The Ireland You Know and Love No Longer Exists

I was born and raised in Ireland, the land of saints and scholars, the land of a thousand welcomes, a place where tradition, faith, and the nuclear family still reigned supreme. Sadly, though, the Ireland of today is very different from what it was when I came of age, back in the mid-1990s. In many ways, modern day Ireland bears no resemblance to the country that I, only a few years ago, so deeply loved. It’s a pale imitation of what it once was. 

This, perhaps, explains why so few Irish people actually live in Ireland. In 2019, for the first time in history, the number of people leaving Ireland overtook the number of people returning. Last year, due to the number of foreigners entering the country, the Irish population reached a record high of 5.10 million. This year alone, the Irish government has taken in 75,000 refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. 

Now, before I am accused of being a xenophobic runt, let me say the following: If you opt to have a cup of black coffee, then proceed to add syrup, whipped cream, and chocolate sprinkles, it’s no longer a cup of black coffee. What replaces it may very well be delicious, but it’s no longer the original product. If you remove tens of thousands of Irish people from the Irish equation, the equation changes. The country becomes a different place. More diverse, sure, but, if we are being completely honest, also considerably less Irish. 

Ireland without Irishness

The Irish government is certainly welcoming to foreigners. Too welcoming, it seems. Ireland is in the midst of a housing crisis. There simply isn’t enough accommodation available for the number of refugees continuing to enter the country. Worse still, there isn’t enough accommodation available for Irish citizens either. That’s because many Irish people are treated like second-class citizens. The elites, meanwhile, many of whom prosper while normal, everyday people suffer, are treated very well indeed. As the academics Padraic Kenna and Mark Jordan recently noted, the struggle to afford a decent home in Ireland has been years in the making. Due to decades of bad policies and bad leadership, incredibly powerful individuals and organizations now pull the property strings. Many of the people now classed as homeless “were evicted from the private rented sector and have been unable to find affordable housing again.” To compound matters, increased demand has resulted in exorbitant—dare I say, extortionate—rental prices. Forget ever owning a home: tens of thousands of people can hardly afford to pay a month’s rent. In the capital of Dublin, one can expect to pay €2000 per month to live in a glorified shoebox. 

Is it any surprise that homelessness levels are at an all-time high? Instead of helping Irish citizens who now find themselves living on the streets, the Irish government pumps more money, time, and effort into getting more foreigners to enter the country. James Joyce famously called his homeland an “old sow” that enjoys eating her farrow. Looking at the state of the country today, including its inept leaders, it’s impossible to disagree with the statement. 

Yes, some will say, things are bad, very bad indeed, but the Irish will always have that wicked sense of humor. Right?

Wrong.

Dark humor is a fundamental part of being Irish. Well, it used to be. But Ireland is now plagued by political correctness; indeed, the vast majority of Irish people think the land of good craic has become too politically correct. They’re right; it has. The ‘Great Awokening’ may have started in America, but it didn’t stay there. As we all know, when America sneezes, the world catches a cold, specifically the Western world. Ireland and the U.S. share a close bond. In the past, this was a blessing. In recent times, however, as the U.S. has continued its descent into madness, the blessing has become a curse. 

For those in doubt, let me take you back to the summer of 2020, when thousands of people took to the streets of Dublin to protest the death of George Floyd, an African American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. To be clear, they took to the streets of Dublin, Ireland, not  Dublin, Minnesota. 

The march made a lot of noise, but it made very little sense. The national police force of Ireland, the Garda Síochána, are many things, but murderous is not one of them. That’s not to say that the Garda Síochána is without fault. Many members appear to be dangerously incompetent, not to mention corrupt. This has been the case for years. In many ways, the national police force is a reflection of the Irish government—a lackluster collection of men and women who regularly fail to do their jobs properly. 

All of the above leaves us asking, where is Ireland headed? In truth, we really don’t know. But, if I have to hazard a guess, I’ll say somewhere a little less authentically Irish, a little less appealing, and a little less sane. The Ireland you know and love no longer exists.