This is excellent on the numbers and scale of the issue, on the failings, it points to the scale of a real problem of integration and numbers which the country is uniquely poorly equipped to maintain, but disclaimer not withstanding, it's a little too soft on the racism, it absolutely exists and is a significant factor in the protests, it has exploded as commonly expressed and politicised sentiment in Ireland in a way that's not existed here previously, it accelerated notably during the lockdown period, and the increased proliferation of US-centric culture war content, it has gotten bolder, louder and more prominent. Racism as a category may not be useful, in that it is not something people readily internalise about themselves (individually or collectively), the British for the most part remain convinced their Empire civilised the world, the killers of Emmet Till denied they "had anything against anyone", Josepha Madigan has denied her leafleting about travellers was racist, Pádriag Nally was given a parade after being acquitted after shooting a traveller he had already seriously injured crawling away from his property in the back of the head, I do not think we should credit too much the self-concepts of bigots, I certainly don't think you can dismiss it as an underlying factor in the protests here, the Dublin riots were specifically over the fact it was not merely a reported stabbing of a child, but a stabbing of a child by a reported non-white immigrant (whereas MacGregor's convictions and subsequent attempt to corrupt the justice system yielded no notable protests at any of his properties in Dublin). When 80% of people voted to deny automatic citizenship to children born here in 2004, it was evident who it was the Irish people were voting to exclude from our nation; we disgraced ourselves.
Ireland is not the US or UK, we did not internalise notions of racial superiority as part of a national identity in order to justify slavery and colonialism respectively (rather we were at the butt end of something similar), but we have by dint of being part of the Anglosphere world taken on a good deal of it by osmosis, similarly we benefit in being deeply embedded in extractive post colonial trade systems and it is something we need to reckon with, not ignore or brush aside. This isn't quite what this piece is doing, but to dismiss it as a fundamental factor is giving far too much credit and not enough criticality to these protest movements. It has become a key vitalising factor and it is no surprise that the leaders of the fuel protests were found to have expressed such sentiments (which granted did not necessarily reflect the views of all of the protestors, nor would the protests have had such popular support had it been front and centre), these people are often the most motivated and most extreme, the first to take action, lead and shape as they exist in a state of perpetual agitation.
Our relationship to the other is always a manifestation of our relationship to ourselves, Ireland's profound inner disfunction, the century long post colonial hangover and latent inferiority complex, as such is projected onto the immigrant, especially the refugee, it is not as such a separate consideration, they are fundamentally intertwined.
However all that being said and noted it is all in all an excellent piece. Thank you.
I think you as this article started, are the type who calls anyone one with concerns over competition for resourcesracist. And you openly question and ridcule the democratic referendum decision of 80% of the voters. This is progressive 'I know best' fascism that is rampant in ireland from the so called left
This comment was clearly made as antagonistic rather than considered or constructive, and deliberately attempts to shut this person up. Sadly, it is people like you that prevent a realistic assessment being put forward. Useless and a waste of time to read your comment
"type", "so-called", Well I can assure you you have absolutely no notion of my 'type' (nor perhaps anyone's given the looseness or your categories), but you have identified yourself very clearly, your language is disingenuous, vapid and extremely typical of how people will address this issue in the most clichéd and ad hominem ways possible. 'Competition' is something which is imposed onto people as a mindset and ideology to justify structural hierarchies they were born into and had no say in, as legitimate outcomes and natural. Similarly narratives about limited resources, -no one is dying in Ireland because there is not enough food, nor did they during the famine- is precisely why we have hundreds of thousands of empty homes and vacant buildings, a massive budget surplus and yet the worst housing crisis this country has seen since colonisation. In the grand scheme of things it's not a country, it's a planet and a species and beyond that even bigger, people follow capital flows (the idea that one can be hermetically sealed from the other is a nonsense) and will tend to migrate when there is insufficient food or too much war, violence or even the dreaded economic opportunity (oh no! It's the wrong kind of immigrant!), as Irish people have done for hundreds of years and still do so (in fact it's how we got here in the first place), it is better to be somewhere people want to go than somewhere people want to leave. You complete your bizarre missive by implying I am some kind of fascist? Which shows the classic confabulation the Nazi themselves did in calling themselves 'National Socialist", when they were maniacally anti-socialist, a hundred years ago, this is not an obscure historical fact, yet people remain remarkably attached to this bit of Goebbelsian hoodwinking.
