One of the most encouraging things I heard recently was Mary Robinson speaking about her intention to move back to Ireland next year. She wants to focus on positioning Ireland as a “lead voice” in the challenge to combat injustice, in particular that faced by those suffering from global warming.
The devastation caused by the floods in November were shocking to see on television, reminiscent of images of Bangladeshi monsoons and Hurricane Katrina, and I am glad I’m not facing into Christmas in a cold, damp, ruined home, reeking with mould, my sense of security stolen, my livelihood destroyed.
One can only hope that the next Planning and Development Act from John Gormley will be sweeping enough to address the blight of short-sightedness that has cursed this land for so long. Whether it takes another deluge to convince people that it’s the result of global warming or not is irrelevant. We have to plan to ensure that our infrastructure is in place to prevent such needless damage recurring - even if it is another lifetime before such a downpour happens again. But it is yet one more example, if one were needed, that Ireland has had no vision or foresightedness, no prudence or savvy, when it comes to how we have governed ourselves in the last ten or fifteen years. We’re a people that bought into the cynicism of re-electing Bertie “I’m one of the last socialists left in Ireland” Ahern, before the chickens came home to roost.
For such a young country, it seems at the moment that we fall spectacularly short on envisioning the sort of nation we want to become. The last time we felt a surge of confidence in ourselves as people, that wasn’t based on being rich, but on a transformation of values and optimism, a sense of redefining who we are on the world stage, was when we elected Mary Robinson as President. The fact that she has been succeeded in that office by another excellent president cannot change the fact that Robinson blazed a trail in making us think differently about ourselves, bringing a spirit of considered reflectiveness and insight into our public discourse.
Robinson goes to the heart of what is wrong with us at the moment. We used to be a poor nation, but we used to pride ourselves on our sense of community spirit, helping each other out. Robinson honoured the thousands of local voluntary community groups in Ireland with her attention and patronage, and affirmed a sense of meaning and purpose to the lives of many people who were doing the best they could, given their lot. We were also an enormous donor to the third world, giving more than most to charity on a per capita basis. The story seemed to go that we still had a “race memory” of the famine, and our empathy moved us to generosity.
The culture of greed that overcame us in the Celtic Tiger led us to forget a few things, including the reality principle. I know I fell for the notion that I’d someday, down the road, become a millionaire, with absolutely no effort on my part, purely due to the ridiculously inflated property market - and I doubt there’s anyone reading this column who has not entertained a similar fantasy themselves. There is a big difference between the satisfaction one gets when one reaps the reward of hard work and inspiration, and the sort of giddy-guilty sugar-rush excitement one experiences if you find money on the street. You know you don’t deserve it, you know it’s not right, but you still can’t help but work out what you could buy with it.
The rage and bitterness that many people are feeling now against government, the bankers, the system, is intense and potentially very destructive. Don’t get me wrong - anger is a healthy emotion that fuels all progressive movements. But there is a nastiness in the air, a fury, that could turn into hate. And when hate is around in a populace, it is usually outsiders, foreigners that get scapegoated. It is a matter of pride to me that Ireland has not produced a party the equivalent of the British National Party or le Pen’s in France, and that our current malaise turned us left, not right, in the last local and European elections.
Page 1/2 <prev 1 2 next>
Dermod Moore 
