Back to the future: a family story

IN my father’s time, he could buy a house, drive a Standard 10 car, join the golf club, have a family fortnight in Duncannon (Co Wexford) each year, feed and educate us children – all on a single salary commensurate to the lower middle class.

As the austere post-war gave way to the rock-‘n’-roll 1950s, a VW Beetle took the place of the old Standard and Duncannon was upgraded to Tramore, though the biggest single expense remained the weekly food bill.

His wife did motherly things.

I opened my innings with a slight educational advantage and achieved much the same as he did with minor name and fashion changes.

For VW read Austin, a telly replaced the bakelite wireless and my house was called a semi-detached. My kids also dug the sand of Duncannon and the same shrimp net still gleaned seaweed from the rock pools at Dollar Bay.

The Costa de Sol replaced Tramore and food was more varied and comparatively cheaper, but the golf club was out of the question. The significant difference was that in order to maintain this living standard two salaries were required. My wife had to do fatherly things as well. In their turn my children stepped up to the plate. Two salaries became the norm but they were not enough to reach the bottom rung of the property ladder.

A jump-start from our generation is often needed, a serious helping hand and not just a quick spray with WD-40, a substantial charge sometimes amounting to a second mortgage. What one man used to do now takes at least three.

Then a real burst followed the phoney boom. NAMA was set up to perpetuate the myth that capital has a god-given right to generate wealth with the secondary motive of preserving the lifestyle of the moneymen at the expense of the majority. The future is not just bleak – it’s been postponed. If a man’s home is his castle, then my grandchildren’s best hope lies in what they can build on the beach at Duncannon.

Patrick Dolan

Pearse Street

Kinsale

Co Cork