Christmas in Ireland

It is the run-in to Christmas and the madness has long started in Ireland. We at Look Around Ireland have long since given up attempting to explain the mentality that seems to beset Irish people when the days start getting shorter. Christmas in Ireland starts immediately after the October Bank Holiday weekend. Or rather the commercial exploitation of this holy event starts then. The radio adverts are the usual way the season is inaugurated, subtle reminders to book your Christmas staff party or hotels offering festive season packages that you need to book now or you’ll be disappointed! And so on.

The heavy stuff gets under way in mid-November. The dreaded songs start crashing into your brain no matter what channel you switch to. The old reliables make their annual appearance. The seemingly forever young Slade still in action from the mid seventies, with Noddy Holder strutting his stuff on some show or other, the eyes bulging more and more as he gets older. Then you have of course Bob, Bono and all that gang from that the Live Aid hit single of 1985, Do They Know its Christmas, a song about famine in Africa and the suffering of the little children. Twenty two years have passed since it was the Christmas number one and the great irony and sadness is that it could be released again because nothing has changed- just substitute Ethiopia for Darfur and a hundred other places.

Look Around Ireland has a particular favourite from 1987, Shane Mc Gowan, the Pogues and Kirsty McCall with Fairytale of New York, a very evocative song that lifts the spirits of this scribe. Shane McGowan being of Irish decent spends many a vacation in Ireland while sadly, Kristy McCall is no longer with us, killed in a water skiing accident some years ago.

The early introduction of Christmas songs on the radio is one of the very minor irritations of an Irish (and perhaps other countries) Christmas. However the total overwhelming commercialization of the season is a particularly Irish phenomenon since we all became cubs of the Celtic Tiger. Panic seems to overcome the Irish people – and yes, it is mostly women- who seem to think that there will be a famine when the Christmas break comes around. Shopping centres become something of a war zone with endless queues and short tempers providing car-park rage, trolley rage and the latest must-have gadget rage. The so called ‘season of goodwill’ resembles anything but in the lead up to Christmas in Ireland.

The entire concept of Christmas has changed from that of the holy celebration of the most important religious event on the Christian calendar to a marketing and commercial bonanza that is totally peripheral to what the period is supposed to be.

In Ireland, instead of the joy of Christmas for those that it really is meant for – the little children- drink, drugs and the eruption of family disputes means that for many children Christmas is one of terror and abuse, instead of harmony and happiness. The pursuit of earthly pleasures from over indulgence on drink and food, to spending far beyond your means just to keep up with the Jones has in recent years multiplied out of all proportion.

One of the most obvious elements is the fad, imported from America of course, of dressing up your house in garish multi-coloured lights and extravagant displays of various Christmas artificacts. One only has to drive through a regular working class housing estate to find some homes dressed in totally over the top illuminations more suited to a town square. Worse still, by the time Christmas arrives there will be many more of the same in those estates with the “I can do better than you” attitude of the neighbours coming to the fore. The credit cards are maxed out in getting one up on the people up the street. Come January, like revenge, one-upmanship is a dish best served cold as the lights are dismantled and the question is posed as to what was that piece of madness we indulged in? Come February when the credit card bills start arriving, the memories of Christmas past become very unpleasant indeed!

I always feel that Christmas should first and foremost be family orientated. It used to be until it was hi-jacked by the commercial Mafia, such as Coke, Pepsi, Budweiser, Guinness and every multi-national electronics company you can think of, who produce the latest gizmo game that creates peer pressure from kids to force their parents to go into debt to acquire this new toy. Clever marketing and false rumours by the manufacturers of impending shortages serve only to increase the frenzy to get hold of one of these things for their beloved kids.

In America Christmas lasts for one day, despite all the neon lights. However a month earlier they have Thanksgiving, a wonderful long weekend in which families all get together, no matter the distance to travel. There is warmth and a depth to this occasion without the commercial blitz that is Christmas on this side of the pond.

