To the lovely (and now engaged) @sharonashambles.
Ireland is screwed. From the moment some moron decided to break away from the greatest nation on Earth, through the moment someone thought it’d be a good idea to shoot the chap who negotiated peace with the British, through the moment we realised we had built more apartments and installed more Italian marble kitchen surfaces than people had legs, to the point at which we decided it would be okay to have the very poorest people pay for the collapse of the very richest peoples bank investments, Ireland has been an appalling tragedy of errors.
Though the latest crisis is not of Ireland’s making, it is clear that this society lacks the chutzpah to actually face down the real systemic problem, and so it is time to give up.
Many in recent days have gotten all misty eyed and offered themselves again, as people are wont to do, to Ireland’s cause. To these people I say the time to answer the call has passed.
You should have revolted when the peoples money was handed over to the bankers. You should have kicked back when your nations economic and political sovereignty was sold for the value of 10 year gilt yields.
You should have shut government down, you should have gone to the barricades, you should have withdrawn your consent. You didn’t.
You went to the local and voted Fine Gael.
You gambled there were people worse off than you, and that, yet again, government would be true to past form and screw them worse than theyll screw you. Shrewd move, never fails, until suddenly you find yourself at the bottom of the org chart.
You should have burned effigies of Cowen and Eddie bloody Hobbs. Instead you probably agreed that the teacher who painted Biffo on the loo should be sacked.
In Ayn Rands masterpiece (of thought if not elegant writing) ‘Atlas Shrugged’, when society has gone to pot, the productive people align themselves to simply sod off when they arent appreciated. They stop the machinery making the world turn, they withdraw their consent for a continuously failing system which neither values nor understands them. The society which they make great turns their backs on them, so they turn their backs too.
The current configuration of this nation profanes the republican ideal; it mocks the principle under which the nation was founded and profoundly embarrasses those in the state who wish for better. We may remain physically in Ireland, but anyone with any sense will put their heart and mind elsewhere.
Those who wish to stay mentally and corporeally and be the solution, good luck, more fool you. Let us know when the place is sufficiently decontaminated. We’ll pop back for a holiday if we can be arsed.
