Ireland : The shame and dismay of a people

[everybody_knows]

Uplifting article on the front page of the weekend section of Melbournes broadsheet .

theage.com.au/world/out-of-l … 18apu.html

WHEN the bailiffs arrived in Athens to take control of the Greek government’s burgeoning debt barely six months ago, the nation took to the streets in molten fury. This week, as Ireland prepared to be put into receivership, the little republic hung its head in shame. For months, the Irish government has treated its voters like a cancer patient who must not be told the terrible truth lest they lose hope.

Can somebody shut this guy up ? Every newspaper article in Australia quotes this guy on the Irish recession .

At the Capuchin-run Day Centre in Dublin’s historic Bow Street, the lines for hot meals are now 600-strong each day and close to 1200 food parcels are put together each week. On Thursday, scores of men and women braved icy winds for a warm feed. Brother Kevin Crowley, the centre’s founder, says the cost of meals has risen to €100,000 a month since the recession began to bite.

[BrendanG]

@everybody knows

Can somebody shut this guy up ? Every newspaper article in Australia quotes this guy on the Irish recession .

At the Capuchin-run Day Centre in Dublin’s historic Bow Street, the lines for hot meals are now 600-strong each day and close to 1200 food parcels are put together each week. On Thursday, scores of men and women braved icy winds for a warm feed. Brother Kevin Crowley, the centre’s founder, says the cost of meals has risen to €100,000 a month since the recession began to bite.

Why? Will not talking about it make it all go away?

[everybody_knows]

@BrendanG

@everybody knows

Can somebody shut this guy up ? Every newspaper article in Australia quotes this guy on the Irish recession .

At the Capuchin-run Day Centre in Dublin’s historic Bow Street, the lines for hot meals are now 600-strong each day and close to 1200 food parcels are put together each week. On Thursday, scores of men and women braved icy winds for a warm feed. Brother Kevin Crowley, the centre’s founder, says the cost of meals has risen to €100,000 a month since the recession began to bite.

Why? Will not talking about it make it all go away?

How bad is the recession / depression ? Is it causing mass homelessness ? Is it causing trenchfoot ?

Here is a transcript from a piece on Oz tv from 2009

abc.net.au/lateline/content/ … 507657.htm

ALICE LEAHY, TRUST CHARITY: Well really, what we’re seeing now is exactly what we saw 30 years ago, except the people… many of the people who end up homeless now are people who thought they would never become homeless; people who have been to university and all of that and then people coming from the European states.

PHILIP WILLIAMS: The majority of the people here are from European Europe. Lured by the promise of jobs and good money during the housing boom; now the first to be laid off. Some turn to drink and drugs, sapping mental and physical health.

GERALDINE MCAULIFFE, TRUST NURSE: A lot of very bad feet because they’re walking all the time; continuously walking from one place to another.

They’re not getting new shoes, they’re getting maybe shoes that somebody else has worn so their feet… I am dressing feet all the time, very bad blisters, very bad trench foot.

PHILIP WILLIAMS: Trench Foot?

GERALDINE MCAULIFFE: Trench foot, yeah. That they had in the First World War. They cannot take off their shoes, because if they take off their shoes they’re robbed

[Bigby]

With the benefit of hindsight, the big shift occurred around 2001 when housing and construction took over as the economy’s main driver and powerhouse.

How is it that this guy from Oz can correctly identify something that I still don’t see in mainstream media in Ireland.

The Irish recession, which began in earnest in late 2007, has not loosened its grip since.

You know it isn’t that long ago that Clowen was trying to convince us that a single quarter of growth indicated a recovery and that there would be no double-dip. That was only a few months ago.

GDP has risen in only one-quarter and GNP (gross national product) - a better measure of Irish living standards because it doesn’t count all the income that flows to the offshore parents of the many foreign companies in the country - has fallen nine quarters in a row.

Again we have a guy from a long ways from here managing to correctly identify something that I still don’t see in mainstream media - that GNP is a lot more accurate of a measure that GDP. Seriously - why do our media suck so badly? Corrupt or incompetent - its one or the other.

[xman]

I think that’s a very accurate piece and especially so as an internationally penned article.

[yoganmahew]

@xman

I think that’s a very accurate piece and especially so as an internationally penned article.

Yeah, most of them miss the effects of the bubble bursting. The concentration is on the bad banks.

edit: like that Tom “Parlor”… I wouldn’t have him in mine.

[Arsenal]

As The Age prepared to leave Dublin yesterday aboard a bus to the airport, a taxi driver in a small van pulled up to the queue and offered to match the bus price of €7. Five people climbed aboard. Along the way, the driver pulled up at one last stop, hoping to fill his last seat with paying passengers, but the lone young man shivering by the side of the road had a return bus ticket and declined. ‘‘Get on board anyway,’’ said the driver. ‘‘It’s freezing cold out there.’’

this shows the innate decency of the Irish people (and there are of course exceptions) that will ultimately assist us in getting through this horrible situation which we allowed happen.

[DSE3Br]

That they’re prepared to destroy the Aircoach? Taxi drivers won’t be there to offer 7euro fare to the airport at 3am and there’s only one person travelling.

A three euro tip? S/he should have urinated on the seat.

[What_Goes_Up]

These are not the emotions I feel. This is not the country that I inhabit.

I feel no shame.

