Sad that letter seems so relevant today 36 years after it was written

Michael – do you have a reputable cite or data source for this ‘information’?

If I understand you correctly you are saying that our immigration policy is a reason for the high level of joblessness? Maybe, but it’s nothing to do with the point I was trying to make, i.e. that we don’t even seem to be able to have a debate on why emigration is the ‘only’ choice that seems to be available in hard times in Ireland, as opposed to planning and working out a more sustainable long-term strategy to keep everyone working at home.

Amazing how the author could communicate clearly without recourse to abuse or derogatory personal insults.

Think where still a laughing stock

We vote for the gombeens because we only give a damn about our potholes and not about the direction of the country as a whole, we take out the stupidly risky mortgages without even looking at the paperwork fully or asking if we can’t just save the money over time, we blindly accept the mantra of contempt for our neighbours because of horrible things their ancestors did that they had nothing to do with, we stay silent when abuse occurs save bizarrely enough for gossiping about it with our closest associates, we just simply don’t think ahead or look beyond our own parochial boundaries to think about our future.

It’ll never change so long as we stay a nation of petty, small minded, begrudgers who’d rather drown our sorrows and blame the establishment or a foreign power when the truth is we are our own worst enemies. Bitterness, lack of imagination, inability to let go of the past and a contradictory naive willingness to blindly wander from one historical pothole into the next; these are the real enemies of the Irish nation, not the Brits, the Church, or even the IMF.

Ireland unfree from it’s own hubris will never be at peace.

I accept your point Cornelius but the next point is to engage with people in proposing solutions.
You’re coming across like you’re sort of moaning there yourself.

I lived in England & America, the only people I ever heard complaining about Ireland were the Irish. One American did however laugh at how paranoid we were.

Laughing stock! …what’s new? We were, still are….

Why can’t a citizen point out flaws in the state and the way our society is structured. It would seem the people who did not do their job, regulation, loan books, business plans are exactly the ones who are most insulated from the consequence of their negligence.
The banks have been given a blank cheque to save themselves. A few regulators were given amazing pensions along with elected policy makers. Professional investors have made a choice, lost, but get their money back anyway.
Meanwhile those in trouble get lectured on moral hazard, those that didn’t borrow silly money get to pay with their jobs, tax and services.
It’s not unreasonable to expect those who are struggling money wise, who have lost their jobs or who didn’t over borrow and are making payments to feel how unfair this is.
I always though I live in a capitalistic economy where if their are losses the business pays or goes bust, that’s why it works, but I did not expect that some types of investors get their losses back through public money.

We are so slow to change and 30yrs later we are still a laughing stock

I don’t really care about being the laughing stock of the “progressive world” if we had a decent society. Our society was primitive, oppressive and run by hypocrites. We exported all our problems to England.
Irish Divorce = Husband went to England; Irish Abortion = Girl went to England; Gay young person = ran to England; Irish contraception = pull out and hope for the best or wait for somebody to bring a pack of johnnies from England.
I would suggest sending the church to England, but this is one problem that we must sort out ourselves.

Wats changed

He could have sent it as an email yesterday!

Country is run by spineless back scratching parasites and until that changes we will always be a laughing stock.

Sure Ireland does, and has always had; its problems, but it’s not as if we’re the only nation on earth with foibles. I really dislike how many Irish people seem to relish the fact that the country has problems. Most of these people would be unhappy if we lived in a utopian paradise because they’d have no reason to moan and self-loathe.

We are a definite laughing stock in the bondholder world.

Funny most of you agree at Ireland being a laughing stock yet all you do is thrown stones, moan and groan. How about doing something to change things but no, you’ll wait for someone else to do something. The laughing at is at our inaction to change anything but jaysus we can talk and give out…we’re the best at that. You do realise we are responsible for this, we keep voting in idiots into the Dail…

Ireland is an insular society, homogenous, dominated by a rather unhealthy strand of Roman Catholicism which is fixated on sexual morality to the exclusion of other forms of morality and still the Roman Catholic Church pontificates about matters of civil legislation.

There are positive signs. Irish society is becoming more heterogenous, we can now assert views which are opposed to the hegemony of the Roman Catholic Church. The malign and malevolent nature of the Roman Catholic Church has been truly exposed by the child abuse scandal, Magdalene laundry and other scandals and there is far greater plurality of expression. The fundamentalist, dogmatic, brain washing influence of Roman Catholicism is starting to recede, social media, including The Journal, is providing a platform for the expression of the silent majority who were out voiced by the RC zealots, the Youth Defence League no longer carry Hurley sticks with threatening impunity and even schools are no longer dominated by the especially harsh and judge mentalist ethos of the past.

