Looking back to home, you’re hoping things will change and maybe some time in the not to distant future Ireland’s emirgrants who are bothered might go home. And then there’s this story: http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14794:kenny-and-durcan-trade-blows-over-planning-application&catid=23:news&Itemid=46
Now the actual nut of this story goes back to 2004 when Fine Gael were not in power, so you can still hope for change. By the same token though, you do grow cynical and suspect nothing at all will ever change and less and less will be bothered going home. The planning authorities are, in someways, the ones that got away in the the blame game following the collapse of the Celtic Tiger. Of course, in the actual being-brought-to-justice game, well everyone got away with it except for the “squeezed middle” (2011’s buzz phrase of the year)…
As quaint and charming and sometimes irritating as Ireland’s everyone-knows-everyone reality is, it did have a lot to do with bringing about our downfall. Outside commentators have speculated that in such a small country, and with an ‘ah… sure would ya blame him if he’s getting away with it’ sort of attitude, things were always likely to go pear-shaped at some point.
It seemed like there were a couple of hundred jobs announced back home every day last week, and all pretty much in technology. Is the “Smart Economy” at the gates? This is good news of course. A blatant disregard for planning laws is not. AT GE11, Enda Kenny made a quite show of not being a local politician, but then he clearly doesn’t need to be if his brother is going to be taking care of things like their brother-in-law’s garage on the N5 at Westport.
Will they (as in every single politician in Ireland and the World) keep saying they’ll reform? Yes. Will they? A little, yes but they’ll find another way to corrupt themselves. Will the people believe the hype of every second political messiah? Yes. Largely because they’re just not as bad as the pup that went before.