Anyway you have offered nothing in your non-attempt to communicate with me or perhaps the gallery except cliché and ad hominem which implies you are either a fascist yourself or merely an imbecile.
Have a splendid day Niall!
Ps. A few days ago a man of African decent was literally killed in the middle of Henry Street in full view of the public by multiple Arnott's security guards, a perfectly normal way to treat an alleged shoplifter and not racially motivated at all I'm sure.
I've been an immigrant. And the country I was in prioritised citizens and permanent residents first. And that was fine by me. It's just common sense. Nothing to do with race. You seem a bit obsessed with race as you bring up an incident that doesn't relate in any way to the article and involved security guards of different races.
Leftist fools like this guy have been reduced to having only a criminal class to use to undermines society, the fact that a black man was kneeling on the Congolese guy has gone over his head,
A proper dumski, most likely propagandised from young.
Excellent reply, and it's exactly this aggression that prevents any kind of institution building in the first place, just as Church sponsored obstruction prevented the development of public health institutions that didn't even start until 1970.
A few quick points, Emmet Till WAS a sexual predator but you ye gobshite have swallowed the lefty nonsense hook line and sinker and the man in Mayo who was living in fear of an extremely dangerous person knew that it was the Traveller or him,
Racism my fucking arse,
I have a migrant son in law and mixed race grandchildren and a vested interest in this country being a welcoming place for people who are not white skinned but total idiots like you are ruining it for the good migrants,
We took in too many people and no self respecting people will allow themselves become a minority in their own homeland, you would do well to watch a 24 minute video on YouTube featuring Professor David Betz as he outlines how a civil war is inevitable,
Important article. My main takeaway from last few articles: public policy is increasingly using taxpayer money to subsidise outcomes that often worsen the problems they claim to solve.
It is usually framed as “good for the economy,” but that phrase has become too detached from people’s lived experience.
Economic growth on paper means little if it comes with higher living costs, poorer access to services, weaker infrastructure, and declining quality of life.
People can feel that things aren’t working, even if they don’t always know the policy mechanisms behind it.
A stronger economy should mean tangible improvements in people’s lives not just better GDP figures. Governments too often confuse GDP with the economy itself.
But the problem is that our government promotes this thinking deliberately so that they can make it seem as though immigrants are the problem rather than their choices which have resulted in such appalling homelessness and inequality. FF/FG are entirely in the pockets of American corporations
Fabulous essay, well done. 👏 I would only add that the real reason for this is that the political classes in Ireland have never escaped the colonial mindset.
That’s why we don’t have a functioning democracy- because the people in charge looked at the colonial model and decided the only thing that was wrong was that the accents were wrong.
Thus rural Ireland and working class Dublin have been treated with barely concealed contempt by the new elite.
This attitude needs to change, the whole musical chairs attitude to resources. The only politicians in country who are wise to this are the much derided Healey Rae dynasty who are unashamed about looking after their locality.
Need to also look at how the dynamics of decision making have changed. Senior public servants have far more power and exert more ownership over policy than elected politicians. By ownership I don’t mean accountability. There is a meta-shift underpinning all government policy adoption for the last 16 years that makes all policies seem like squares being hammered into round holes. Hope to see you in Dublin at some point to discuss.
“Where ambiguity arises in this post (as it nearly certainly will when discussing something as complex as immigration), I would ask that the interpretation you lean to is the one where my meaning is of compassion and care.”
Great analysis! And a great performance on the David McWilliams podcast. Glad to see finally finally someone breaks the omerta.
I came to Ireland myself 24 years ago and have seen the rapid transformation population wise over especially the past 10 years. Irish culture watering down, housing shortages, lack of student places, pressure on wages etc. And also saw the kneejerk reaction of FF, FG, the left, academia, mainstream media to call anyone who questioned it, a right wing bigot.
I feel one factor was missing from your analysis and that is the Irish government issuing every year , 40k 'residence permits for 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬' to non EU/EEA students.
Per capita, ~7 times more (!) than the Netherlands and Belgium issue. Just to add to the annual pool of 60k Leaving Cert students.
