Ireland Today: The Pluck of the Irish
By Rick Steves
How
do the Irish celebrate St. Pat's Day in Dublin? With a five-day festival of
parades, fireworks, and Guinness. On the huge parade on the 17th, fire jugglers
and clowns dodge old-time cars, Harley Davidsons, and marching bands while
a Monster Ceili (dance) whirls and jigs at St. Stephen's Green. The festival
offers amusement rides, puppet shows, and comedies, set against a backdrop
of giant sculptures and pyrotechnics set to music. For more information, go
to www.stpatricksday.ie.
March 17 is a perfect opportunity to take a snapshot look at the Republic of Ireland. The Emerald Isle is popular among travelers these days. The formerly isolated island is welcoming tourists with open arms and reaching out to the rest of the globe. In 1999, the number of tourists visiting Ireland topped the six million mark, exceeding for the first time the actual native population on the island (5.7 million). Visitors returning to Ireland are amazed at the country's transformation.
Through the mid-1990s, Ireland's booming, globalized economy grew a whopping 40 percent and property values tripled (between 1995 and 2004), earning the Republic the nickname "The Celtic Tiger." Now, for the first time in history, the Irish are importing labor and they've surpassed the English in per-capita income.
After Ireland joined the European Union in 1973, 12 billion dollars of EU money sped Irish development. And the Irish government has effectively used business-friendly tax policies to attract foreign investment. Since 1980, when Apple Computer set up shop here, a stream of multinational and American corporations have opened offices in Ireland. Ireland has one of the youngest populations in Europe. And those young Irish, beneficiaries of one of Europe's best educational systems, provide these corporations with a highly skilled and educated workforce. Powered by this youthful and energetic workforce, Ireland's pharmaceutical, chemical, and software industries are booming. In fact, little Ireland is second only to the United States in the exportation of software.
Of course, this rapid growth comes with problems. Urban sprawl, rising housing prices, water and air pollution, and the homogenous nature of globalization all left their mark. In 2003, the rising economic tide had lifted Ireland to float beside Finland as one of the two most expensive countries in the European Union. Per capita consumption of alcohol has also tripled since 1970 (the dark side of recent prosperity). Still, the Celtic Tiger, although slightly muffled by the tech bubble bursting, continues to roar.
The challenges of immigration (new arrivals into Ireland) have replaced problems associated with the generations of emigration (young people leaving Ireland). Until recently, Ireland had the most liberal citizenship laws in the European Union, granting Irish citizenship to anyone born on Irish soil (even if neither parent had an Irish passport). This led to a flood of pregnant immigrant women arriving from Eastern Europe and Africa to give birth in Ireland for their children to gain EU citizenship. Families with a child born in an EU country face fewer border restrictions, increasing their chances of moving into one of the 25 EU nations. In 2004, the Irish people closed that legal loophole in a referendum vote.
While the Irish are embracing the new economies and industries of the 21st century, when it comes to sex and marriage, they still see their island as an oasis of morality and traditional values (homosexuality was decriminalized only a dozen years ago). The Catholic Church continues to exert a major influence on Irish society. But since the Church no longer controls the legislature, the Irish government — driven by the popular demands of the youngest population in Europe — will undoubtedly push for some changes on the following issues.
Birth Control: Americans take for granted that birth control is readily available. But Ireland only began allowing the widespread sale of condoms in 1993.
Abortion: In Ireland, women who choose to terminate their pregnancies must go to England for help. Abortion is still illegal in Ireland. And it's only been legal since 1993 to counsel Irish women to go to England for abortions. This was a big issue in 2001, when the Dutch anchored their "abortion ship" in Dublin's harbor, and again in 2002, when a referendum legalizing abortion was narrowly defeated. Watch for more referendums proposing the legalization of abortion. Locals refer to this as their next Civil War.
Divorce: Ireland voted to legalize divorce in 1995 — but only on very strict conditions, and with little compensation offered to Irish women who work as homemakers.
What About Northern Ireland?
• Northern Ireland is 5,222
square miles, a little bigger than Connecticut.
