Rather than continuing to look to Europe or the US for our economic stability, we should instead seek to deepen our ties with our closest neighbours, writes Paul Allen.
During the boom years it was always painted as a simple choice. Did we want to be closer to Boston or Berlin? But while our ego fuelled an inflated sense of self-importance as we revelled in the fact that Project Ireland was at last an economic success, we failed to see what was staring us right in the face.
Now that reality has brought us crashing back down to earth it is time to forget Boston and Berlin, and start embracing the only country that can truly help us forge a solid economic future — Old Blighty.
America is without question a true and best friend but ultimately will always look after its own interests, and rightly so. Then there are the boys from Berlin who have recently shown their true colours as they continue squeezing every last ounce of dignity from the Irish Government to ensure German banks stay afloat while the Irish people foot the bill. But while Europe twists the knife it is Britain that has rested a hand of friendship on our shoulders while our other European ‘friends’ desert us.
When the extent of Ireland’s financial crisis hit the headlines and Europe looked at how best to financially penalise the Irish people, the British parliament signed off on the Loans to Ireland Bill with little fuss. Meanwhile, as the IMF and EU handcuffed the Irish nation with astronomical debt, members of the European Parliament sniggered under their breath at the fact that Ireland, as they saw it, got what was coming to it.
Now that our true relationship with our European overlords is transparent, it is time that we saw sense and strengthened our ties with the UK.
The Queen’s visit last year was a huge turning point with regards to our modern day relationship with Britain. It allowed reconciliation with the past on both sides of the Irish Sea. However, most of all, it finally highlighted how our two sovereign states have more to benefit from by embracing each other rather than grasping onto the “us and them” mentality that for so long blighted our thinking when it came to Old Blighty or as some affectionately call it — the Mainland.
Prince William this week said that the visit “opened new doors” for the Queen and hailed it as a “huge turning point”.
Speaking as part of a BBC documentary he claimed the Queen’s enforced absence from Ireland due to the political tensions left her “like a child not allowed to go into a certain room.” It should be noted that it is Britain that is freely helping us pay the mortgage on that “room”.
Rumours are warming up again that another royal visit should be expected shortly, and this will further help cement the relationship between our two countries.
So, with our relationship with the UK stronger than ever, at last there can be open discussion about the possibility of joining the Commonwealth or ditching the Euro for Sterling, without cries of treason.
Indeed, the question is — why can proud, successful and powerful nations, such as Australia and Canada, have no problem when it comes to benefiting from the Commonwealth and the resulting deep economic ties with the UK while Ireland has for years balked at the very idea?
While we aspired to developing a Continental Café Culture during the Celtic tiger, the truth is we have always had more in common with our British neighbours. We speak their language, support their football teams, read their media, watch their television channels and hold many of their values.
Our relationship with the British has indeed suffered from bad PR over many decades. But the sign of a mature, confident Ireland would be to re-embrace Britain and pave the way for our two nations to truly thrive by closer economic and political ties.
The harsh economic reality has shown which nations we can rely on in times of crisis.
So as the Queen prepares to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee this year, it is time that we forged stronger ties with the UK.
Whether this is by joining the Commonwealth, adopting Sterling or some other form of economic co-operation, is for the people to decide. However, one thing is for sure — the ‘800 years of oppression’ chip on our shoulder needs to be brushed aside. In fact, it is time that we treasured and loved the British as much as they do us.
The media is failing people by avoiding inconvenient truths, writes Paul Allen.
The Irish thrive on blaming others for their woes. We blame the British, the Catholic Church and just about anyone else that saves us from embracing collective responsibility for our own missteps. But it is high time for people to grow up. We claim we want the truth, but it would appear that we can’t handle the truth.
Enda Kenny is now facing a backlash for telling people something they desperately don’t want to hear yet alone believe — we are all to blame for the economic crisis.
The Taoiseach told a gathering at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the problem with Ireland’s economy was that “people went mad borrowing” in a climate where greed saw the system spiral out of control and ultimately crash.
This is of course an oversimplification of our economic downfall, yet it is in essence relatively accurate. The poor judgement of our political leaders and the corrupt nature of certain financiers and developers was all driven by a collective giddy greed that gripped our nation at the height of the boom. The vast majority of us were crying, “more, more, more” when in fact we should have been increasing taxes and cutting our spending levels.