Beggar's belief they do this, since it doesn't serve the general population at all, making it harder to find a college place, a job or a place to live.
Above all, the 40k permits mean an additional demand of 15k houses, with only 2k currently available for rent on daft for whole of Ireland.
The government says it is essential for a knowledge economy, but are eligible courses like ‘Intensive English- Intermediate’ at ‘Avanti Language Institute’ that? Or at UCD, annually 11k international students (25% of total) to prop up its P&L (fees of €22k vs €3k) since academia were turned into profit centres. PhD places yes, but is placing them in undergraduate/masters courses at that scale required for a knowledge economy?
You mentioned on the David McWilliams podcast that there is no policy, but the above is clearly policy. One would think the government would increase funding for 3rd level and cut the intake of non EU/EEA students, as to alleviate the pressure on housing and other services via reduced demand which would be a quicker way to fix things than via the very inelastic supply side of these services.
But they do the opposite, via 'Education in Ireland' which is a subsidiary of Enterprise Ireland, they do road shows in India to attract more students...:
It feels we are now entering a system where irish children who have grandparents and family to visit will find it very hard to compete in the cao with children coming from hardship relentless in pursuit of high cao points. Without those high cao points, high paying jobs may become out of reach meaning that housing too becomes out of reach and those children fail to grow as adults. I couldn't fault anyone for working hard but what type of country will we become if it becomes hyper competitive with no time for community?
Thank you for this article. I am all for pointing at the systematic failures of the government.
I also think we need to recognise the context of the types of immigration. The narrative around the Ukraine war due to its media exposure enables a population to accept the form of subsidies you dicussed without crying to much. Hence, we see FFG walk back into government during the cycle. The decisions don't happen in a vacuum and fit well with your previous posts. The government don't make long term policy decisions. They react to the mood.
In addition, the more worrying and developing situation is climate immigration. We are not prepared for the immediate and side effects of climate change. Immigration will sky rocket and the localized battle for resources will see massive displacement. The best time to act was yesterday but the second best time is today.
Thank you! Fantastic analysis that articulates the ireland situation eloquently. It seems so easy for some people to dismiss other people's legitimate concerns about what is happening in Ireland, with insults and condescending attitudes, without having any meaningful discussion with a view towards making positive and productive changes. The waste of public funds is so infuriating. Thank you again, I really appreciate reading your articles.
I think theres something bigger going on. If you consider how the world economy works, China and the rest of the East manufactures using minerals from Africa and Australia, energy from the Middle East, and sells to the West, which funds consumption with debt (Ireland is in enormous debt, as is America, and every other Western county). This has to increase every year as the financial system requires growth for loans to be paid back. For consumption to increase every quarter, bodies are needed. Pascal Donohue used to love saying "Consumption increased in the last quarter!". So we are mostly importing consumption. This explains the reluctance to remove people who have has their applications to stay rejected.
It also explains why AI and robotics can be used to replace declining populations in China, but cannot in the West - robots dont buy stuff.
The results of this system of ever increasing consumption are been seen in the UK with fly-tipping, and will be seen here too in time.
Zooming out even further, and viewing the global economy as a super-organism, it makes sense to move people from a low consumption country to high.
All of this is accelerating climate change and resource depletion. Ultimately, we have an unsustainable system which requires exponential growth on a finite planet.
One other thing to add in India is and will be one of the worst effected countries from climate change - which is the result of Western over-consumption. They deserve a more liveable place to inhabit. Long term, the worst affected will be Western Europe as the AMOC collapses - the very destination that requires more and more people.
So unless someone comes up with an economic system that doesnt require infinite growth, this disaster will be played out over decades and centuries.
You were doing well until the secondlast paragraph. Ordinary Europeans are not responsible for India's ridiculously overpopulated country and shocking poor hygiene standards, nor their continual adherence to the caste system. Indians don't 'deserve' to flood into Europe and Ireland en masse. It is our countries and general public who are now suffering the consequences of untrammeled mass Indian immigration into Ireland, Portugal, most of Europe and the West generally, which nobody ever voted for remember.
Your point about performance is central to understanding Ireland’s failures: you talk of the performed compassion, performed leadership, performed solidarity, performed outrage demonstrated by Ireland’s leaders.
