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.
It’s not about money. I passionately believe this. If we bring it down to a domestic setting, a household with people trying to get by, it becomes easier to illustrate. When we have a bad financial situation to deal with, caused by something unusual, like a legal case, our roof springing a leak, breaking a leg, or having to cope with looking after a sick relative, what do we do? We pay for it, we avoid luxuries for as long as it takes, and then we get on with things. It may be depressing or infuriating, but in the end we just get on with it. That’s life.
I believe it would be entirely possible for us as a people to swallow the financial pain necessary to get the government finances back in order, without it being destructive, if it was put to us in a way that seemed fair and that also gave us a sense that it would improve things in time. It is, after all, only money. As long as we’re above poverty levels, and have enough to eat, to keep warm, dry and safe, all of us can sacrifice something for the greater good, and take pride in it, if we’re asked in the right way.
The toxic component that threatens to prevent this happening, is because people feel it’s not our fault, and the people responsible have not apologised to us for their part in it.
A lack of apology is the most corrosive thing. Seeing Brian Cowen in the midst of a crowd of damp, angry people, saying we need to pull together and find community spirit - he doesn’t have the bigness of character, the integrity, to call on that, because he has never honestly apologised for his role (and that of his party) in creating the mess we are in now. He’d be a bigger man if he did. And we’d be a less angry people: the hatemongers would go off the boil.
Mary Robinson wants to help lift our morale, and she is exactly the sort of thinker that can help us to do so. She’s suggesting that with our ingenuity and creativity, we can be a powerhouse of ideas and products and skills to enable the poor of the world to cope with the natural disasters that have been inflicted on them by the rich of the world. Ireland can lead the way in the developed world to reach out and apologise for burning so much carbon, for contributing to climate change, by making a practical difference in the lives of those afflicted.
While we’re cutting our cloth and being deprived of luxuries for a few months to get ourselves out of a mess, why not, as a nation, become engaged in a charitable cottage-industry project where we all churn out solar powered lights or water-filters or other such simple things, to send away to those who need them most? I can’t think of a better thing than that to feel better about ourselves.
We may be struggling, but it is precisely when times are hard, that it’s time to give. We’ll feel so much better about ourselves as a result.
Have a good Christmas.