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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

The Irish financial crisis and the little people -- or how silly Irish stereotypes are being trotted out again

Posted on Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 05:02 AM
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Lord save us but the Saturday headline in the Boston Herald "Irish Bostonians raise cash for troubled Eire" made me wonder f I hadn't stepped back into a previous age.

Sure, Ireland is in trouble but intimating that Bostonians are rushing to help the tattered peasants over there reads like a plot from a Dickens novel, not reality.

I find the use of the word Eire, very annoying. Ireland has not been Eire since the declaration of the Irish Republic in 1949.

Why it persists I don't know.

It is like calling New York, New Amsterdam just because it was once called that.

The dinner they are talking about is the American Ireland Fund one, which has raised hundreds of millions over the years and is one of the biggest in the country.

But I'm sure the Fund itself would be deeply reluctant to see itself cast in this light, as raising funds for the poor beggars back in Ireland.

By any standard, IMF not withstanding, Ireland is one of the most prosperous countries in the world. The crisis there is one of excess, not of want.

Yes the country will have to readjust its sky high living standards and yes, they have acted incredibly stupidly, but there are no people starving and dying of malnutrition.

The great feast may have become a beggar's banquet with the IMF paying the bill but it is far from a national holocaust.

It is amazing how quickly the stereotypes revive.

I was on National Public Radio yesterday and the interviewer was all soulful and insisted on quoting Yeats at length and wondering what the great man would make of it all.

It is available here at www.thetakeaway.org/2010/nov/19/many-irish-unhappy-prospect-eu-bailout/?

I'm not sure and I really don't care what Yeats would think.

But it would be nice not to be viewed eternally through some Celtic twilight haze however.

Equally, 'Newsnight' a major BBC current affairs program featured Ireland as some shangri-la land with shebeens and leprechauns abounding and graphics to match.

Can't we get serious here people and report factually rather than this kind of malarkey?

Ireland is facing a deep economic crisis but the country has not suddenly regressed to a Darby O'Gill landscape.

We need to get that message out.


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25 comments

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ParisianThinker | Jan 23, 2011, 02:25 PM EST
"The Wind that shakes the Barley"......Why have the Irish forgotten?

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Towngate | Nov 23, 2010, 04:49 PM EST
Line 13 in post above.

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Towngate | Nov 23, 2010, 02:54 PM EST
BBC NEWSNIGHT excelled itself last night by dropping its "Patty-whackery and Diddle-e-eye music" graphics from their superb account of the EU/IMF/BRITISH BI-LATERAL bailout of Ireland. (Someone may have had a word!) ........ Chancellor Osbourne's statement to the House of Commons explaining why he was making a British no-strings (only modest interest) Loan available in addition to his EU obligations, "...to protect our mutual Trading interests,naturally, but also to assist our Friends and Closest Neighbour at a difficult time." - was illustrated with sumptous vistas of Dublin's Grand Architecture. Has anyone any idea why? (I think I DO know!)

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DanOLoingsigh | Nov 23, 2010, 02:37 PM EST
@TGate...thanks, so somebody knew...used to be a sign near Wembley 'National Breakdown'...was for a car recovery company! Unaware of Radio spot u mention?

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Towngate | Nov 22, 2010, 08:36 PM EST
@Dr/Dan: Not sure about the Garda Signs at d'Airport but they have taken down the "isteach" one and doubled the size of "amach"! I have also noticed they have taken down the main "Aerphort" signs and put up a massive "Ireland TERMINAL" one instead! @Kathy Callaghan: Listen to Nialls quest spot on Takeaway on National Public Radio and you will hear the American host referring to the IMF EU funds on offer, asking what the "Cold Weather,Rain-Abused Irish" thought of : " ...The "BLACK AND TANS" BAILING US OUT WITH THEIR BLOODY POUNDS!" Niall did not take issue with this, and remained silent! THAT'S how these 'Irish stereotypes' and ignorant references to Irish history are perpetuated. - .... "For The Evil to succeed - it only takes for The Good to do Nothing

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Towngate | Nov 22, 2010, 07:42 PM EST
kathy: Listen to Nialls quest spot on Takeaway on National Public Radio and you will hear the American host referring to the IMF EU funds on offer, asking what the "Cold Weather,Rain-Abused Irish" thought of : " ...The "BLACK AND TANS" BAILING US OUT WITH THEIR BLOODY POUNDS!" Niall did not take issue with this, and remained silent! THAT'S how these 'Irish stereotypes' and ignorant references to Irish history are perpetuated. - .... "For The Evil to succeed - it only takes for The Good to do Nothing!"

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DrTrelawney | Nov 22, 2010, 07:04 PM EST
Not sure, Dan. I'll be there in a few days. Actually, I go through there every few weeks and I've never noticed that. I'll let you know.