Performativity is built into how we select and promote the senior public servants and politicians who create and perpetuate Ireland’s failed systems. What gets rewarded is not competence, depth of understanding, or delivery, but performances of leadership, performances of delivery.
Senior public servants in Ireland are promoted through processes that prioritise interview performance over track record, expertise, or demonstrated results. The ability to appear effective is what is tested at interview - knowledge, understanding and the ability to be effective is less important.
Leadership roles are decided in closed rooms, through opaque interview processes that elevate presentation over substance and are neither transparent nor open to meaningful challenge.
Maybe a dismantling of the system that promotes performance at interview in place of competence, and rethinking how we appoint people to senior leadership positions, could be a first step to fixing our failures.
Joe Lee, a historian, wrote that the possessor cast-of-mind dominated Irish life more that the performance cast-of-mind. He also referred to the archetypal possessor being “the strong farmer”
Excellent!Thank you👏. Given the current govt refuses to see or listen, hopefully we the people can start showing some kind of common sense and humanity. It will take us, time to remedy all this mess. There is no magic wand quick fix solution. It can start by taking back from them the 2 seats in the next by elections on 22May.( Galway and Dublin). DON'T VOTE for FF or FG. Don't give them even a scratch preference vote. Give them nothing.
They deserve nothing, moreso given their gross negligence and mismanagement. Not only do they lack common sense, they are bereft of any humanity, destroying dignity.
In the two recent by-elections, there was only one government seat “to take back” ie. the FG seat Dublin Central. That went to a Social Democrat, who is from the area and was a city councillor. A FG Senator (and former TD in the constituency) won the Galway West seat, following a huge transfer of votes from a Labour Party candidate who was also a councillor. She was born in Nigeria and came to Ireland as a refugee twenty years ago. No change in basic make-up of the Dáil.
This is excellent on the numbers and scale of the issue, on the failings, it points to the scale of a real problem of integration and numbers which the country is uniquely poorly equipped to maintain, but disclaimer not withstanding, it's a little too soft on the racism, it absolutely exists and is a significant factor in the protests, it has exploded as commonly expressed and politicised sentiment in Ireland in a way that's not existed here previously, it accelerated notably during the lockdown period, and the increased proliferation of US-centric culture war content, it has gotten bolder, louder and more prominent. Racism as a category may not be useful, in that it is not something people readily internalise about themselves (individually or collectively), the British for the most part remain convinced their Empire civilised the world, the killers of Emmet Till denied they "had anything against anyone", Josepha Madigan has denied her leafleting about travellers was racist, Pádriag Nally was given a parade after being acquitted after shooting a traveller he had already seriously injured crawling away from his property in the back of the head, I do not think we should credit too much the self-concepts of bigots, I certainly don't think you can dismiss it as an underlying factor in the protests here, the Dublin riots were specifically over the fact it was not merely a reported stabbing of a child, but a stabbing of a child by a reported non-white immigrant (whereas MacGregor's convictions and subsequent attempt to corrupt the justice system yielded no notable protests at any of his properties in Dublin). When 80% of people voted to deny automatic citizenship to children born here in 2004, it was evident who it was the Irish people were voting to exclude from our nation; we disgraced ourselves.
Ireland is not the US or UK, we did not internalise notions of racial superiority as part of a national identity in order to justify slavery and colonialism respectively (rather we were at the butt end of something similar), but we have by dint of being part of the Anglosphere world taken on a good deal of it by osmosis, similarly we benefit in being deeply embedded in extractive post colonial trade systems and it is something we need to reckon with, not ignore or brush aside. This isn't quite what this piece is doing, but to dismiss it as a fundamental factor is giving far too much credit and not enough criticality to these protest movements. It has become a key vitalising factor and it is no surprise that the leaders of the fuel protests were found to have expressed such sentiments (which granted did not necessarily reflect the views of all of the protestors, nor would the protests have had such popular support had it been front and centre), these people are often the most motivated and most extreme, the first to take action, lead and shape as they exist in a state of perpetual agitation.
Our relationship to the other is always a manifestation of our relationship to ourselves, Ireland's profound inner disfunction, the century long post colonial hangover and latent inferiority complex, as such is projected onto the immigrant, especially the refugee, it is not as such a separate consideration, they are fundamentally intertwined.
However all that being said and noted it is all in all an excellent piece. Thank you.