We could do well to emulate this spirit of Thanksgiving from America and import it into the Christmas festival of fun and frolics that passes for Christmas in Ireland.

Happy Christmas all!

Sam Maguire

POLES APART FROM DEMOCRACY

http://www.lookaroundireland.com noted with interest the recent General Election in Poland. And why would we be doing that you might well ask? Should we not be noting items of interest in this fair land of Ireland? Is this not our mission statement? What has Polish politics got to do with Ireland?

Well quite a bit, actually. Not the minute details of the cut and thrust of a foreign election, but the manner in which it is carried out and its relevance to Ireland.

In this case the connection to Ireland is very strong. Since EU movement and working restrictions were lifted in 2003 thousands of Poles have come to work in Ireland. Most are working in the construction industry or the hospitality sector and they account for the largest proportion of foreign workers in Ireland either from EU or non-EU countries.

As most employers will testify, the Polish workers are good employees. They have a good work ethic and are considered diligent and fair in their dealings. They are good tenants as any landlord will vouch and have respect for other peoples property. They certainly did not come to this country to be a burden on the state and they are willing to do the jobs that the newly enriched Irish now consider beneath them.

How times have changed. A decade ago only, the Irish were the ones that were immigrating in their droves to all parts of America to seek work and a future that this country could not offer them. There is a great similarity between what happened in America when the Irish arrived there in the eighties and to what is happening here with the Polish (and other east European countries). It seemed every bartender and building worker in New York was Irish. They double-jobbed to earn a crust, and set up new lives for themselves in America, just as their forefathers had done a generation before. Many set up their own businesses and employed yet more Irish people coming over from Ireland.

When Ireland started to boom in the nineties many returned home and settled back in Ireland. However, a lot more stayed and have no intention of ever coming home. A lot are undocumented, but the majority are permanent residents of the United States, their status legalized by various visa programmes such as the Donnelley or Morrison visa amnesties.

Whilst they may be legal American residents, most have retained Irish citizenship and hold Irish passports. Just like the Polish community here in Ireland.

Now you will see whyhttp://www.lookaroundireland.com had an interest in the General Election in Poland.

Every Polish person over 18, legally living in Ireland, had a right to vote in that election – here in Ireland. The Polish embassy set up voting centres in the main cities around the country facilitating those who worked outside the capital. Reports indicate that interest was very strong and the polling booths were busy. The outgoing Prime Minister and his Government were narrowly defeated. Who knows what effect those votes from Ireland may have had?

So we in http://www.lookaroundireland.com decided to look at the facilities given to Irish people living abroad to vote in elections in Ireland. Guess what? There are none. With the exception, of course, of some of our beloved public service workers. Those in the Army on peacekeeping missions abroad can vote and also members of the diplomatic corps, but your ordinary Irish citizen living and working abroad cannot, which is ironic when you think about it, because they most likely went abroad in the first place to find work during a recession partly caused by the bloated, grossly overstaffed and overpaid Irish public service that was, and is, a millstone around the neck of the Irish economy.

Ireland is out of kilter with all other European countries on this issue by not providing the right to vote if you live abroad. Most countries in the EU extend the facility to their foreign based citizens, no matter what part of the world they reside in. The Treaty of Rome, which is the very foundation of the EU, is being breached by Ireland, if not in the letter, then certainly in the spirit of the laws enshrined in it to make provision for EU citizens to vote whilst based in another EU country.

Just for a moment imagine what the politicians would do in the morning if the hundreds of thousands of Irish people who live in the UK, US, Australia and any of the EU countries were allowed to vote in elections here.

It would be like having another 10 constituencies in a general election. It would send tremors down the spines of politicians used to spinning their bullshit to the voters here. If they spin a certain line long enough to the electorate in Ireland chances are they will be believed or at least given the benefit of the doubt. Being so close to the action here we cannot see the wood for the trees but those who are abroad looking in at Ireland would have a much more cynical and realistic view of the state of the nation at any given time. If that view was expressed in a considered and educated vote there would be huge repercussions for the Irish political landscape.

