In this country our political class behave as though Ireland is a juicy subcontinent with endless resources to be tapped, when in reality we’re currently more like an overcrowded frat party at which the beer has all but run out.
Imagine houses are the beer if you will: The host has invited way too many people over insisting that there is plenty of beer for everyone, but gets defensive when the thirsty guests start asking where it is.
After trying to avoid the issue for as long as he can, the host reluctantly admits that there’s only one six pack left and that the local shops are closed.
‘Why did you invite us all here then?’ the frustrated guests would surely ask.
While joining in on canvassing over the general election campaign, what has stood out to me most is the sadness at the doors. Mothers who open up about the loss of their adult children to promises of their own housing and better living conditions in far-away places like the US, Australia, or even Dubai.
You’ve probably seen political figures with their private dental care smiles holding slogans like, ‘Ireland for All’ or the equally ridiculous “Housing for All’.
On the surface both of those things sound nice but they’re far from practical and further from doable.
When you look beyond the vibes and slogans, the reality of the policies of our establishment is more like ‘Housing for the Few’, ‘Emigration for the Rest’.
Maybe you’ve watched RTÉ’s Reeling in the Years. Along with a cheeky peak at First Dates now and again, it’s more or less the only thing I tune in for.
Episodes of Reeling in the Years which focus on the 1980s often show lines and lines of teens and twenty-somethings waiting outside the US Embassy in Dublin or piling onto planes that would carry them off to a new life of plenty, and plenty of hard work no doubt.
I can remember the boom times of the mid 00s when it seemed like every second or third car on the road was a Mercedez, BMW, or Audi. Driving around with my mum in her modest blue Nissan Micra, I wondered where all the money for those luxury vehicles came from.
I now know that a lot of that money was borrowed and that the banks were almost begging people to live beyond their means.
If you were asked to pick which of those two scenarios is more like the Ireland of today, which one would you choose? To me it seems like we are the Ireland of the 80s once again, losing our youth and future to better opportunities overseas while still dressed in our now torn and tattered bespoke suit from Thomas Pink, purchased during the boom.
For those of us who do not possess a special characteristic that can buy us favour from the government, we are not much of a land of milk and honey anymore.
There has been plenty written about the causes of Ireland’s housing shortage, as well as on our cost of living and health crisis. That our population is growing rapidly almost entirely due to overseas migration is also no secret.
But what is the cost of all this?
If young Irish people continue to leave and are simply replaced by overseas workers, what will that do to our country? Are we to continue our legacy as a land of empty chairs at the Christmas table? A land of weeping mothers, and fathers with their heads bowed in sorrow?
Why can’t our politicians make it easier for Irish people to live in Ireland? This is the one country in all the world that belongs to us after all, and it was paid for on our behalf by generations past with blood and tears.
Politicians drone on about the need for skilled overseas workers but seemingly do next to nothing to keep our own skilled workers – we are a highly educated people – at home or to attract back the huge number who have been lured overseas.
Is it any wonder that there are people out there that truly believe that the Irish government hates Irish people, or that the word ‘ethnocide’ is being used more frequently online?
The government knows the people are struggling, they know that many are leaving this country not because they want to, but because they feel they have to.
Yet they do next to nothing.
I won’t forget the pain in the eyes of a mother I met in Dublin Bay North who said that her elder son had gone to Australia and that her younger son was planning a move to the US.
She clutched a Yorkshire Terrier to her chest as she lamented the sacrifices she and her husband had made to make sure the boys went to college and how now it seems like it all counted for nothing because despite their “good jobs” they can’t afford a home of their own in their homeland.
Cllr. Noel Thomas told me that Irish people are “struggling” with the cost of living and are “pissed off” seeing people who come in from overseas seemingly being put before them in the ever lengthening queue for resources.
This Christmas there will be thousands of heartbroken mothers like that woman, and it seems very much like the government doesn’t care.