Being Irish in 2011 - Standing in front of a blank page

TOMORROW millions will tip their hat at the idea of being Irish. Many, many more brave souls, knowing a good party when they see one, will sing the Rose of Tralee as loudly and as off-key as any of us.

A national holiday is as good a moment as any to pause to try to work out what sort of a place Ireland is today; what sort of a people we’ve become and, just maybe, what sort of a society we might become.

We’ve all been through a traumatic few years. Businesses and jobs have been lost, incomes have been slashed, investments evaporated and taxes increased. That great national taboo eviction — or repossession as it is now called — has become, if not commonplace, so very regular as not to merit special attention.

Unemployment has returned to life-sapping levels. Yesterday’s figures for the final three months of 2010 put our unemployment rate at 14.7%.

Emigration has broken up families but, if we are to be honest, it is not as final, as wrenching as it once was. Even if emigration is heartrending for families, especially aging parents, it can have a very positive affect on those who go to live and work abroad.

Families and a huge number of individuals struggle to make repayments on borrowings taken out in better times. As interest rates rise this noose can only tighten.

Private debt is in the ha’penny place compared to what has become our national debt. Our Government must subject themselves to regular assessment by the IMF to see if they can have next month’s housekeeping money. Our Finance Minister must go to Europe and try, despite stiff and hypocritical opposition, to renegotiate a deal that has the capacity to beggar us.

Our education system is hardly fit for purpose. It needs a radical overhaul and a completely new set of standards. Any country, like ours, where teenage literacy levels are collapsing is betraying its young people.

Businesses, those brave enough to want to expand, struggle to secure credit on terms that are not punitive.

We have seen once all-powerful behemoths — the Catholic Church, the banks and Fianna Fáil — lose position, credibility and respect. A decade ago it would have been all but impossible to convince even the most strident anti-cleric that an Archbishop of Dublin would admit that Irish Catholicism is well on the way to becoming a marginal interest. Equally, anyone who predicted that Fianna Fáil could not put out a football team and a few subs from their Dáil representation would have been offered smelling salts.

Despite all of that, or in spite of all that, there seems to be a growing sense of possibility. Maybe it’s the change of Government, maybe it’s the advance of spring across the countryside, but there is a feeling that we’re standing in front of a blank page and that opportunity lies buried in economic disaster.

There’s hardly an institution in the country that is not open to reform if it means that we will not end up in another mess like this one in a decade or so. All sorts of groups — Ireland First is just one — are coming forward with exciting proposals to rebuild this country.

Two of our defining characteristics are resilience and imagination. Another is an innate sense of fair play.

These are qualities of real substance and they will be the foundation of our recovery. They are already the reason millions around the world will celebrate Ireland and Irishness tomorrow. Let us celebrate them too.