Irish emigrants could rally together to force a particular issue to be addressed. An example comes to mind at the moment of the Shannon/Heathrow row with Aer Lingus over the move to Belfast. If that were going on during an election the combined pressure that a lobby group based in America or Britain could apply to politicians here would change the face of politics as we know it.

Little wonder then that our spineless leaders would want to leave the status quo.

There would be too much danger for them to extend the democratic process. They would not be able to control matters as they can now.

Maybe they want Tourism Ireland to benefit by making the Irish Diaspora take an Ireland vacation every time there is a general election. Ireland travel information tells us that many people do travel home to vote in general elections. They value their right to vote very highly.

http://www.lookaroundireland.com considers it a great pity that the Irish Government obviously doesn’t.

Sam Maguire

Confidence

It is amazing what confidence can do for a person in any walk of life. It can lead them to incredible achievements and allow them surpass their wildest ambitions. It is also infectious and can lift the spirit of those who are around them.

Translate that confidence into an economy and you have what Ireland has become since the so called “Celtic Tiger” effect commenced in the early nineties. Economists differ as when and why it started. Some say that the devaluation of the Irish pound in 1992 was the kick start; others have radical and far fetched opinions that it was the success of the Irish soccer team in the 1990 and 1994 World Cups that gave Ireland Inc. the confidence to step forward and perform on the world stage.

Whatever the reason, and it is surely a myriad of factors, the Irish economy took off and when it did start to have an effect confidence soared. All the positives kicked in to bring the country onto an economic plateau that heretofore was considered unattainable.

Inflation lowered, interest rates dropped, banks started lending money again and allowed the entrepreneurial flair of the sixties “baby boomer” kids to flourish. Confidence created the property boom and the dot com mania that Ireland was so well placed to take advantage of with an educated workforce and the attraction of Ireland to American multinationals anxious to get a foothold in Europe. Add in the enlightened tax policies of Charlie McCreevy who with the bold stroke of halving the dreaded Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to 20% unleashed a wave of equity release from property owners and you had all the ingredients of the perfect economic storm.

And so it proved to be and even when the dot com crash of 2000 occurred, Ireland just picked itself up, dusted down and carried on. Fuelled by immigration, the property market roared forward and the penal 9% stamp duty on property filled the Government coffers to such an extent that budget surpluses became the norm in successive budgets with estimates always being exceeded. We became the envy of the world. We were in the economic equivalent of what is known in sport as “the zone”. Confidence propelled us up and up into the stratosphere and we could not see the fall ever coming.

This is October 2007. Mark the calendar! For this is the month that the dream starts to die. Confidence is an uneasy mistress, and when love turns to hate, the effect is catastrophic.

This week confidence walked out. Truth is, she was not faithful for the last year and Ireland, loves struck as it was, refused to acknowledge it.

The revelations this week that a number of high profile lawyers cum property developers were hoodwinking the banks by taking multi mortgages out on the same property has caused panic in legal and financial circles. Nobody knows how many more will surface. Added to the sub-prime lending time bomb that started in America, the complete collapse in Irish house sales, the drop in value of foreign holiday homes funded from ghost equity in Irish residential property and a big budget deficit looming together with the banks closing their umbrellas at the first drop of rain and now you have all the ingredients of that other perfect storm – the very nasty one.

George Lee was right after all. He had to be sometime. Leave now or forever perish!

And the last one to leave will not have to put out the lights. There will be no lights!

The FAI - What does it stand for ?

In the week that is in it we at http://www.lookaroundireland.com decided that it was time to take a look at the organization known as the FAI – the Football Association of Ireland.

On Wednesday last all hope of any mathematical miracle happening to help Ireland reach the finals of the European Championship, Euro 2008, in Austria/Switzerland disappeared when Cyprus drew 1-1 with them on home soil in hallowed Croke Park. This was the Cypriot team that hammered Ireland by a freakish score of 5-2 in Nicosia last November, a result that will probably rank as the worst ever in the history of Irish international soccer. Unless, of course, if you take the last minute draw that was achieved against the football giant that is the San Marino, a collection of part-time players that would get hard to beat your average pub team.