I think you as this article started, are the type who calls anyone one with concerns over competition for resourcesracist. And you openly question and ridcule the democratic referendum decision of 80% of the voters. This is progressive 'I know best' fascism that is rampant in ireland from the so called left
This comment was clearly made as antagonistic rather than considered or constructive, and deliberately attempts to shut this person up. Sadly, it is people like you that prevent a realistic assessment being put forward. Useless and a waste of time to read your comment
"type", "so-called", Well I can assure you you have absolutely no notion of my 'type' (nor perhaps anyone's given the looseness or your categories), but you have identified yourself very clearly, your language is disingenuous, vapid and extremely typical of how people will address this issue in the most clichéd and ad hominem ways possible. 'Competition' is something which is imposed onto people as a mindset and ideology to justify structural hierarchies they were born into and had no say in, as legitimate outcomes and natural. Similarly narratives about limited resources, -no one is dying in Ireland because there is not enough food, nor did they during the famine- is precisely why we have hundreds of thousands of empty homes and vacant buildings, a massive budget surplus and yet the worst housing crisis this country has seen since colonisation. In the grand scheme of things it's not a country, it's a planet and a species and beyond that even bigger, people follow capital flows (the idea that one can be hermetically sealed from the other is a nonsense) and will tend to migrate when there is insufficient food or too much war, violence or even the dreaded economic opportunity (oh no! It's the wrong kind of immigrant!), as Irish people have done for hundreds of years and still do so (in fact it's how we got here in the first place), it is better to be somewhere people want to go than somewhere people want to leave. You complete your bizarre missive by implying I am some kind of fascist? Which shows the classic confabulation the Nazi themselves did in calling themselves 'National Socialist", when they were maniacally anti-socialist, a hundred years ago, this is not an obscure historical fact, yet people remain remarkably attached to this bit of Goebbelsian hoodwinking.
Anyway you have offered nothing in your non-attempt to communicate with me or perhaps the gallery except cliché and ad hominem which implies you are either a fascist yourself or merely an imbecile.
Have a splendid day Niall!
Ps. A few days ago a man of African decent was literally killed in the middle of Henry Street in full view of the public by multiple Arnott's security guards, a perfectly normal way to treat an alleged shoplifter and not racially motivated at all I'm sure.
I've been an immigrant. And the country I was in prioritised citizens and permanent residents first. And that was fine by me. It's just common sense. Nothing to do with race. You seem a bit obsessed with race as you bring up an incident that doesn't relate in any way to the article and involved security guards of different races.
Leftist fools like this guy have been reduced to having only a criminal class to use to undermines society, the fact that a black man was kneeling on the Congolese guy has gone over his head,
A proper dumski, most likely propagandised from young.
You have no life of your own and seek one signalling your 'virtue',
Not a bit of what you have written comes from your own thoughts,
I waste my time engaging with you,
Man up and face whatever your real problems are.
Excellent reply, and it's exactly this aggression that prevents any kind of institution building in the first place, just as Church sponsored obstruction prevented the development of public health institutions that didn't even start until 1970.
A few quick points, Emmet Till WAS a sexual predator but you ye gobshite have swallowed the lefty nonsense hook line and sinker and the man in Mayo who was living in fear of an extremely dangerous person knew that it was the Traveller or him,
Racism my fucking arse,
I have a migrant son in law and mixed race grandchildren and a vested interest in this country being a welcoming place for people who are not white skinned but total idiots like you are ruining it for the good migrants,
We took in too many people and no self respecting people will allow themselves become a minority in their own homeland, you would do well to watch a 24 minute video on YouTube featuring Professor David Betz as he outlines how a civil war is inevitable,
24 minutes to save yourself ye gobshite.
Important article. My main takeaway from last few articles: public policy is increasingly using taxpayer money to subsidise outcomes that often worsen the problems they claim to solve.
It is usually framed as “good for the economy,” but that phrase has become too detached from people’s lived experience.
Economic growth on paper means little if it comes with higher living costs, poorer access to services, weaker infrastructure, and declining quality of life.
People can feel that things aren’t working, even if they don’t always know the policy mechanisms behind it.
A stronger economy should mean tangible improvements in people’s lives not just better GDP figures. Governments too often confuse GDP with the economy itself.
