The State of the Nation

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday March 18, 2003 21:03 by Ciaran Mc Mahon ciaran.mcmahon.2 at student dot ucd dot ie

Ireland in the 21st century has become a abbatoir of decency, and smorgasbord of the most abhorrent social practices.

A historian examing this period of Irish history may be struck by the state of the society that we live in today in Ireland. He or she will wonder what Irish people in the year 2003 believed in. Because it seems, on passing through the capital city, that people strive to be as vulgar, as obscene, as untidy and as ignorant as they can. Dublin city is a nightmare to traverse these days. You have to physically wrestle your way through crowds, always struggling to avoid being knocked over by outright self-importance. Everywhere people seem very willing for the rest of us to hear the most bizarre details of their personal life as they shout into their mobile phones, without the slightest care for decency. There seems to be exposed, goose-pimpled flesh eveywhere. Shopkeepers in every part of the city and much further beyond as well seem to want you out of their shop as soon as you have parted with your cash, so much so that they'll give you your change before you get a chance to put your purchase in a bag or in your pocket, and look over your shoulder and even say 'next'. Barmen no longer know the simplest of courtesies, like drying their hands before handling money, pouring Guinness properly or serving to a table. People everywhere have adopted the most ridiculous American expressions and habits, like 'like' and all manner of despicable and badly made coffees.

This would all be only moderately interesting, but for the fact that very few people seem to have noticed, and fewer still seem to care about this horrific change that has taken place in the Irish people in the recent past.