The Irish Psyche at the moment...

My finger tips just wanted me to write this piece at this moment in time, so Im satisfying that urge. Various things have struck me over the last few months about the mental well being of our nation, its soul, its spirit. Captain Con's recent thread on Irish forum politicalworld.org on the Irish mindset (http://www.politicalworld.org/showth...ht=clandestine) provides a useful tool to how we Irish think but what about this current moment in time? With Croke Park coming to and end and a second bailout possibly needed, the whole psychology of Irish people is going to change. 


We are, for a lot us, Celtic cubs, we became accustomed to a certain way of life and now we find we don't have the material possessions around us we find ourselves becoming more and more dissatisfied as we do not know any other way to live our life . Material objects that once satisfied a craving are now replaced by despondent people looking for their next hit much like a junkie should he crave his heroin. The flash cars have gone back and the four bedroomed houses have gone back to the banks and people are left with nothing which marks them out as being what they were, rich, middle class and "look what I have and what you cannot afford". Second houses, holidays to the US for two weeks and the Beamer are all in the past now but those cravings still remain.


It pains me to bang on and on about the apathy that people have. They have literally being raped by the banks for everything that they own while the rich upper class dance away in their ivory towers in tax free havens. People though lack any sort of passion that once made Ireland what it was . The money that was their drug having been whipped from underneath them as it was about to put the barmans college or up their nose instead is now being handed back to Merkel. They stay in their little two bedroom matchboxes on some half finished pyrite infested estate on a suburb far flung from Dublin getting upset , not because they are broke, not because they were victims of being raped by the rich but because they did not see their favourite singer get through X Factor. Apathy descends on these households, Troika to them is some new holiday destination in Spain for all they care.


Imagine being in a box, with steel doors that wont open and a feeling of general anxiety that surrounds you. You have limited oxygen, food and other things at your disposal , what do you do? You suffer anxiety, clawing and scaping at the door. Its more or less akin to being buried alive. This is what a lot of young families are suffering after watching their father or mother lose the jobs , the homes , the cuts in welfare. A feeling of hoplessness drifts in to people, they see no way out excpet a six foot wooden shiny box that slowly descends into the cold ground of an island they once loved.


The sheer frustration felt by people coupled with the above just makes us more and more tired, downtrodden as a nation. We feel frustrated by our lack of opportunity. 


All is not lost though, just as pandora's box was said to contain all the evil and fears of the world , the Greek gods knowing man was curious put one thing in it, hope. It would act as a defence against all the bad qualities humanity would inflict on one and other . That is what it is important for people to understand, we have a hope of sorts. Admist all the squabbling, the finances, the banks , the despair. We have one thing....each other. Lets not forget that we need to keep hope, for the Irish psyche has taken quite a battering but lets not lose our faith in one and other.....