The causes of the Irish economic miracle have been much analysed; less so its effects. John Murray Brown’s cover story in the new issue of Prospect looks at the new breed of Irish rich: the men—and they do seem to be almost exclusively male—who have profited from Ireland’s long economic boom and particularly its leap in property prices. These men represent the first big, indigenous moneyed class in Ireland, and they are having a profound effect on the way the Irish see themselves.
Interestingly, despite the fact that the extraordinary enrichment of Ireland has started to have an effect on the British economy—as Murray Brown says, in London, few big property deals get done these days without some form of Irish involvement—British media and politicians have largely ignored it. But as Ireland gets richer and more confident—its GDP per capita is now comfortably ahead of Britain’s—it is starting to care less about what its larger neighbour thinks.
Let us know what you think of the piece below.
Ireland has seen unprecedented development during the Celtic Tiger years. Public policy has been ‘development’ led, with more than half the homes in Ireland having been built during the last 12 years. Homes are built, but no infrastructure - schools, shops, etc. Wealthy we may be, but there is one big difference in comparison to the Continental European countries - Ireland did not build up the institutional wealth (public service institutions) that developed in post-war Europe. A huge social deficit exists and most social services are in crisis, with the ‘Shadow Welfare State’ of the voluntary sector being more vital than ever. I spent a week in hospital myself, and it was like being in a boy scout’s camp. Black rubbish sacks passed my bed daily; the floor never saw a mop; bins in toilets were overflowing, and the German girl next to me pleaded for some edible food after having her tonsils removed, only to be given a yogourt well passed its sell-by date. Research shows Ireland is very comfortable with an unequal society, with tax, education and health services favouring the rich. Health care is only free for the very poorest in society, and the public system is undergoing some reform, which may introduce some kinds of standards, but private health insurance is a must! Potentially progressive and radical voices have been coopted in [unequal] partnerships, with lay religious organisations calling for social justice. Ireland is a wonderful place to live if you have lots of money, are ‘consumer’ driven and are happy with greed and excessive profiteering, but the average punter is just thinking about how the doctor can be paid for the next consultation. Alex Salmond hopes that Scotland can learn from the Ireland, but I hope he will take a look at social development here, and see where total emphasis on the economic has got us.
A Third World country, one that had a revolution explicitly to prevent change, has come into money after joining the E.U. Perhaps the myths about Anglo-Irish history will evaporate in the heat, but I suspect not. In dealing with Anglo-Irish relations the article repeats a series of value judgements familiar to anyone who had to sit at a dining table through the 70s and 80s listening to the prattle of English liberals. Much that was wrong about Ireland was through choice, the admitted choice of a backward people, the last substantial peasant race in western Europe in the 20th century, where it was placed by an Irish elite (Yeats and Lady Gregory et al) for its own good and their pleasure. De Valera summed it up nicely with his ‘girls and boys dancing at the crossroads’ – his only developed political idea of what Ireland should be like. Irish Independence, ultimately was wholly reliant on there being an England next door where the crossroads led via a post Enlightenment social order to jobs, rights and choice. The recent success of Irish enterprise and culture is largely the result of it’s population swimming in a sea of Anglo Saxon origin. Since 1922 about a third of the Irish population worked and or lived in England, many educated there at the expense of the ‘domineering English’. The Irish (and I think the more reflective opinion in the country sees it now) were long held back not by the dead hand of ‘colonialism’ but the fakery of faeryland Ireland. Perhaps that is going, but the wealth needs to be re-distributed and fast. Ireland is ham strung by its lack of an Industrial past and a proletariat which lived in England. The fact that Irish wealth is now spent in that country rather than Ireland simply reflects the fact that in one p[lace there is something on which to spend it, unlike the other. It is in infrastructure – Ireland has no developed road system which would even match the old British ‘A’ classification of instance, something of which I am very aware. Let us move forward, and leave the blarney to Hollywood and the guilt-ridden English dining rooms. And it is still the case that in England the best stroke of luck you can have is a Southern Irish neighbour.
Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.
What a remarkably dull and obvious piece of journalism.
Is this the freelancers’ issue?
What a vapid piece of nonsense. Did you do your research in an Irish pub or just wikipedia.
What a lazy, patronising piece of journalism - a warmed-up rehash of the kind of page-filling psuedo-analysis churned out every weekend by the Irish newspapers.
Imagine, all these mick farmers hopping around by helicopter, sharing GPS co-ordinates of the local pub. There everywhere, you can’t stand up for helicopters. And one of them bought a hotel in London and then he cried, can you believe it!
Journalists just can’t get enough of the idea that lurking beneath the surface of Irish prosperity lies a vast iceberg, ready to sink the entire enterprise. And when it all comes crashing down, we’ll all say “sure wasn’t it all too good to be true anyhow” and go back to milking the cows and moaning about the weather. And it’s going to come crashing down, because David McWilliams said so (in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 etc). One of these decades he’s got to be right.
Do some real analysis of your own, why don’t you?
Oh, dear. Touchy, aren’t we?
I can see little wrong with this. I think it would have been interesting to look at the prosperous new middle class, and not concentrate on the big millionaire builders.
Also I feel it is simplistic to suggest that Ireland follows an American rather than a European model. The country has one of the worst health services in Europe, but in other respects the social welfare system is progressive, and there is a minimum wage.
There is also a social partnership system, where employers, workers and the voluntary sector reach deals on wages and other economic issues.
Third level education is free for all, and the vast majority of people have free primary and second level education, which is of a good standard.
Cynthia, above, commented: “most social services are in crisis”. As this is a British publication, with mostly British readers, I would like to point out that this is a common statement by my compatriots, but an utterly ridiculous one. There are problems, particularly with health, but no crisis. Hyperbolic hysteria is always a feature of Irish public debate, particularly in relation to health.
As regards comments above relating to the level of analysis, etc., in the article, I see their point. However, again, this article is not aimed at an Irish readership, who are familiar with its themes and characters. I see it as being fair enough, and taking a long view of the changes to the country, rather than the typical view of Irish commentators which can be summed up thus: “Oh yeah some people are rich but mostly the place is sh*te.” If you listened to these people you’d think our hospitals were death traps.
So yer man Quinlan amasses £750m through his squashbuckling exploits here in Ireland, and, instead of spending it in Ireland, he gives it to the English so he can have the right to raise the tricolour up the side of a London landmark that’s now falling in value. Perhaps the jokes were true all along.