowell, remember the rivers of blood Enoch Powell, Ant &
Dec, Posh & Becks, Man Utd, Cup o’ Tea, The Premiereship, The Royal Family,
The Empire, Kevin Myers, M&S, S&M, Tesco's (what a profit) and Debenham’s,
real ale, The Sun, The Telegraph, The Observer, The Mail, The Grand
National and Wimbledon, Let’s all cheer for England - come on my
son….Eastenders, Coronation Street, God Save the Queen, Rule Britannia and
the Union, sure the republic may as well be part of the UK....today, if ye
look at the telly and the likes of TV3, or reading the daily Oirish
newspapers while having the full English breakfast.... the fact of the
matter is the English language is spoken nationally in Ireland … alroy
mate!....and sadly most folk in Ireland today don't really care!
That's fair enough, I'd forgotten that vibe on the Gaelscoileanna in the book. That's a fine tribal feature. I was more referring to those about 10-15 years our senior who obsessively shop in Avoca Hand Weavers and remind me deeply of the up-themselves neighbours from "The good life"
I don't think I ever watched "The Good Life" so another cultural reference dies a death in the great dessert that is ignorance.....
I know the lasses you are referring to. There will be folk like that after a nuclear war fighting it out with the cockroaches....
desert not dessert ;-)
Haha. Indeed. Still perma-tanned too :-)
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