Galway, Ireland
This is an important moment in Ireland’s remarkable economic renaissance. Even from the Republic’s fastest-growing city, Galway, one regularly hears the Irish use the phrase “the ‘R’ word” to refer to the possibility of the first recession here in recent times. One newspaper headline yesterday featured a front-page quote from a Limerick teenager who asked his parents, “What’s a recession?”
Ireland’s challenge over the next year or two is to avoid turning inward and blaming others for what, at worst, will be a short-term setback. GDP forecasts for 2008 peg economic growth at a reasonably healthy 4.0 percent, albeit down from 4.5 percent in 2007. There is a young generation of Irish here that knows nothing but economic growth approximating that of the Asian tigers. There is also an older generation here that says "never again" to a return to the darkness of much of Ireland's economic history.
A provision in the Irish Constitution required that a public referendum be held to ratify the European Union reform measures packaged as the Treaty of Lisbon. The Irish electorate rejected "Lisbon" on June 12th by a vote of 53 to 47 percent. The Treaty of Lisbon is a flawed instrument, but it has already been ratified by 18 EU member nations. By turning its back on Europe and the very EU mechanisms that helped give rise to the "Irish Miracle," Ireland actually risks pushing itself away from prosperity and back to older, insular ways. Blaming "bureaucrats in Brussels" is hardly the answer to Ireland's momentary concerns about recession. Indeed, fear is almost always the handmaiden of even greater economic decline.
An impromptu "session" at O'Connor's Pub yesterday in the rocky, seaside village of Doolin, Ireland's traditional music capital. The nearby Cliffs of Moher in western County Clare.
This is an important moment in Ireland’s remarkable economic renaissance. Even from the Republic’s fastest-growing city, Galway, one regularly hears the Irish use the phrase “the ‘R’ word” to refer to the possibility of the first recession here in recent times. One newspaper headline yesterday featured a front-page quote from a Limerick teenager who asked his parents, “What’s a recession?”
Ireland’s challenge over the next year or two is to avoid turning inward and blaming others for what, at worst, will be a short-term setback. GDP forecasts for 2008 peg economic growth at a reasonably healthy 4.0 percent, albeit down from 4.5 percent in 2007. There is a young generation of Irish here that knows nothing but economic growth approximating that of the Asian tigers. There is also an older generation here that says "never again" to a return to the darkness of much of Ireland's economic history.
A provision in the Irish Constitution required that a public referendum be held to ratify the European Union reform measures packaged as the Treaty of Lisbon. The Irish electorate rejected "Lisbon" on June 12th by a vote of 53 to 47 percent. The Treaty of Lisbon is a flawed instrument, but it has already been ratified by 18 EU member nations. By turning its back on Europe and the very EU mechanisms that helped give rise to the "Irish Miracle," Ireland actually risks pushing itself away from prosperity and back to older, insular ways. Blaming "bureaucrats in Brussels" is hardly the answer to Ireland's momentary concerns about recession. Indeed, fear is almost always the handmaiden of even greater economic decline.
An impromptu "session" at O'Connor's Pub yesterday in the rocky, seaside village of Doolin, Ireland's traditional music capital. The nearby Cliffs of Moher in western County Clare.
