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Column This is a unique island – and it’s time we regained our pride

Ireland has a heritage that is the envy of the world, writes Jillian Godsil. We should remember that when building our future.

SINCE WE LEARNT we were on an island, we have expended as much time getting off as we have expelling invaders.

Our monks have sailed boats in far flung adventures, while invaders became a part of our lives. When we couldn’t get rid of any influx of unwanted visitors we often resorted to downright low-down tactics and married them. Think of the Normans; more Irish than the Irish themselves. We consumed our invaders while simultaneously sending forth our under-the-radar colonists.

The only difference with our colonising is that we used words and song and music to grab emotional land-banks across the world. A recent comment on WorldIrish.com had one (non Irish) commenter suggest there were 40 million living today on this small island. The sheer weight would of course have sunk our patch of green but it is a testament to the vast emotional imprint of our people over the years.

For an island race we are an interesting mix of conflicting characteristics. For an island race, we don’t really swim that well; we could argue we don’t have the weather. We don’t really eat fish very well; and I’m not including the breaded variety. We often marry our own and while world-renowned for being friendly, that can be closed to people outside our community.

Where we do excel is in carrying our culture, words, songs and stories – with us when we travel and down through the generations. And we have a strong sense of who we are. Moreover the world has a strong sense of who we are.

While some of the adjectives liberally applied to being Irish are not so flattering – such as the drinking and fighting – others are striking. The musical nature of our people, the cultural heritage we assume as our birthright and the energy of a people who have faced much but come back for more.

There are few nations in this global village that have such strong brand. Step back a moment. Think about other countries, both bigger and smaller than ours, and think about how much we know about them. Think of our national day. What other country gets to celebrate their national day on a global basis, in cities and towns across the world?

‘We have exported the best of us and the worst of us’

What other country has exported so many people that have left their mark wherever they travel? Other nations aspire to be Irish in a way that is out of the commonplace, out of the norm.

Over the years, we have exported the best of us and the worst of us.

When I left Ireland to work abroad some two decades ago, there were very few jobs at home. The main difference to 2012 is that my parents were not wracked with debt that threatened to drown them – theirs, or from a toxic bank. I also left a very proud Irishwoman.

We were the darlings of Europe. We had an educated population that was in demand on a world stage. We had positive legislation to encourage inward investment. We had entrepreneurs and thinkers and world leaders. We had world beating sports people, authors, inventors, creators, innovators, dreamers, musicians, poets, filmmakers and scientists.

We still do.

We have let the workings of a few distort the work of the many. We have not changed as a nation. We are still those heady, creative, intelligent, warm and educated people.

What we have to confront is the short but lethal legacy of the banks and developers and politicians and trappings of greed. In two short decades we have been pulled down by cronyism and arrogance.

No island race in the world has the energy and the persistence of ours. That dogged nature and love of natural justice will come back and dominate again. We have been the underdog too long to let the minders of greed take away our pride.

It is time to stop being the underdog. It is time to examine what we have. It is time to build a new future.

Jillian Godsil is on Twitter at @jilliangodsil.

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199 Comments
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    Mute Liam Byrne
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 9:24 AM

    The leaving cert has always been about learning off answers. It’s not about knowledge, but memory- why are they only realising this now!?!?!?

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    Mute Kieran Murphy
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 10:03 AM

    I predicted my whole leaving cert perfectly including the language exams so that’s either due to luck or the leaving is really too predictable

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    Mute Cormac Cahill
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 2:36 PM

    in my english exam i predicited 4 out of 4 of the poets to come up. was like a kid in a candy store.

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    Mute Siobhán K
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 10:34 AM

    It’s a mixture of luck and predictability. I’m doing my leaving in June, and I’ve already been told what is likely to come up in most subjects. The thing is, you learn everything, concentrate your energy on the predictions coming up to the exam and then hope to god on the day the paper is suited to you.

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    Mute Jack Kelly
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 11:55 AM

    I’m in Junior Cert and even now the exam seems to be predictable. Our teachers are always saying “Oh, that didn’t come up last year – it’s due up this year, make sure we go over this” or “this is definitely coming up this year – make sure to know this” and so forth. My friend, also a JC student, told me their teacher spent weeks on one section of history because it is likely to come up for us. Another friend’s class skipped the entire section because it’s not due up this year. A bit mad….

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    Mute Cormac Flanagan
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 9:30 AM

    So there not going to take place in June then.

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    Mute Iain Murray
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 1:59 PM

    Comment of the day!

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    Mute BJ
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 1:37 PM

    I wish they’d made mine more predictable!

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    Mute James Walsh
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 12:28 PM

    This is always going to be a problem because the Leaving Cert is one exam therefore its simply not possible to produce an exam paper that covers everything. Naturally students and teachers are always going to try and guess which sections of the courses are going to be examined. In effect the entire Leaving Cert course is a exercise in waste. Every exam probably covers at most 40% of what has been taught over the previous two years. Students spend vast amounts of time learning things that they are never going to be tested on.

    While its welcome that the problem is going to be looked at, realistically the only long term solution to this is to have a more holisitic approach to the syllabus. It would be better if subjects were also broken down in a more semester based approach rather than one two year course with one exam at the end. Such an approach would be involve continuous assessment, applied learning and peer review. It would require more resources to achieve this but the outcome should be better for students and that is where the focus should lie.

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    Mute Eoin Sheehy
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 1:55 PM

    Good Idea in theory but if it;’s like how the ‘revolutionary’ project Maths then it’ll be a disaster, didn’t have books for two months and our teacher still isn’t fully sure what’s on the course because there are parts in other books which aren’t in ours and vice versa!

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    Mute Daryl Walsh
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    Dec 23rd 2011, 10:52 AM

    As a leaving cert student up until last year, I understand where they’re coming from when they say predictable i.e the same section of the biology course can’t come up 2 years in a row, however.. You study the material for 2 years in order to be able to answer the questions that come up.. The course isn’t that big ya know so maybe it’s the actual structure of the leaving cert they should look at not the ‘predictability’ of it.

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    Mute Peter Costello
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    Jun 4th 2012, 6:34 PM

    Shouldn’t it really just ask all sections of each course and make them all part of the exam so that the entire course is covered. Or maybe the colleges should just have entrance exams instead.

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