Now when the RC hierarchy pronounces the allowing gay marriage will undermine and threaten heterosexual marriage, we stand back with benign amusement.

The old authority respecting Ireland is fast disappearing. As I read the posts here, people are using their critical faculties to assess and to second guess what we are being told. We are no longer so gullible or so supine or servile to authority.

The break from the dogma and fundamentalism of the past will finally be marked when Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution, the pernicious Eight Amendment, is eventually repealed. That will mark the start of a real Republic. We will start discovering liberty, fraternity and equality. Religion will be consigned to its right place, practicised in Churches and places of worship but no longer will it be permitted to intrude harmfully into the civic sphere of civil legislation.

We have seen where our devotion to political parties, religious dogma, radical individualism, making a god of property and excessive and unquestioning respect for public institutions has brought us. Many of the people of Ireland are no wide awake, we’ll informed, the younger generation is no longer respectful of dogma and all the signs are that we are in for a painful, slow but real process of maturing. We will all raise questions whenever we are talked down to by our supposed betters, who, why, what basis is there for that, explain what you mean, tell us your policy basis and we will be questioning, realistic, even a little hard headedly cynical when guff is being pushed down our throats.

I am sorry that this sounds like a good news manifesto but the fact that the RC Church and its pro-life zealots no longer dominate the public debate, that we have seen what our public institutions truly are, that regulators slept with those they were to regulate, that the government favours the privileged, that laws can avoided if you have pull with the Garda Siochana, that the local TD is doing you favours is only feather bedding his own future and that every aspect of public governance is dominated by self interest means that we can start to work on real reform, not papering over the cracks.

Civil laws are no business of Roman Catholicism and we must never make the mistake again of obedience to authority. Blind obedience has done us enormous harm but these days of obedience are over.

Man it makes me SICK to hear EVERYBODY complaing about HORRIBLE Ireland and NOTHING changing themselves!…. Nobody sees the positive side as a few very few others say much has changed and Ireland has so many things OTHER SO CALLED MODERN WORLD (TIL NOW!!!) dont have – freedom and humbleness. Who are the “PRORGRESSIVE worlders” to judge Ireland? They bath in economic success NOW but the more they judge the deeper will be the hole THEY will fall in later and then who is laughing? NOT Ireland as it is a country which has the spirituality and class! Me as a foreigner, even a FREESPIRIT and NOT catholich church follower at all, call myself proud to live in Ireland and am deepply in love with Ireland! I learn so much here !!!!!

As a general point, the release of the 1982 State papers shows how a minority group of extremist religious zealots were able to hijack political support for a truly pernicious Constitutional amendment, the Eight Amendment, which introduced then life threatening Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution.

We see that Governments will sometimes take on board the agenda of a powerful and privileged minority.

It is a pity that we can’t yet see the 1983 State papers in relation to the 1983 Referendum.

No-one is laughing, every country has their own flaws. I think it’s sad how some feel that we always have to see ourselves through the prism of our public image abroad as if foreigners had some exclusive lock on objective criticism of us, a, we could try to learn to be more self-critical b. how to do something constructive about tackling our flaws. Like a sick child who continues to accept bullying it is this sense of immobility and misplaced sense of shame that is the worst trait some (of us) have. Fight the power!

Still are a laughing stock added to abortion & the bailout shows the Irish to be the most gullible and gutless people on the planet bar none.

Arrragh give over!! Jump on the Irish bashing bandwagon, we are getting there, ad why do the Irish always seem apologetic for their country and it’s laws!!

What is with people in this country? The self loathing you people spew out is shocking. I’ve worked in America, The UK and am currently in Australia and from talking to people in these countries the fact I’m from Ireland has always been really well received. Even here in Australia where the common consensus in Ireland is that the aussies think we”re all drunks, in fact people are very amiable towards to Irish. A few drunken back packers aside, many of the Irish here work hard and have integrated into the Australian way of life. The few heads causing trouble in Northridge or Bondi don’t represent all of us y’know?

So do yourselves a favour stop all this poxy self loathing and self pity because its a bit pathetic!

Plenty of planes and boats leaving ever day folks if your that embarrassed about the country . Off ya go, chop chop, send a postcard or two

I don’t quite understand why a random letter from a disenfranchised emigrant is newsworthy.

Any excuse to “Ireland-bash” it seems.

Until we are positive, proactive and take responsibility for our own actions, we’re never going to be a success as a nation.

We’re not slow at progress, we’re just taking the scenic route!!!! As for being a laughing stock, well, someone has to be the clown in the circus! Better job than sticking your head in the lions mouth!!