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Peter Sutherland
Chairman of BP and Goldman Sachs and UN Special Representative on Migration and Development on Ireland
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Transcript
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In the last 15 years, the Republic of Ireland has seen a dramatic economic renaissance that has catapulted its economy into the ranks of the richest in Europe. Rapid change has been a mixed blessing, however, as the march of progress overwhelms much of the traditional charm that has been Ireland's trademark for decades. The questions facing Ireland today, and explored in this site's features are these: Are progress and tradition compatible? Can Ireland maintain its new standard of living, or will it just be a flash in the fatalistic Irish pan? How will new immigrants to the Republic and the Irish cousins in the six counties north of the border join in the party?
In his book, THE POPE'S CHILDREN, Irish economist David McWilliams describes the phenomenal growth, eye-popping excess, and frenetic pace of life in today's Ireland. In the first chapter, edited and excerpted below, he paints a vivid picture of the lives and lifestyles of the generation reveling in the bounty of the Celtic Boom.
The Full-On Nation
Ireland has arrived.
We are richer than any of us imagined possible 10 years ago. No Irish person has to emigrate, none of us need pay for education, and even our universities are free. Unemployment is the lowest in our history. We have more choice than ever, the place is more tolerant, and no one can be legally discriminated against. We have more cash in our back pockets than almost anyone in Europe. We are better off than 99 percent of humanity. We are top of foreigners' lists of places to live. Unlike many of our rich neighbors, in survey after survey we claim to be very happy. We no longer need to beg from others in the EU; in fact, we are giving them cash. We are a success. We have money and time. We can now afford to kick back and take stock, reflect, and relax a bit. Why not go for a walk, be frivolous, or just stop the clock and slow down? The hard part is over. Or at least that's what you might think. If economists ruled the world, they would say that Irish people would react to their newfound elevation by behaving rationally. We would take more days off, spend time with our families, and chill out.
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| 1900: |
With Irish nationalism at a high point, Sinn Féin is founded as a confederacy of local nationalist clubs.
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| 1916 |
The Easter Rising. Nationalist leaders declare an independent republic but inspire little support among the Irish. The republic lasts only a week and results in the execution of its leaders and great destruction in Dublin.
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| 1918 |
Sinn Féin wins a majority in the general election and establishes the first Dáil Éireann (Assembly of Ireland).
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| 1919 |
The Irish War of Independence begins -- a guerrilla campaign conducted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) against the British administration.
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| 1921 |
The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed, ending the war. The Irish Free State, consisting of 26 predominantly Catholic counties, is established. Northern Ireland is formed of the remaining six counties, which are largely Protestant. This partition is intended as a temporary measure.
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But instead of winding down and luxuriating in our newfound wealth, we are accelerating as never before. We have to be there first, have the best, the brightest, the newest, and the biggest. We must also be the ones who are most fun, loudest, best craic, and the most off our head. We are borrowing, spending, shopping, shagging, eating, drinking, and taking more drugs than any other nation. We are Europe's hedonists and the most decadent Irish generation ever. Interestingly, this carry-on is ubiquitous. At one end of the scale, Irish teenagers are losing their virginity and taking drugs earlier, while at the other end of the scale, our forty- and -fiftysomethings are binge drinking, swinging, and hoovering cocaine to allow them to stick the pace and have one last drink. We are the full-on nation.
We are eating more than ever, obsessing about food, writing about it, and savoring it. We are in ingestion heaven. We are getting fatter, quicker. Not so long ago, we were skinny and all our hard men were wiry little fellas. Growing up in Dún Laoghaire in the 1980s, I remember all the hard men were sinewy, scrawny lads, hence the local description "more meat on a seagull." The reason was simple: they were undernourished. Perched on the church wall in the town were skinny, arseless lads, spitting and smoking. The young wans, despite a couple of babies, were more or less the same, pinched, flat-chested, and drawn. Today, Dún Laoghaire's hard men are fat. Rolls of flab strain the Liverpool away strip. Double chins are de rigueur and little piggy eyes are squeezed into sockets among the flab. Gravity has also got the better of the young wans, as their corpulent bums, like two puppies in a bag, make unsightly bids for freedom over their entirely ill-advised ultra low-rise jeans.
According to the national task force on obesity, 30 percent of Irish women are overweight and a further 12 percent are obese, while nearly half of Irish adult males are overweight and 14 percent are obese. We are gorging ourselves into an almost certain diabetes epidemic. Even our babies are coming out bigger. We are turning into a race of sumo wrestlers, with 20 percent of our infants weighing more than 10 pounds when they are delivered -- up 400 percent from the same figure in 1990. Is this any surprise when we spend more on crisps than on pharmaceutical drugs? According to the latest household budget survey, our spending on chip shops and takeaways went up by over 70 percent in the past seven years. We also increased spending on sweets by just over 50 percent, while we spent 42 percent more on sugary soft drinks.
But just in case you believe the spin of LOADED and COSMO and thought that only thin people have vigorous, varied, and interesting sex lives, think again. The blubbery Paddies are going at it like rabbits. We are having sex on average 105 times a year -- that puts us way above the abstemious Japanese, who only cop-off 47 times a year, but far below the amorous French and Greeks, who get it 137 and 133 times respectively. Irish women love talking about sex, and in a recent survey Irish women said that they were happiest when they were talking about sex to each other. Carrie, Miranda, and the other two, please step forward. When it comes to talk, however, in typical Irish fashion we are saying one thing and doing something completely different. For example, according to a Durex worldwide survey, just over half of us claimed, responsibly, that we were worried about contracting HIV, yet 52 percent of Irish people have had unprotected sex. We are also having lots of sex younger; typically we start at 17 and have on average 11 sexual partners. Irish teen mags are getting much more explicit. One I just picked up in Eason's that was stuffed with sex tips, adult chat lines, and phone sex numbers came with a free -- wait for it -- packet of children's sweets! I wonder what age group is its target market.
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Inside This Episode
Learn about the past, present and future of North-South economic ties in the Handbook.
Explore the different facets of Ireland's transformation from a poor nation of devout Catholics to an urbanized, secularized society in the Photo Essay.
Go behind the scenes with the program creators in the Filmmaker Notes.
One of the clear losers in the Celtic Tiger boom is the Catholic Church. At the center of the "Mixed Blessings" program is a tale of the sale of Limerick's Sacred Heart Church.
Credit: Emmet Harte
Explore how economic change can impact a traditional society and culture. Hold a town meeting to devise solutions to problems arising from explosive economic growth.
Discuss the issue!
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In contrast, pub attendance remains high.
Credit: Emmet Harte
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