My family and I spent the past week traveling across Ireland. We had a lovely (albeit exhausting) trip, experiencing many interesting things and visiting many interesting places. A more narrative piece (hopefully with photos) will be forthcoming in the next few days. In the mean time, I thought perhaps to include some impressions and reflections acquired whilst abroad, the better to contextualize a later account of some places we visited. With that said, let's dive in.
To start, it seems to me Ireland is an exceedingly pastoral country. Over every mountain and around every bend, one often finds pastures and fields enclosed by hedgerows and short stone walls. It seemed every curve in the road brought some new expanse of idyllic farm country, awash in a combination of Ireland's "40 shades of green." Numbers lend credence to these impressions: as of 2011, there were more cows in country (5,925,300) than people (4,576,000), and a goodly number of sheep (3,480,000) to boot. In addition, only 9% of Ireland is covered by trees, compared to an EU average of 30%. Combined with mountainous terrain, the result is vast and open country of an exceedingly pastoral character. I enjoyed the views.
Less enjoyable proved the economic scenes which greeted us. To provide some context, in the late 90s and early 2000s Ireland experienced a property bubble: in other words, the price of houses and property rose faster than ordinary economic indicators suggested they should. When Ireland adopted the Euro in 1999, monetary policy shifted from Dublin to the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, which among other things led to a lower interest rate than would have existed had the old currency remained in place. Low interest rates made the acquisition of credit (loans, etc.) less expensive, which often increases demand for borrowing and speculation. Academics and policy wonks debate the specifics of all this, but it should suffice for our purposes that property values rose rapidly through the early 2000s, and collapsed in 2008. As of 2011, the price of houses in Dublin (the capital) had fallen 51% from their peak; at the same time, the price of apartments fell 60%. Neither value has recovered, and most estimates suggest it will only get worse in the next few years
The signs of this bubble are in evidence all across Ireland, but particularly in Dublin, where speculation proved hottest, and collapse the steepest. Throughout our trip,"To let" signs proved common, and from time to time we passed housing developments that had been finished but never sold. Outside Galway, we passed houses that before the property bubble were valued at over a million Euro, while today they go for €400,000.
Demand - which supports or drives up prices - is also not likely to improve, with current unemployment in Ireland at 13.5% (26.5% for people younger than 25, and 12.1% for the rest). Furthermore, Irish Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted 0.6% from QI in 2013 compared to same quarter in 2012. Also, the number of mortgages granted has fallen to levels not seen since 1971, of which 28% are in arrears (behind in payments), a figure that continues to grow.
The numbers are sobering, and opinions regarding them are never far from the surface. Whilst walking the streets of Dublin for instance, my family and I encountered a small demonstration protesting budget cuts and fiscal austerity. Similarly in Galway, graffiti was in evidence near to the Spanish Arch and other tourist sites calling for an end to austerity, and indirectly abandonment of the EU. It is interesting, given the fact that in 2011 Ireland was hailed as a "model" of austerity by Germany and others, despite signs of increasing unemployment, welfare dependence, and emigration (see story from the New York Times). From what I could tell on the ground, the situation has not improved in that time.
Yet not all is depressing in Ireland these days. The people proved exceedingly friendly on our visit, from the stranger on the street who gave us directions, to the pub folks who made room for us so we might enjoy the live music. Speaking of which, the music is an absolute treat. There is perhaps no other country in the world whose people and music seem so perfect for one another. And there is perhaps no other country whose national symbol is a musical instrument (I've heard it's either the harp or the Uilleann Pipes, a kind of Irish bag-pipe). I felt a passion in Ireland for music, both ancient and grounded in the experiences of everyday life. Go to any pub worth its salt after 9pm, and one is likely to encounter banjos and fiddles, pipes, flutes, guitars and drums (see bodhrán). In all of my encounters with these groups, I never did see a bit of sheet-music, nor a musician who didn't seem to be having the time of his or her life. The virtuosity of the players at times bordered on the surreal, and hours went by without notice. Usually a player starts a tune, and other join in as they figure out the melody and the key the first player chose. Sometimes a player would improvise a harmony, or set a beat for everyone else. As time wore on, some players would leave and others would join; it was all very informal, yet did not suffer a drop in quality. All the while, one sits barely a few feet away, close enough to see the players' sweat, and feel their whoops of joy as well as hear them. There is nothing quite like an pub-based jam session with the Irish.
Ireland proved a stimulating place, and what I've written is but a smattering of the impressions and reflections I experienced while there. It seemed to me a beautiful country with beautiful people, both struggling under the burden of a heavy history (more on that later perhaps) and a somber economic present. I enjoyed my time in Ireland, and hope someday to return.
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