Speak with any rational Irish person about this and they will agree that while the levels of blame rise significantly depending on your role in the crash, we all ultimately have to take a certain amount criticism.
But to utter such words in public is tantamount to treason. This warped view of reality is being fed into and fuelled by a media that constantly uses politicians, developers and bankers as scapegoats.
Minister for Transport and Tourism Leo Varadkar condemned this cynicism and highlighted how the media offers a “sugar-coated” truth rather than exposing the real facts. He is right.
The media has become so cynical of politicians and their roles, that it is affecting the balance portrayed in the pages of our newspapers and the broadcasts of our national news.
It is so easy to blame whoever is public enemy number one at any given moment, whether it’s Sean Fitzpatrick, Michael Fingleton or Sean Dunne. However, these people did not operate in a vacuum and were part of a culture that was allowed flourish during the boom years.
Admittedly Enda Kenny did make a major error of judgement, but it was not telling the truth in Switzerland. It was telling Irish people what they wanted to hear seven weeks ago when he said — “You are not responsible for the crisis.”
We all criticise politicians for feeding us lies before an election and then once in office breaking these promises. But maybe this says more about us than it does about them.
So now as the media turns on Enda and Leo for telling the truth, at least Irish people will now have two others to blame for their woes.
The media’s obsession with simplicity and scapegoats often means the real story can go unreported, writes Paul Allen.
Every drama needs a villain and this week Francesco Schettino neatly fitted the bill. The captain of the Costa Concordia, which crashed into rocks off the Italian coast and capsized, was portrayed as a lazy stereotype in a veracious media environment that loves simplicity.
The Italian was quickly caricatured as a swashbuckling, wine-swilling lothario with such an eye for the ladies he was willing to put the lives of all his passengers at risk.
The Daily Mail, which led the charge, was only too willing to believe that most of its readers would readily understand the cliché that all Italian me are lazy, workshy womanisers.
When the captain, desperately tried to defend himself, claiming he had not abandoned ship but had accidentally fallen into a lifeboat while aiding passengers as the ship tilted on its side, the guffaws in the press were audible.
There is little doubt that if he had happened to be Spanish, images of Manuel, the Fawlty Towers waiter, would have been splashed all over the tabloid press.
To add to the comic book portrayal of this horrible disaster a 25-year-old mystery blonde ballerina, Domnica Cemortan, who reportedly was on the bridge of the cruise liner when the vessel ran into rocks, leapt to the Captain’s defence.
“[Capt. Schettino] is one of the best captains in the company. He is very skilful and experienced when it comes to manoeuvring the ship in enclosed spaces, like harbours,” Cemortan told the Daily Telegraph.
Of course the more sober and straightforward reporting as put forward by the Telegraph was spun by the Daily Mail as it pondered: “Was Captain Coward trying to impress glamorous blonde ballerina when he hit the rocks?”
At the heart of this sordid tale are the 11 people who have been confirmed dead and the 30 who are still missing after the disaster. While the official investigation into the incident will no doubt reveal the full extent to which the captain was at fault, his position makes it clear that he rightly has to take responsibility for at least some of the blame. However, the ease at which the media immediately made him the scapegoat meant that many of the critical issues that have arisen out of this incident have for the most part been glided over.
What about the company behind the cruise liner? What about the safety standards on big passenger ships? Indeed, if we are to believe what has been written this week about Captain Schettino it would seem that ship captains that roam the high seas are a law unto themselves. This I would wager is far from the truth.
So even if the Captain is as portrayed, what type of company and what type of regulatory system allows such a person to be in charge of the safety of thousands of passengers? Sadly, as far as the media is concerned, such a story line does not make for sexy headlines.
The media loves portraying black and white scenarios, but does not do grey very well. Indeed, even though new media has seen the number of news sources flourish over the past few years, it has not given the public a more diverse and thorough insight into the stories of the day.
Indeed, it would seem that in our media saturated lives the snappy headline, sound bite and catch-all cliché still rule supreme.
Thankfully, for the families of those who lost their lives, the inquiry rather than the media will bring to light who the real villains in this tragedy are.