Irish Economy Goes into Recession

leftieM

Ireland has been peaceful since the 1920s, despite periods of great economic hardship. The British moved out in 1922 and, despite the preceding 300 years of imperial unpleasantness, we got over it. Those Irish people who were marooned in a sectarian state didn't get over it, hence the Troubles.

So frankly, it isn't alright with me if you refer to the whole island as Ireland and link it to the Troubles. The Troubles were in Northern Ireland.

Poverty may well breed crime but it doesn't mean that crime will be of a terrorist nature.

GracieP

To be fair mewbie, your original comment smacked of ignorance. The "troubles" made very little impact on the country of Ireland, apart from the Dublin-Monaghan bombings of 1974. As an Irish person born in 1978 the situation in the north never had any impact on my life, with the exception of me getting to vote in 1 referendum in 1998.

As for what is and isn't Ireland. Ireland is the geographical name of the island. Ireland is also the name of the independant country of Ireland. The Republic of Ireland is the official description of that country. Northern Ireland is part of the UK. (Although citizens of NI are entitled to Irish citizenship if they wish to have it.)

If someone refers to Ireland in an economic sense they are refering to the republic. And as bad as the economic situation in Ireland is (and it's very, very bad) it is extremely unlikely that civil unrest which had nothing to do with us, would suddenly ignite. If the fighting significantly re-ignites in NI I'd also be extremely surprised.

mewbie_2

Thanks for your answers.

Couple of very minor things.

Ireland to me is the whole country, regardless of the Eire and N.I. split. Because I have always wanted it to be one country. But thankyou for the detailed explanation.

Poverty breeds terrorism. Whether it is the IRA, or the Provo's in N.I. (yes I've got it now, not Ireland!), or the BNP / Islamist factions in England, or the Basque's in Spain - the coming down turn may result in people exploiting this misery for political ends.

Maybe my thoughts are ignorant and ridiculous. If so my apologies for straying into an area I clearly know so little about.

GracieP

kennyboy66 wrote: »

House prices in the Republic are as over-valued as the UK (perhaps more), however average earnings are higher in the Republic than the UK!

Yup, there aren't many places you can move to London from and think "Wow! The houses aren't bad value here!" But when we moved here just over 3 years ago from Dublin we thought just that.;)

Pobby

Reduced to sell

http://www.myhome.ie/residential/search/brochure/89-merrion-grove-booterstown-dublin-co&-city/SIDMW349775

GDB2222

The best solution to the problems in NI is for the South to become so prosperous that everyone (Ian Paisley included) will vote for union with the South.

GracieP

GDB2222 wrote: »

The best solution to the problems in NI is for the South to become so prosperous that everyone (Ian Paisley included) will vote for union with the South.

Unfortunately that isn't going to happen anytime soon. Bad as the coming recession will be here, it will have nothing on what is happening in Ireland. We had a huge boom, which was largely wasted. Our infrastructure is still pretty appalling, our public transport is a joke, our schools are a joke, our broadband availability is a joke (especially as our government touts the country as a knowledge economy).

Our economy has been over reliant on construction, and we now have a situation where 1 in every 6 houses is empty because they just kept building them, long after we had enough. And our government is in the pockets of the developers and looks set to raid the countries pension pot to bail them out.

We had plans to move home in the next year or two, but the more I look at the economy I just can't see it happening. Which is sad as my family is really close and I'd like it if my future children feel a part of it.

WTF?_2

I think that the UK has even more long term problems than Ireland (due to a lot more financial commitments) - though the slump will hit Ireland harder and faster. The Irish house price crash is about 9-12 months ahead of Britain's crash.

The real tragedy of Ireland is that it did have a solid economic boom from the early 90s up until around 2000/2001 with real growth and expansion. Unfortunately after that, buying and selling houses took over as the main driver of the economy.

All that wealth (or rather, borrowed cash) sunk into building tens of thousands of rubbish 'specuvestor' rabbit hutches. What a tragic mal-investment, now people will be working for years to pay off debts on money that has been thrown down a deep, dark hole.

dorsetjohn_3

leftieM wrote: »

Ireland has been peaceful since the 1920s, despite periods of great economic hardship. The British moved out in 1922 and, despite the preceding 300 years of imperial unpleasantness, we got over it. Those Irish people who were marooned in a sectarian state didn't get over it, hence the Troubles.

So frankly, it isn't alright with me if you refer to the whole island as Ireland and link it to the Troubles. The Troubles were in Northern Ireland.

Poverty may well breed crime but it doesn't mean that crime will be of a terrorist nature.

Not all in Northern Ireland . Lord Mountbatton Of the Coast

Generali

!!!!!!? wrote: »

I think that the UK has even more long term problems than Ireland (due to a lot more financial commitments) - though the slump will hit Ireland harder and faster. The Irish house price crash is about 9-12 months ahead of Britain's crash.

The real tragedy of Ireland is that it did have a solid economic boom from the early 90s up until around 2000/2001 with real growth and expansion. Unfortunately after that, buying and selling houses took over as the main driver of the economy.

All that wealth (or rather, borrowed cash) sunk into building tens of thousands of rubbish 'specuvestor' rabbit hutches. What a tragic mal-investment, now people will be working for years to pay off debts on money that has been thrown down a deep, dark hole.

Construction is about 9% of GDP in the Republic of Ireland and 10% of GDP in the UK so the impact should be similar. The problem of oversupply seems to be worse in the ROI.

Financial services are 7-8% of GDP in the UK and about 10% in the ROI.

According to The Economist, credit growth has been an astonishing 35% in the ROI for the past few years! That should be set against growth rates in excess of 5% (or more than double the UK's) but is still very high.

I think the ROI is in a spot of bother too, economically speaking. The thing they really have going for them is that their Government is running a budget surplus at present I believe so business doesn't face the problem of 'crowding out' (limited funds available to be borrowed being used by the Govt rather than being invested productively). They also have high and stable remittances coming in from abroad due to the diaspora which still exists despite the recent good times economically.