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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

No more Celtic Tiger but most Irish seem unfazed --global success story never rang true for many anyway

Posted on Monday, December 13, 2010 at 12:03 AM

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Dublin: If you thought the Irish were overwhelmed and utterly focused on their economic crisis this week you would be mistaken.

Every major newspaper here on Sunday led not with the crisis, but the fact that radio shock jock Gerry Ryan had cocaine in his system when he was found dead last April.

While important news, it was hardly the stuff of wall to wall coverage but then the Irish were probably thankful for the diversion from the grim economic tidings.

Even the quality newspapers devoted page after page to Ryan despite a looming general election and continuing speculation about the IMF bailout and what it means.

If you had dropped in from outer space you might have wondered why was this Ryan man so important.

The answer is when it comes to bread or circus, the Irish prefer the circus for now thank you very much.

Meanwhile, life in Dublin goes on with a merry twinkle despite the hard times. A thaw in the recent harsh weather brought tens of thousands of them onto the streets on Sunday, not demonstrating but shopping.

The children lining up to see Santa and some Christmas animals outside the Mansion House in Dublin, home of the Lord Mayor, luckily didn't overhear the remark of one passer by.

"Look at that donkey" he said, pointing to the little animal shivering in the stable." He's perfect. We make an ass of ourselves and now the Lord Mayor has decided to show off his ass."

It was classic Dublin wit but with a grain of truth. This Christmas the Irish are feeling somewhat foolish as they survey the wreckage of what Queen Elizabeth would surely call an "Annus Horribilis"

But despite all the bad news I can report there is life in the old Emerald Isle yet. Grafton Street, the main shopping thoroughfare was thronged, the bookstores were crowded and a Christmas spirit like only the Irish can whip up prevailed.

My friend an eminent journalist has a theory. "we're not happy being happy, we're not happy being successful" he said.

"For eight hundred years and all that we had tyranny and jackboot and failed rebellions. Then we had a few happy years, but this is much more like our natural state."

He may be on to something. Many here remark on the lack of protest, no general strikes like in Greece, when the IMF moved in, no student riots like in England when the college fees went up.

The Irish seem happy enough in their bad fortune. That sounds like a paradox, but if you know the Irish psyche, whether it is the history of martyrdom, the powerful psychic appeal of such heroes, of defeat snatched from victory's jaws then it is not surprising.

There is the general expectation that as Daniel Patrick Moynihan once remarked, "To be Irish is to know the world will break your heart."

That is not to say that there is no anger, there is a deep and abiding loathing of banker's politicians, developers and everyone else who caused this mess.

But there is also a serenity which comes with the DNA and the realization that Murphy's Law has won out.

A political friend told me a recent focus group he observed just wanted to know one thing. "Is all the bad news out and if so, then let's get on with it."

That is the Irish way, pragmatic stoicism for want of a better term. The Celtic Tiger has become the abandoned cub, and in it's place is a bear-like depression.

Yet the Irish soldier on. The Grafton Street lights blink brighter than ever, the street buskers sing of a "Nation Once Again." and the nation hobbles forward.

Lead kindly light amid the encircling gloom as the psalm says

These are "no mean people" these Irish as Yeats once remarked.

He got that right.

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seamusmoore | Dec 13, 2010, 12:00 PM EST

teddybeartwo Sorry to the bearer of bad news but lightning will not strike twice for several reasons: 1) cost structure- in the mid-90's, Ireland was the cheapest place in the EU to do business, it is now the most expensive (see Dell moving to Poland last year); 2)the well educated force in the 1990's is no longer there; in the last decade, the young people of Ireland didn't want to take the "hard road" educationally in math, science, and engineering, more have chosen the social sciences; 3)many of the new EU countries will be in a better position to offer multi-nationals incentives to locate there as Poland did. The Celtic Tiger was really the period between 1994-2001 as govt debt as % of GDP dropped from 95% to 36%; from 2003-2008 it only declined from 32% to 25%. The first period was an export driven period of wealth creation which saw higher real estate prices supported by rising incomes; the latter period was real estate prices driven by an excess of cheap money, clearly unsustainable in the long run.

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antoman | Dec 13, 2010, 11:46 AM EST

There will be turkey dinners in every home up and down the land.I have no doubt about it.But we'll have to import swans and ducks come the new year on account that word of the slaughter will have gotten round and the birds will refuse to fly here themselves.I doubt people could spare the bread to feed them anyway,sure don't we need the bread ourselves to put the free cheese on.

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teddybeartwo | Dec 13, 2010, 10:58 AM EST

Well it's very simple, it's not Americans or American Corporations to blame, it's greed itself, that old familiar evil alone. I remember a cabbie a few yrs ago telling me that everyone he knows is mortgaged "up to their eyeballs," husband/wife both working and paying huge daycare fees, etc, etc. And he predicted, "all hell's gonna break out one day." And it did, n'est ce pas? Well, greed will once again rear it's ugly head (mixed metaphor?) and the Celtic Tiger will once again roar, just like Puff the Magic Dragon. Stiff upper lips, lads.

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GeorgeDillon | Dec 13, 2010, 10:38 AM EST

LoyalCitizen: " give away to free loading pretentious American Corporations". ... But you don't care about free loading foreign migrants? You Irish deserve every misfortune that is coming to you. You're the biggest goofs in Europe.

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GeorgeDillon | Dec 13, 2010, 10:36 AM EST

"Queen Elizabeth would surely call an "Annus Horribilis"---No, Elizabeth Windsor has an Anus Horribilis.

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GeorgeDillon | Dec 13, 2010, 10:14 AM EST

After reading Niall's story I remembered the perplexing non-rhyming poem by Stephen Crane: "In the desert I saw a creature, naked, bestial, Who, squatting upon the ground, Held his heart in his hands, And ate of it. I said: "Is it good, friend?" "It is bitter, bitter," he answered: "But I like it Because it is bitter, And because it is my heart." There is indeed a stoicism in the Irish character - and perhaps a certain fatalism. Their lot may be bitter but it is their lot and they will deal with it. This is the attitude I remember so well, perpetual betrayal by polititians and they soldier on in grim defiance.

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LoyalCitizen | Dec 13, 2010, 07:31 AM EST

The Celtic Tiger never existed, it was just a figment of journalists imagination. You cannot miss something that never existed in the first place. We did have however, some of the dumbest people in history running Ireland and stripping the assets to give away to free loading pretentious American Corporations. Irish Politicians wasted all the European Funds in trying to purchase an economy. History says that never works.

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seamusmoore | Dec 13, 2010, 06:23 AM EST

"Grafton Street, the main shopping thoroughfare was thronged". That would be like walking down Fifth Avenue in NYC and assuming the economy was not that bad; of course, visiting Elkhart, IN or Youngstown, OH would leave you with a quite different impression. Niall, perhaps you should get out among the culchies.

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