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KathyCallahan | Nov 21, 2010, 06:41 PM EST
speaking of perpetuating silly Irish sterotypes, caricatures. On Friday afternoon, I accidentally turned on 1600 am NYC at the right time and there was radio host Ed Schultz in full meltdown mode and spewing a steady stream of gratuitous insults at a conservative caller from Boston who begged to differ with him. Schultz could have conducted a stimulating discussion instead he ranted at the caller, "You're an Irish guy from Boston aren't you! You're an Irish guy from Boston. I know your kind!" The caller roared, But I am not Irish!" Schultz returned from a quick break and carried on about the last caller from Boston.

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DanOLoingsigh | Nov 21, 2010, 11:32 AM EST
Thanks DrT, was going to mention why we say Mossad and Shin Bet but never Mishteret Yisrael to refer to the Israeli Police… but decided against it. All I need to know now is if that odd ‘Irish police’ sign still stands at the airport?

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SeamusMor | Nov 21, 2010, 09:56 AM EST
Ireland is a speck of green is a sea of greed. She is like a leprechaun riding the back of an elephant, with no control over the direction the beast is traveling. The Church should declare a "Jubilee", and provide the moral backbone required to cancel the Euro debts as tax on the banks that Ireland into this mess. Start over with a new, home grown currency, instead of punt you could call it a "Boru"!

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DrTrelawney | Nov 21, 2010, 09:43 AM EST
Interesting point, DanOLoingsigh. I share your pedantry. I would argue there is a distinction between the cases of "Taoiseach" and the "Garda". The Garda are certainly the police but (note capitalisation) they are not the Police. That is to say, there is no doubt that individual gardaí are employed as policemen, but the official name of the force remains the Garda Síochána. It is less clear if one can refer to the Taoiseach as "prime minister". Many parliamentary democracies do not use that title. Indeed, it was not in common use in Great Britain until the beginning of the 20th century; to that point the holder of the office was normally referred to as First Lord of the Treasury. In other words, it's probably best to stick with Taoiseach at all times. The Eire issue is, however, not at all complicated. When speaking in English, one should say "Ireland" or, if making that distinction, the Republic of Ireland.

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DanOLoingsigh | Nov 20, 2010, 05:06 PM EST
WoundedKnee - Au contraire, mon ami, je suis allé à une conférence internationale...International Conference on the former Yugoslavia, Belgrade, 1995, and what’s more, I have the medal to prove it. The medal features the Drina River, and the Mountains of Serbia and Montenegro being observed by a dove of peace, to quote the citation. But in this case I am referring to the Government decision in 2006 to have Ireland’s nameplate at EU meetings changed from Ireland to Éire – Ireland, thus contributing to the confusion of the countries name. Minister Dermot Ahern announced the change in 2006. If that’s the name on the door, don’t expect others not to use it, was the point I was trying to make...

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WoundedKnee | Nov 20, 2010, 02:52 PM EST
DanOLoingsigh: You obviously have never been to an international conference or meeting, because what you say about "rebranding" is way off. What happens is that the native language of the country's name is put side by side with the internationally recognized version. The latter will for most meetings be French or English, probably Spanish in Latin America. The former will be things like Sverge, Suomi, Island, Belgique, Republica Dominicana, Deutschland. And Eire.

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kateomprint | Nov 20, 2010, 01:52 PM EST
The real message for the Irish people here is that our Government are desperate to hang onto power because I think they are so deeply involved in Anglo Irish they can't afford to let it go under because it is a Fianna Fail Bank. I don't know about us heading back to Darby O'Gill and the little people I haven't found a pot of gold at the end of my garden. Our Taoiseach is telling so many different stories that he can't seem to keep track. Maybe with the IMF in Ireland we won't have so much cronyism and backhanders. All cuts that the Government are saying they are going to make in the December 4th Budget will be now be blamed on the IMF and our Government will blame them for everything that goes wrong in this Country for the foreseeable future. Our Taoiseach and Finance Minister seem to be unable to tell us the truth about what is going on. It is so funny to listen to the radio broadcasts as they are maybe on one or two of them a day and the story is different each time. It is not going to make any real difference to my life because the celtic tiger seems to have been well hidden by the time I heard of him. I don't think wondering what Yeats would have made of all this is going to make a blind bit of difference to the lives of ordinary people who are struggling to keep the roof over their heads while the banks are being funded from all angles. Our Government don't seem to care where the taxes will come from when people are barely keeping their heads above water.

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DanOLoingsigh | Nov 20, 2010, 01:36 PM EST
DrT, would have agreed completely until that re-branding to Éire – Ireland, which has served to confuse things. But here’s where it gets interesting for pedants like me. Why Taoiseach in English, and Garda in English, and on that point, does anybody know if that sign is still up in the main terminal at Dublin airport, pointing to the police and it says ‘Irish Police’. It was near the information desk 2 years ago, I always meant to ask one of them what other countries police would we expect in Dublin?

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