Berkley Center

Originally, I had planned to write my second letter about a trip I took with my university to Belfast, about the differences between the ideas about religion expressed in my first letter and what I witnessed in Belfast. The quiet and reserved nature of religion in Galway differs from the very visible reminders in Belfast:– political murals, gardens of remembrance, and security walls dividing Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods. The troubles of the past may not be as prevalent today, but their scars are still visible today.

But then, a different kind of troubles exploded as Ireland faced near economic disaster in what one newscaster called “the blackest week in Ireland since the Civil War in 1921.” Ireland faces a record deficit due to a deeply troubled banking sector that is riddled with bad loans from a US-style real estate bust. This bust forced the government to bail out several banks over the summer, and now the government has limited funds available.

In response to these mounting economic crises and after months of denials by the Irish government, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union have now stepped in to “rescue” the Irish economy. One cannot read a newspaper, listen to the radio, or watch the news without hearing about these events. They are filled with now common images: politicians debating, arguing, and assigning blame; bankers cringing at the latest news; anger, fear, and uncertainty among ordinary citizens. It seems that every Irish citizen has something to say about the recent turn of events, as they should.

On the campus of the National University of Ireland, the fears are palpable—a march to protest a proposed increase in the university registration fee and concerns about the government’'s call for the emigration of 40,000 young Irish citizens in the coming years. As a fellow college student looking toward my own future, I can sympathize with the Irish students who now face a much more uncertain future than they probably ever expected; real fears about affording an university education, finding jobs after graduation, and an increasing call to emigrate after graduation, leaving behind family and friends.

In a broader context, the Irish economic crisis illustrates important points about the European Union and Ireland’'s own identity. Ireland is the second European country, Greece being the first, to require a multi-billion dollar financial rescue in six months, and European officials hope that this bailout will quell fears that Ireland's problems could spread to other troubled European economies, including Portugal and Spain, potentially igniting a regional debt crisis. But the rescue of the Irish economy will test the unity of the European Union, who will mainly foot the bill for the bailout. European countries with stronger economies, such as Germany and England, will face unpopular responses from their own citizens, uncertain about sending their own country’'s money to help another country, especially since only six months ago they were rescuing Greece, and Ireland may not be the last European nation needing such a bailout. Their leaders must convince them that bailing out Ireland is essential to preventing a broader crisis that could destabilize the euro. The future of many European countries is now tied to the progress of the Irish economy, and the future of the European Union may well be determined by how Europe responds to the growing economic crises.

But hardest hit by this crisis may be the Irish identity. For a country that was known in recent years as the “Celtic Tiger” due to its impressive economic growth, turning to the International Monetary Fund and European Union for a bailout is seen as a national embarrassment. Ireland was the small country on Europe's edge that modernized rapidly during the end of the twentieth century and became a symbol for the power of European integration. Many have questioned what those who fought for Irish independence in the early twentieth century would have to say about the government ceding control and power over their economy, especially with their former colonial power England offering financial help.

Questions that have long plagued the Irish population about independence, sovereignty, and its role within Europe are back in the forefront. The nation that saw record emigration in the face of the Great Famine in 1846 is once again facing the emigration of thousands of its citizens, mostly young adults who cannot find employment. The Great Famine dramatically altered the cultural fabric of Ireland—oral stories, traditional music and songs, and the Irish language faded away with the deaths and emigration of so many Irish citizens, only to reemerge during the early twentieth century as part of a cultural nationalism campaign in the years before independence. While the current economic crisis is not the same level of catastrophe as the Great Famine, its mark will forever remain in Irish history; just like the famine, a definitive moment in Irish history that shaped the future of the country.

The Irish people now must forge a new path for their identity and their relationship to a government they no longer trust. While economists and world leaders watch anxiously to see how the Irish economy recovers and its impact on other countries, I will be watching to see how the Irish identity is reformulated in response to the latest struggle endured in Ireland.