• Population is 1.7 million (about 325 people per square mile, 55 percent
Protestant, 45 percent Catholic).
• As it's part of the UK, Northern Ireland uses the pound sterling (£1
= about $1.80).
When Ireland won its independence in 1921 (after a bloody guerilla war against British rule), 26 of the island's 32 counties became the Irish Free State, ruled from Dublin with dominion status in the British Commonwealth — like Canada. In 1949, they left the Commonwealth and became the Republic of Ireland, removing all political ties with Britain. Meanwhile, the six remaining northeastern counties (called "Ulster" by some, and the only ones with a Protestant majority), voted not to join the Irish Free State in 1922 and so remained part of the United Kingdom.
In 1967, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement, inspired by America's black civil rights movement, organized marches and demonstrations demanding equal treatment for Catholics (better housing, job opportunities, and voting rights). Protestant Unionist Orangemen countered by marching through Catholic neighborhoods, flaunting their politically dominant position in the name of tradition, and thus provoking riots. In 1969, Britain sent troops to help Northern Ireland keep the peace and met resistance from the IRA (Irish Republican Army), which saw them as an occupying army supporting the Protestant pro-British majority.
From the 1970s to the 1990s, the North was a low-level battlefield, with the IRA using terrorist tactics to achieve their political ends. "The Troubles", claiming some 3,000 lives, continued with bombings, marches, hunger strikes, rock-throwing, and riots (notably Derry's Bloody Sunday in 1972), interrupted by cease-fires, broken cease-fires, and a string of peace agreements.
In the 1990s — with Ireland's membership in the European Union, the growth of its economy, and the weakening of the Catholic Church's influence — the consequences of a united Ireland were less threatening to the Unionists. In 1994, the IRA declared a cease-fire, and the Protestant UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) followed suit.
Then came the 1998 watershed settlement known as the Good Friday Peace Accord (to pro-Irish Nationalists) or the Belfast Agreement (to pro-British Unionists). It has proven to be a flawed breakthrough in the process of getting bitter, hard-line opponents to seek common ground. In spring of 2005, elections showed that disillusioned voters were edging away from the moderate middle ground and becoming politically polarized once again. The ranks of the ultra-Unionist DUP party — led by Reverend Ian Paisley — and the ultra-Nationalist Sinn Fein party — led by Jerry Adams — have become dominant at opposite ends of the spectrum.
This is not a fight over Protestant and Catholic religious differences — it's about whether Northern Ireland will stay part of the United Kingdom or become part of the Republic of Ireland. The indigenous Irish of Northern Ireland, who generally want to become part of the Republic of Ireland, happen to be Catholic. The descendants of Scottish and English settlers in Northern Ireland, who generally want to remain part of Britain, happen to be Protestant.
To put it another way, the Nationalists want British troops out of Ireland and for Northern Ireland to form one "nation" with the Republic of Ireland. The Unionists want the IRA to turn in its arms and for Northern Ireland to continue its "union" with the rest of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, and Wales).
Today, the spiraling violence of the 1970s and 80s seem to be a thing of the past. In July 2005, the IRA formally announced an end to its armed campaign, and promised that it would pursue peaceful, democratic means to achieve its goals. Tourists in Northern Ireland are no longer considered courageous (or reckless). A United Nations study conducted in 2003 found that Northern Ireland was statistically the second safest country in the developed world (after Japan). You're safer in Northern Ireland than in any other part of the United Kingdom — and far safer than in most major U.S. cities. You have to look for trouble to find it here. Just don't seek out spit-and-sawdust pubs in working-class Protestant neighborhoods and sing Catholic songs. Tourists notice the tension mainly during the "marching season" (peaking in early July). July 12 is traditionally the most confrontational day of the year in the North, when proud Protestant Unionist Orangemen march to celebrate their Britishness and their separate identity from the Republic of Ireland (often through staunchly Nationalist Catholic neighborhoods). Lie low if you stumble onto any big orange parades.
For lots more information, check out our best-selling Rick Steves' Ireland guidebook — or join us on one of our free-spirited tours in Ireland.