Trouble brewing

There’s nothing like a bracing spin through the country at this time of the year.

Maybe it’s the renewed contact with your roots or, if your forebears come from the south east, your rewets. Whatever, it’s all there. The clear air, the oxygen, the ions, the gargling laughter, the salty gossip, the loaded political discourses. And, of course, the cynicism and opportunism.
No bad thing. But clearly, the national ecosystem is undergoing one of those cyclical changes that come about from time to time. Elections are looming on both sides of the border and so, by jaysus, there’s trouble brewing, at least in the larger of the two jurisdictions.
As Cheltenham opens, a racing analogy is apt. We’ve turned the last and are heading for home. The whips are out and it’s devil take the hindmost. Seize any and every opportunity to point a finger or embarrass your opponents because they’d do the same to you.
And it’s a time when different interest groups turn up the heat on government. As like as not they do so by trapping as many of the public as possible between them and whoever their dispute is with. Getting an edge, you might say.
The nurses were early out of the traps. Today there’s talk of industrial action by mental health nurses but other nurses are also gearing up for a go. But Aer Lingus workers weren’t slow either. Thankfully, the threat of industrial action there has receded for now, but don’t be surprised there’s another kick in the dispute before the election.
Boringly, the political debate so far has foothered around on tedious issues like lowered tax rates and changes to the stamp duty regime. Sure, a percentage point here or there will have some kind of impact, but what’s given with one hand is always taken with the other. And anyway, despite what everyone thinks, Ireland is a low tax country. It’s the hidden taxes, like stamp duty, that get you.
Also, you can’t have decent public services and systems without some tax. And in poll after poll the Irish people say they want those services and systems. They may well demand better value for money but believe me, they want them. But they also want the kind of lowered tax carrots offered by the PDs.
The bad news is that you can’t have both. Well, the PDs would probably favour privatising all these systems, but ironically, nobody’s too keen on that either. Which means we’re all going to have to start making informed decisions or prepare for lengthy coalition cobblings…
Surprisingly, there’s been relatively little mainstream mention of the more fundamental quality of life issues that are out there, apart from medical services. But the fabric of Irish society is tearing in many directions. Why are so few shouting about it?
Over the last weeks we heard that 2006 saw the steepest decline in pub licences, the decline from 2005 being the steepest ever recorded. This is according to figures issued by the Revenue Commissioners.
The biggest falls were recorded in the BMW region and in Munster. Much lower falls were recorded in Dublin and Leinster. Okay, some of this is to do with licences being bought so shops can sell beer. But the decline in custom arising from the smoking ban and the drink-driving clampdown is also significant.
Now, I’m not weeping for publicans. And it’s not that people have stopped drinking. They haven’t. But more and more drink at home and lose touch with neighbours and communities. The pub is a centre of social activity as well as drinking.
In the same breath we heard that An Post is to close 500 rural post offices. This is an outrage to many people in smaller urban areas for whom the post office represents the only alternative gathering point to the church. Throw in the decline in the number of farmers, especially full-time farmers, and you have a seismic shift.
On the other side, you have dormitory ‘burbs, mostly within commuting distance of the large urban centres, but also throughout the country populated by people who don’t come from that area, don’t work in that area and, increasingly, don’t drink out in that area either.
For the Irish, who carry such a strong sense of place and of belonging to that place, this is a fundamental challenge. A few years ago I found myself driving through the French midlands in high summer and I came across a large sign erected in a field. ‘Ne pays sans paysants’ it declaimed – no countryside without countrypeople…
Too true. In another era these changes would be debated more widely. And they’d be the topic of songs as well, like mass immigration into the United States in the 19th century, or indeed the dustbowl migrations in the 1930s were.
The songs from those times are social, economic and cultural commentary as well as music. Later, they are among the texts from which we read and interpret history.
James Joyce said of Ulysses “I want to give a picture of Dublin so complete that if the city one day suddenly disappeared from the earth it could be reconstructed out of my book.” For sure, we have people making great music at the moment. But who is writing the songs that might do the same for Ireland in 2007 as Joyce for Dublin in 1904?