Great piece. What’s left unsaid is that 72% of the population think the level of immigration is too high.
But the problem is that our government promotes this thinking deliberately so that they can make it seem as though immigrants are the problem rather than their choices which have resulted in such appalling homelessness and inequality. FF/FG are entirely in the pockets of American corporations
Fabulous essay, well done. 👏 I would only add that the real reason for this is that the political classes in Ireland have never escaped the colonial mindset.
That’s why we don’t have a functioning democracy- because the people in charge looked at the colonial model and decided the only thing that was wrong was that the accents were wrong.
Thus rural Ireland and working class Dublin have been treated with barely concealed contempt by the new elite.
This attitude needs to change, the whole musical chairs attitude to resources. The only politicians in country who are wise to this are the much derided Healey Rae dynasty who are unashamed about looking after their locality.
Need to also look at how the dynamics of decision making have changed. Senior public servants have far more power and exert more ownership over policy than elected politicians. By ownership I don’t mean accountability. There is a meta-shift underpinning all government policy adoption for the last 16 years that makes all policies seem like squares being hammered into round holes. Hope to see you in Dublin at some point to discuss.
“Where ambiguity arises in this post (as it nearly certainly will when discussing something as complex as immigration), I would ask that the interpretation you lean to is the one where my meaning is of compassion and care.”
I love this.
Great analysis! And a great performance on the David McWilliams podcast. Glad to see finally finally someone breaks the omerta.
I came to Ireland myself 24 years ago and have seen the rapid transformation population wise over especially the past 10 years. Irish culture watering down, housing shortages, lack of student places, pressure on wages etc. And also saw the kneejerk reaction of FF, FG, the left, academia, mainstream media to call anyone who questioned it, a right wing bigot.
I feel one factor was missing from your analysis and that is the Irish government issuing every year , 40k 'residence permits for 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬' to non EU/EEA students.
Per capita, ~7 times more (!) than the Netherlands and Belgium issue. Just to add to the annual pool of 60k Leaving Cert students.
Beggar's belief they do this, since it doesn't serve the general population at all, making it harder to find a college place, a job or a place to live.
Above all, the 40k permits mean an additional demand of 15k houses, with only 2k currently available for rent on daft for whole of Ireland.
The government says it is essential for a knowledge economy, but are eligible courses like ‘Intensive English- Intermediate’ at ‘Avanti Language Institute’ that? Or at UCD, annually 11k international students (25% of total) to prop up its P&L (fees of €22k vs €3k) since academia were turned into profit centres. PhD places yes, but is placing them in undergraduate/masters courses at that scale required for a knowledge economy?
You mentioned on the David McWilliams podcast that there is no policy, but the above is clearly policy. One would think the government would increase funding for 3rd level and cut the intake of non EU/EEA students, as to alleviate the pressure on housing and other services via reduced demand which would be a quicker way to fix things than via the very inelastic supply side of these services.
But they do the opposite, via 'Education in Ireland' which is a subsidiary of Enterprise Ireland, they do road shows in India to attract more students...:
https://india.educationinireland.live/
Here the Eurostat figures detailing the residence permits:
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/migr_resedu/default/table?lang=en
It feels we are now entering a system where irish children who have grandparents and family to visit will find it very hard to compete in the cao with children coming from hardship relentless in pursuit of high cao points. Without those high cao points, high paying jobs may become out of reach meaning that housing too becomes out of reach and those children fail to grow as adults. I couldn't fault anyone for working hard but what type of country will we become if it becomes hyper competitive with no time for community?
Thank you for this article. I am all for pointing at the systematic failures of the government.
I also think we need to recognise the context of the types of immigration. The narrative around the Ukraine war due to its media exposure enables a population to accept the form of subsidies you dicussed without crying to much. Hence, we see FFG walk back into government during the cycle. The decisions don't happen in a vacuum and fit well with your previous posts. The government don't make long term policy decisions. They react to the mood.
In addition, the more worrying and developing situation is climate immigration. We are not prepared for the immediate and side effects of climate change. Immigration will sky rocket and the localized battle for resources will see massive displacement. The best time to act was yesterday but the second best time is today.
