Catherine Reilly continues her coverage of the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. You can read the rest of the series here, here and here.
Catherine Reilly ((Dublin, Metro Eireann ): Is nationalism playing a big part in Ireland’s Lisbon Treaty battle? This was the question posed by BBC Europe editor Mark Mardell in his Euroblog entry on the 19th of May. The short answer is no. The long answer is nope.
However, Mardell picked up on two important issues which could possibly veer some undecided voters towards a No vote. One is the fact that, under the Lisbon Treaty, Ireland would only have a permanent commissioner on a rotating basis. The other is the feeling (communicated to Mardell by a Dublin taxi driver) that the country’s prosperity, funded partly from EU coffers, has been a double-edged sword of samurai proportions.
The latter point is interesting to dwell on. According to the website of the European Commission Representation in Ireland: “While most Irish people will have sped past the blue signs along smooth new roads up and down the country, indicating that ‘This project was co-financed by the EU’, fewer people will be aware of the extent of change that the EU has helped initiate in Ireland. Since joining in 1973, the difference between what Ireland paid in and what the EU paid out is about €55 billion euros.”
Two points: firstly, the reference to speeding is rather unfortunate given Ireland’s road safety record, and secondly, most Irish people are aware of the vast funds (but not the exact total) the EU has pumped into the country, particularly into infrastructure. These monies have been a crucial element in the emergence of the now-fading Celtic Tiger (or “Irish Economic Miracle”, as American commentators dreamily put it).
Ireland’s economic turnaround has made world headlines but the offshoots of it, aside from increased immigration and new multiculturalism, haven’t been the subject of a similar level of scrutiny from overseas journalists looking for anecdotes about Paddy and how he made good.
During the last Irish general election campaign in 2007, Ireland’s opposition Labour Party erected billboards with the message: ‘But, are you happy?’ Of course it failed - there is little that would repel Irish people more than some smart-ass ‘slogan’ created by slick-suited spin doctors, playing on the unhappiness (or indeed happiness) of ordinary Joes and Josephines. But that is not to say that, in less profiteering circumstances, the question isn’t a valid one.
The country’s national health service (a scandal in itself) this week launched a new alcohol awareness campaign aimed at delaying the age at which young people start to drink. ‘Shock’ TV ads (not sure how shocking, as I haven’t seen them yet) will warn youths off binge drinking, apparently. There are figures to beat the band, as they say, but it doesn’t take a genius or expensive research studies to deduct that Irish teenagers today have far more disposable income than their counterparts of 10 to 20 years ago, a reality that has manifested itself in increased binge drinking but more pertinently in an expectation that life owes them something. TVs and computers in their rooms, surfing Bebo and YouTube at their leisure before cruising off for a drive in their cars. Ireland is currently raising its first truly spoiled generation.
For many Irish adults, meanwhile, the boom has meant more cars on the road, increased workloads, being priced out of the housing market or currently coping with negative equity.
Of course, mass emigration is a thing of the past and more opportunities exist than could have been dreamt of even in the early 1990s, but there is a strong yet incalculable feeling that this really isn’t Ireland’s happiest period in history. The 1990s transformed Ireland under the stewardship of people who knew they’d have to make their own luck and conjure up their own good times. At the same time - and I believe it no coincidence - Irish music and soccer enjoyed golden periods.
But now we’re speeding along on smooth roads, watching blurry blue signs disappear in our rear-view mirrors. We’re on a comedown, and wondering where to go to next.
Will the Lisbon Treaty suffer the backlash? In my opinion, highly unlikely. Aside from the fact that EU membership was just one factor in the emergence of the Celtic Tiger (and that most Irish people manage to hold positive and negative parallel viewpoints on the boom), it would be highly difficult to effectively communicate this feeling of dread into a campaign slogan (as the Labour Party proved). And thus far, the No camp haven’t shown any signs that they have the ability or inclination to do it.
Catherine Reilly is deputy editor of Metro Eireann, Ireland’s multicultural weekly.
