Dear The Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party,
In September 2008 I left Ireland to spend a year teaching English in Spain. I thought of this as a working holiday and although I worked very hard I also had a great deal of fun. I returned to Ireland in July 2009 to a country much changed. Having been unable to find employment since then, and being unable to afford to continue in education to an inevitably pointless Ph.D. degree, I have no choice but to leave once again, this time for very different reasons. I am leaving behind a country that, in my opinion, will never recover from what Fianna Fáil have done to it.
Fianna Fáil have a problem with responsibility. Bertie Ahern is adamant that the fiscal problems in the country stem from the collapse of the Lehman Brothers without acknowledging the contribution of his Government’s blind eye to banking regulation. Willie O’Dea, on the Late Late Show, accused the Green Party of acting ‘very shabbily’ when they insisted he step down as Minister of Defence ignoring the fact that he swore an inaccurate affidavit to the High Court. He also said that the Greens should be banned from ‘twittering’ as this was corrosive to Government. Minister for Science Conor Lenihan withdrew from launching a book that calls evolution ‘a fantasy of farraginous, farcical, fatuous, feculent, facile facetiousness’ but still said he would appear at the launch in a personal capacity and that ‘diversity of opinion is a good thing.’ All of these things, except for Bertie’s long running opinion, have happened in the last week or so.
Then there is Brian Cowen’s ‘hoarse’ radio interview. In the interview Cathal Mac Coille gave an example of an individual in Galway, one of 400,000 unemployed who saw no option but to emigrate and went on to point out to Mr. Cowen that ‘On the likely maths she might as well emigrate. ’ to which Mr. Cowen responded ‘Defeatism…will not solve this problem….Yes there will be cutbacks… We all have to get in behind it and make sure we do it because it’s exactly about that by the way it’s about how we secure our kids future.’ Cowen is a man of superhuman abilities. He doesn’t get hangovers at 8.30 in the morning having been up past 3 a.m. Who can argue with him? This IS all about securing the future for our children. How are we going to do this? Cuts. Cuts. Cuts. Stabilising banks. More cuts. Throwing 24 billion into Anglo Irish bank.
As far as I can see it there is no future in this country. Many of my peers have already left and more are making plans to leave. Fianna Fáil is doing nothing to stop this. It’s as if they want to see us leave so the Social Welfare budget can be tightened but no doubt they would refute that claim with a neatly dressed soundbite.
On Tuesday I will go to Spain to begin to look for employment. I leave behind a country torn asunder by the collective greed of a select few individuals protected by Fianna Fáil’s ‘shure tisn’t my fault’ policy. I am going to a country where I can buy alcohol for half the Irish prices, where the pubs and clubs are open all night long, where the sun shines more than 30 days a year, where twenty cigarettes is one quarter the Irish price, where abortion is legal, where gay marriage is legal, where blasphemy is legal, where marijuana is mostly tolerated, where food is cheaper, where the public transport is punctual and regular and where personal responsibility is something people take account of. Spain is also suffering from high unemployment and credit problems in the banking sector but at least there I can respect the people in charge.
I am a part of the new lost generation. I, like thousands of others, have no intention of coming home. Life abroad is much too comfortable. Ireland lacks a way forward. There is no culturally rich future waiting for us a few years down the road. There is nothing but more struggle to pay for the greed of rich men and the mistakes of the lazy eye of the Government.
Fianna Fáil are living in a fantasy world. They are hiding behind soundbites, feigned ignorance and an attempt at playing the victim to the scrutiny of the media. The people leaving this country aren’t leaving just for economic reasons. They leave because the country is stuck in the past. When Willie O’Dea says the Greens should be banned from ‘twittering’ he is conjuring up the Ireland of the past, a society reluctant to evolve, happy only when the cat remains firmly in the proverbial bag.
Mr. Taoiseach, Ministers and policy makers, I am a real person. You have sunk the ship I am jumping from.
Slán go foill
Egg
Well, now wait and see.
I don’t yet know the reason why Spain is always mentioned with a lot of caution or is not mentioned at all, except obliquely as “and some other countries” (that may need a bailout).
As I said, I don’t know, but I have been looking day and night and cannot find anything at all to help me overcome the nasty suspicion that Spain is simply too big to fail, meaning that its failure is unthinkable and makes bankers, bloggers, and politicians all scratch their heads and go on to the next topic.