Thank you! Fantastic analysis that articulates the ireland situation eloquently. It seems so easy for some people to dismiss other people's legitimate concerns about what is happening in Ireland, with insults and condescending attitudes, without having any meaningful discussion with a view towards making positive and productive changes. The waste of public funds is so infuriating. Thank you again, I really appreciate reading your articles.
I think theres something bigger going on. If you consider how the world economy works, China and the rest of the East manufactures using minerals from Africa and Australia, energy from the Middle East, and sells to the West, which funds consumption with debt (Ireland is in enormous debt, as is America, and every other Western county). This has to increase every year as the financial system requires growth for loans to be paid back. For consumption to increase every quarter, bodies are needed. Pascal Donohue used to love saying "Consumption increased in the last quarter!". So we are mostly importing consumption. This explains the reluctance to remove people who have has their applications to stay rejected.
It also explains why AI and robotics can be used to replace declining populations in China, but cannot in the West - robots dont buy stuff.
The results of this system of ever increasing consumption are been seen in the UK with fly-tipping, and will be seen here too in time.
Zooming out even further, and viewing the global economy as a super-organism, it makes sense to move people from a low consumption country to high.
All of this is accelerating climate change and resource depletion. Ultimately, we have an unsustainable system which requires exponential growth on a finite planet.
One other thing to add in India is and will be one of the worst effected countries from climate change - which is the result of Western over-consumption. They deserve a more liveable place to inhabit. Long term, the worst affected will be Western Europe as the AMOC collapses - the very destination that requires more and more people.
So unless someone comes up with an economic system that doesnt require infinite growth, this disaster will be played out over decades and centuries.
You were doing well until the secondlast paragraph. Ordinary Europeans are not responsible for India's ridiculously overpopulated country and shocking poor hygiene standards, nor their continual adherence to the caste system. Indians don't 'deserve' to flood into Europe and Ireland en masse. It is our countries and general public who are now suffering the consequences of untrammeled mass Indian immigration into Ireland, Portugal, most of Europe and the West generally, which nobody ever voted for remember.
Excellent piece, thank you.
Your point about performance is central to understanding Ireland’s failures: you talk of the performed compassion, performed leadership, performed solidarity, performed outrage demonstrated by Ireland’s leaders.
Performativity is built into how we select and promote the senior public servants and politicians who create and perpetuate Ireland’s failed systems. What gets rewarded is not competence, depth of understanding, or delivery, but performances of leadership, performances of delivery.
Senior public servants in Ireland are promoted through processes that prioritise interview performance over track record, expertise, or demonstrated results. The ability to appear effective is what is tested at interview - knowledge, understanding and the ability to be effective is less important.
Leadership roles are decided in closed rooms, through opaque interview processes that elevate presentation over substance and are neither transparent nor open to meaningful challenge.
Maybe a dismantling of the system that promotes performance at interview in place of competence, and rethinking how we appoint people to senior leadership positions, could be a first step to fixing our failures.
Joe Lee, a historian, wrote that the possessor cast-of-mind dominated Irish life more that the performance cast-of-mind. He also referred to the archetypal possessor being “the strong farmer”
Excellent!Thank you👏. Given the current govt refuses to see or listen, hopefully we the people can start showing some kind of common sense and humanity. It will take us, time to remedy all this mess. There is no magic wand quick fix solution. It can start by taking back from them the 2 seats in the next by elections on 22May.( Galway and Dublin). DON'T VOTE for FF or FG. Don't give them even a scratch preference vote. Give them nothing.
They deserve nothing, moreso given their gross negligence and mismanagement. Not only do they lack common sense, they are bereft of any humanity, destroying dignity.
RESIST-RESIST-RESIST
☘️⚖️📢💪👊☘️⚖️
In the two recent by-elections, there was only one government seat “to take back” ie. the FG seat Dublin Central. That went to a Social Democrat, who is from the area and was a city councillor. A FG Senator (and former TD in the constituency) won the Galway West seat, following a huge transfer of votes from a Labour Party candidate who was also a councillor. She was born in Nigeria and came to Ireland as a refugee twenty years ago. No change in basic make-up of the Dáil.
Essential reading
Thanks for exposing this dreadful but accurate picture of the recent past with nightmare scenarios to follow.
Brilliant article,
The question is how do we get out of this mess,
Is the like of Professor David Betz right about an incoming civil war?