At the time of writing, it appears certain that the two year reign of Steve Staunton is about to be terminated by the FAI - his employers and so called custodians of the Irish soccer game. It is right that Staunton should go because he has neither the ability nor, more importantly, the experience to do the job. The fact that he makes a fool of himself and the rest of us, by his downright hysterical media appearances is only incidental to the matter.

Stan was one of the greatest players to lace a boot for Ireland. He has established a record haul of caps that could only ever be overtaken by a goalkeeper with a slow - ageing metabolism. His loyalty to his country as a player is unquestioned and utterly honorable.

He should be remembered as the player, not the incompetent and inarticulate manager that he was fooled into becoming by that same FAI who will now sack him.

Staunton should never have been appointed as manager. His only sideline experience was a short stint as assistant coach at Walsall. To move from that to managing the country he had just stopped playing for was the sporting equivalent of sending a blind man to the Olympic archery competition. And with Bobby Robson as the guide dog.

The saddest part about all of this is that all the good memories of Staunton as a player for his country are tainted by this two year episode. His football future is bleak. The P45 from the FAI will not bring him far, and a reference from them is about as good as a bucket of water to a drowning man.

Not that Staunton will starve though. Like a lot of his fellow Louth men he is a shrewd businessman who has invested the harvest of his playing years wisely and the only injury to him is wounded pride for which a speedy remedy is a hefty financial settlement with our old friends, the FAI.

So who, or what, is the FAI? Certainly, it is not the Football Association of Ireland.

How about Fat Arsed Imbeciles? No, not evocative enough and an insult to the overweight population of the country.

Try Fools And Idiots. That’s a little more accurate alright.

Of all the sporting organizations, professional and amateur in this country, the FAI has the most chequered history of sheer incompetence, waste, infighting, embezzlement, double dealing and lack of vision that there is. The Ballymagash pub darts team is better organized. There is more distrust and subteferge in the FAI than there is in the Kremlin.

In 1988, Ireland reached the finals of their first major competition, the European Championship finals under the leadership of Jack Charlton. Since then it has been a roller coaster ride. Three Worlds Cup finals were reached and the country was on a high never experienced before. Those who knew nothing about soccer became experts overnight. The monies flowed into the coffers at 80, Merrion Square, the headquarters of Farcical Absolute Imbeciles. It flowed in alright but it certainly did not come back out in the shape that it should have, such as improved facilities for youngsters, a home of their own instead of borrowing Landsdowne Stadium, and various other initiatives that would have harnessed the goodwill of the national team’s success.

Instead the goons at headquarters frittered away the money by lining their own pockets, investing in an administration set-up that would govern a small country and having regular legal battles with each other in the public eye over the most petty of internal power struggles. Their incompetence knew no bounds.

They spent all of their measly reserves, accumulated from 15 years of success, on consultant and planning fees for the pipe dream of building a new stadium in west Dublin. Needless to say, the consultants that devoured this reserve were all connected parties to the members of the Feck-It-All committee. To add insult to injury they even named this enterprise in advance as the Eircom Stadium. We all know who suffered when this particular company elephant was floated on the Stock Exchange. In a way the two organizations (a generous title, I know) complimented each other perfectly in a long list of inadequacies that they had in common.

Next week, the Farcical Association of Ireland will have to find a new manager to look after our national team. Last time this happened we were promised by John Delaney, Head Asshole, that we would have a “world class manager” Look what we got!

But then again, who on earth would want to work for the blazers of Merrion Square?

Being manager of the Irish soccer team is not a good career move, even if you are a down and out wino in Temple Bar.

http://www.lookaroundireland.com/ out of patriotic duty mind you, will nominate our very feisty cleaning lady for the role! What’s the salary again?