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DoChara's Ireland Blog
Random Writings about Ireland and the Irish
Sunday
May 22 2005
Ireland of the (conditional) Welcomes
Ireland is lucky on the tourism front. For a small country with mostly horrible weather, architecture that is not a patch on other countries in Europe, a lousy transport infrastructure and an out of the way location we have done very well.
Sure we have nice scenery, though we seem sometimes to be working to change that, but the main thing that draws people here is a barely definable mixture that involves 'craic', friendly people and a unique culture. I wonder if that is about to disappear.
A few weeks ago I went to France by Irish Ferries, a journey I had not made for several years. Not a lot had changed, cabins still tiny, food still awful, everything still overpriced. What had changed was the staff, who then were mostly Irish but now are almost all from Eastern Europe. They work unbelieveable hours, from early morning to very late at night, seven days a week with all their time off taken in a block at the end of six continuous weeks on board ship.
By all accounts they are not paid a lot. Hopefully it has improved since the well publicised case of Irish Ferries beautician, Salvacion Orge, who worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week with only three days' holiday per month for the princely sum of €354.
The most striking thing was the unwavering cheerfullness and sheer niceness of every staff member with whom I came in contact. Now, this used to be what people visiting Ireland said about the Irish, and it is still a reasonably common experience from what I can gather.
But I also recently came accross a report of a trip to Ireland by an obviously intelligent and thoughtful visitor who found that people here "... didn't like the clothes I was wearing and were sometimes quite intolerant and rude. Over the six days that accumulated to a seriously negative impression of the Irish people for me".
I won't even get into the Gama workers situation and Conor Lenihan and all that. Read it for yourself if you can bear to.
It is not only on ships and road building projects that much of the poorly paid work in Ireland is now done by non-national workers, and they, who can surely be counted as visitors to our country, are frequently treated poorly not just by their employers but by ordinary people with whom they come in contact.
Tourists are often looked at as nothing more than money on legs, and if they are not spending 'enough' are treated rudely and dismissively. So much for warmth and friendliness; it's very depressing.
As for our much heralded culture - what was the biggest "cultural" event in Ireland so far this year? The opening of a shopping centre is what. Acres of newsprint and a couple of million shoppers flocking to have a look in the first two weeks greeted this tremendous event in the annals of our nation.
And the 'craic' now is either interpreted as getting blind drunk and passing out on a weekend binge drinking session (if you are young) or staying at home with a few bottles in front of the TV because the pubs are too expensive or you cannot smoke in them (if you are older). Tourists are herded into 'spontaneous' sessions organised just for them, hardly an authentic look at living Irish culture.
Ok, so I am feeling a bit grumpy to-day, maybe it isn't all that bad. But there are times when the old "Ireland of the Welcomes" seems more like an ironic comment on, rather than a believable description of, the country we live in and you plan to visit.
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