I feel no dismay.

I feel a righteous anger and an unending disbelief in the gobshites who created this disaster.

I’ve no intention of bowing down to accommodate the low standards of others.

[utopianmule]

@Arsenal

As The Age prepared to leave Dublin yesterday aboard a bus to the airport, a taxi driver in a small van pulled up to the queue and offered to match the bus price of €7. Five people climbed aboard. Along the way, the driver pulled up at one last stop, hoping to fill his last seat with paying passengers, but the lone young man shivering by the side of the road had a return bus ticket and declined. ‘‘Get on board anyway,’’ said the driver. ‘‘It’s freezing cold out there.’’

this shows the innate decency of the Irish people (and there are of course exceptions) that will ultimately assist us in getting through this horrible situation which we allowed happen.

Taxi Driving is not a career or a profession, it is a low skilled job
but for some taxi drivers they think it is a skilled job where they have to get paid relatively high wages for this task
I welcome the foreign taxi drivers in to do this job you will reduce fares ant give the left wing unionist mantra that many Dublin / Irish taxi drivers have
This job is the same as in New York or London, Just because its Ireland its not different

[tothemanorborn]

A London taxi drivers’ job used to be considered ‘skilled’ prior to Sat-Nav.

[Kate_P]

Do you mean skilled post-sat nav? Had two taxi drivers get lost taking me from Camberwell to South Lambeth Road on Sunday. Both had to get instructions contradicting the annoying voice sending them the wrong way.

Anyway.

According to University College Dublin professor of modern history Diarmaid Ferriter, Ireland and its people are numb: ‘‘This is a small, proud country that is very attached to its independence and what was involved in winning that,’’ he told The Age. ''The spirit has very much been to accept sacrifice, to tighten the belts once again and take the pain. Now, there is a feeling of numbness, mixed with distress and confusion. The government left an information vacuum for so long, the depth of the hole we’re in, and people were very confused. Now people see their sovereignty vanishing … why did people fight for this when we are getting ready to give it away?

Seems to be the nub of the article.

[pollydolly]

Don’t you still have to have “The Knowledge” to be a licensed black cab driver in London?

tfl.gov.uk/businessandpartne … /1412.aspx

Very difficult by all accounts - you have to be able to find your way from A to B without consulting any maps - its supposed to be all in your head. Very skilled job. I’m sick of having to give directions to taxi drivers in Dublin, its like some of them have been beamed in from another planet.

@DSE3Br

That they’re prepared to destroy the Aircoach? Taxi drivers won’t be there to offer 7euro fare to the airport at 3am and there’s only one person travelling.

Actually, I was waiting for an Aircoach at 4am one morning on my own on the N11 and a taxi stopped for me and took me to the airport for 7 euro. Not saying its right or wrong, but it happened - and I was glad of it too because I was freezing! He picked up a couple of other people on the way - though he did check with me first if I was okay with this.

[The_Naked_Chef]

@pollydolly

Don’t you still have to have “The Knowledge” to be a licensed black cab driver in London?

tfl.gov.uk/businessandpartne … /1412.aspx

Very difficult by all accounts - you have to be able to find your way from A to B without consulting any maps - its supposed to be all in your head. Very difficult and very skilled.

@DSE3Br

That they’re prepared to destroy the Aircoach? Taxi drivers won’t be there to offer 7euro fare to the airport at 3am and there’s only one person travelling.

Actually, I was waiting for an Aircoach at 4am one morning on my own on the N11 and a taxi stopped for me and took me to the airport for 7 euro. Not saying its right or wrong, but it happened - and I was glad of it too because I was freezing!

Thats why we need metro north.

[yoganmahew]

@The Naked Chef

Thats why we need metro north.

In Monasterevin? Gee, you Dubs live in a world of your own…

(It is Swords, I am from, not Dublin…).

[The_Naked_Chef]

@yoganmahew

@The Naked Chef

Thats why we need metro north.

In Monasterevin? Gee, you Dubs live in a world of your own…

(It is Swords, I am from, not Dublin…).

Eh.Sarcasm smiley.

[HAZE]

@Bigby

Again we have a guy from a long ways from here managing to correctly identify something that I still don’t see in mainstream media - that GNP is a lot more accurate of a measure that GDP. Seriously - why do our media suck so badly? Corrupt or incompetent - its one or the other.

The former I would say. Just the Pravdas doing their duty.

[Bigby]

well - more recently De Bert has decided to pump for pleading ignorance/incompetence. But I don’t believe that fora moment. He knew exactly what he was doing but he just didn’t care.

I can believe that he didn’t think it would blow up so spectacularly and that he would ultimately get away with it scott-free. And to be fair to De Bert his risk-assessment seems to be on-the-money on the second point.

[slasher]

@tothemanorborn

A London taxi drivers’ job used to be considered ‘skilled’ prior to Sat-Nav.

judging by the number of [what I presume are] learner taxi drivers on motorbikes - with clipboard and map on handlebars- it seems that many people are still prepared to work hard at getting ‘the knowledge’

[Bigby]

@slasher

judging by the number of [what I presume are] learner taxi drivers on motorbikes - with clipboard and map on handlebars- it seems that many people are still prepared to work hard at getting ‘the knowledge’

The so-called “knowledge-boys”. And in more recent decades “knowledge-girls”. All credit to them.