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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Rural Ireland changes rapidly as old ways fade away -- Facing a Facebook future as times change rapidly

Posted on Monday, December 10, 2012 at 07:14 AM
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The local mart - no longer the common gathering spot for rural Ireland

Rural Ireland is changing rapidly with many of the mainstays of that culture fading fast.

A friend from rural Tipperary put it best to me last week during my visit to Ireland.

We were driving to Belfast from Dublin and I was remarking on how the new highways, while wonderful, where changing the way people saw Ireland nowadays, no roads through rural towns and villages anymore, where much of the charm of Ireland lay.

He said rural Ireland had changed forever.

“Time was when people would gather at the fair day which is now mostly a memory, or the mart which no longer really happens.

“Before they’d gather outside mass but fewer and fewer are going nowadays because of all the scandals and the emigration.”

Even the most hallowed place, the pub, has its shortcomings today.

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“Even that ritual has become far less common nowadays because so many pubs have closed or locals are afraid of drunk driving because of the massive crackdowns. People mostly drink at home now.”

The only mainstay left he declares is the local GAA team, the sports of hurling and football played in every parish in Ireland.

“Were it not for the GAA there would be no community spirit in Ireland at all,” he says emphatically. “It has come down to them.”

It is definitely true. The GAA team plays for the pride of the village or townland and has seriously deep roots in the community.

But  in every other way the rural Ireland that we all knew is dying fast and neighbors are far less neighborly than they were even a few years ago.

It is not all downhill. Things have actually gotten a bit better since the demise of the Celtic Tiger when the emphasis was on big brash homes where keeping people out rather than fostering community bonds was the norm. There are not too many MacMansions any more.

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There has also been the advent of Facebook which has heavily impacted rural Ireland. I see it on my Facebook friend’s feeds who live in rural Ireland where it is a whole new way of communicating news.

Reports of break ins, local events, places to go with kids are all on Facebook daily now, replacing the community bulletins of old.

My niece’s Facebook last week in rural Meath was full of news of where Santa was showing up, how a car had been broken into, where the old folk’s Christmas luncheon was being held.

Rural Ireland is changing and adapting to the modern world. Whether Facebook will ever take the place of the gathering outside Mass or the pint on a Saturday night remains to be seen.

Someone once defined life’s three great needs as food, love and gossip. I’m inclined to agree and think rural Ireland will be fine, just different, in the future as there will always be lots of those three components to be found! See more: GAA

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23 comments

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Strongbow | Dec 17, 2012, 10:30 PM EST
The detrimental effects of british colonialism are still being felt throughout Irish society to this day in much the same way that the legacy of slavery still affects African-Americans both consciously and unconsciously.

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anglo-norman | Dec 11, 2012, 06:39 PM EST
The Catholic Church was & is the detriment of Irish Society. GROW UP IRELAND!!!

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ToryTory | Dec 11, 2012, 02:44 PM EST
Romanticising Ireland. It's no different to the rest of the British Isles in that respect.

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WoundedKnee | Dec 11, 2012, 01:26 PM EST
glounlathan: What an absurd justification you make for supplanting Irish people with foreign migrants. Did Ireland swamp Poland with emigrants? Did Irish migrants stream in vast numbers into China or India? Will the people of Latvia be a minority in their own country within a couple of decades?--the Irish will. And does your friend whine about Irish people having to emigrate, even while he employs cheap and docile foreign labor? The Irish capitalist class are utter traitors, they have no allegiance to Ireland. What a piece of nonsernse you wrote.

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WoundedKnee | Dec 11, 2012, 01:19 PM EST
RedBranch: " all the main roads out of Dublin ..." A smart Dubliner once explained this to me. He pointed out that the ruling class in Ireland, those who dominated politics, the media, business, the Church etc. were in huge majority not Dubliners. They never looked on Dublin as their home, even if they had lived 20 years there. They often sneered at Dublin and its people--the jackeens--even tho they were happy to take up a job and a house there. And they built roads out of Dublin, to get them "home" (a place they had been happy to leave) quickly on weekends and holidays.

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michaelidaho | Dec 11, 2012, 11:04 AM EST
Bocktherobber, This article was about changes in rural Ireland. The most obvious change between the time period before the late 1990s and today is massive demographic changes. I do not dislike foreigners. I just miss the old rural Ireland, where 99.9% of the people were Irish and the rest were tourists. Today it seems less than half the people in rural Ireland are Irish, with the rest being made up of tourists and permanent foreign nationals.

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RedBranch | Dec 11, 2012, 07:00 AM EST
A decent highway network was the best legacy of the Tiger years. Road deaths are down despite traffic volume being up. Thinking back all the main roads out of Dublin were two way streets ploughing into provincial towns.Drivers taking advantage of the hard shoulder like it was an extra lane. What is amazing is that thousands weren't killed annually.

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WoundedKnee | Dec 11, 2012, 01:42 AM EST
Bocktherobber--No one is "complaining about foreigners", as you so clumsily put it. People are drawing attention to the truly pathological rate of Mass Immigration into many Irish communities. In lots of places fully 40% or 50% of the population is foreign migrant. Only someone with a "mental disorder" such as yours could not see the relevance of this huge and violent demographic change in any discussion of a changed way of life in Ireland. I suppose had you been in the Dakots in the 1870s you'd have wondered why the Sioux were "complaining about foreigners", as they witnessed the inexorable influx of foreign settlers. A decade later, and the Sioux culture lay in ruins, broken and gone forever. Don't be such an idiot.

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Bocktherobber | Dec 10, 2012, 10:20 PM EST
It's amazing. No matter what Irish Central writes about, there's always someone trying to complain about foreigners. Is this some specific mental disorder unique to IC readers?

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glounlathan | Dec 10, 2012, 08:59 PM EST
I agre with the last commenter when he said it is sad to see the changes but not all were bad. On the question of foreigners in Ireland, I guess we do not have much of an arguement there as we have been foreigners in many countries ourselves. I have a relative in Ireland who is a contractor and when times were good he could not get Irish lads to work for him. He got a couple of Polish lads who have proved to be exceptional workers and are still with him---is he supposed to let them go now because there are Irish lads available who would not dirty their hands a few years back? There has been nothing more tragic than the sex scandal, but it should be remembered that it was a small majority if religous who were guilty. All the good hard working charitable priests and brothers should not be tarred with the same brush. One set of evil doers who have not been brought to task in this are the Saturday night studs who left their own flesh and blood to the wind, and to whatever perils the children would face. It is sad where ever the innocent suffer.

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2ndrepubalik | Dec 10, 2012, 07:38 PM EST
Nothing stays the same - not even in Ireland.I was an emigrant , both to the UK and Australia - came back in 1990 - big mistake , at least from a financial point of view. I know the hardest things for Irish people when they emigrate is coming back in later years and feeling alienated because the place is not as you remember it.At least that's what I think.Contributors here have hit on a number of excellent points which even those of us who have stayed here now feel . For example there was a huge influx of people here from 1996 onwards and is still happening because the euros people earn and send home to Eastern Europe , The Phillipines, Brazil , India etc buys a multiple back home compared to here.The workers here are prepared to live on next to nothing to send money home which leaves Ireland's economy permanently.Also the roads , no - one drives through the villages and towns good which is good and bad . People do not go out as much now either because the internet has meant you can live and work from home and entertain yourself online.Crime ( Ireland has only 4000 prison places - one tenth of one per cent of our population compared to USA - 2% of population !!!) is a big problem both from "native" variety and imports so people don't leave thier home and contents unoccupied . Also people do not go out now because they have less or no money - no job , lower pay if you have one ( except Public Sector) and lower welfare - it all adds up.It's up to "The People" to stand up to decades of misgovernment - the single greatest tragedy has been the loss of able people like you guys and girls - all 2 million of you who were born here but don't live here anymore.No other Country in Western Europe has such an abysmal record.Votes for Emigrants for at least 5 years from departure - that'll help change things and is being "considered" by the Government ( they won't want to do it - pressurise them through your folks back home - for all our sakes !!!)

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glounlathan | Dec 10, 2012, 07:17 PM EST
Let's hope that too much does not go, but there is no doubt that a terrific debt is owed to the GAA since its inception. It is a pity that there is a downward trend economucally but to be honest I have met many who have visited from here who they were astounded at the extravagnces of their own relatives in Ireland. The banks were not the only ones who over did it---people did not know where to stop with spending---and now they worry shout cut backs. Their kids have free educations, they have had free this and that, and have had it for years---did they ever think that there would be a day of reckoning? When I was young man a beggar was turned from the front door by many who received much from Europe later. Did the Irish ever consider themselves as beggars on the door of Europe.

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stanJames | Dec 10, 2012, 06:59 PM EST
One mroe thing needs to change in rural ireland - freedom from the church of child twiddlers.

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curtisjohnson | Dec 10, 2012, 05:02 PM EST
Sad - it seems the anglophile west brits in Dublin want to turn Ireland into a large New Jersey strip mall.

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Sparklet | Dec 10, 2012, 02:59 PM EST
I suppose it's inevitable, but we can but hope. I can't bear the thought of things changing any more than they have already.

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