The Celtic tiger can come roaring back

[earl]

jim said:

Potatoes are healthy, the amount of butter we use isnt.

Its those frys, not that the greasy dish you lot get down south would be called a fry, the only true fry is an ulster one. grease fried in lard with some meat, the fatty parts, with fried potato bread.

an Ulster fry is not to different from an Irish fry. You can then break up fries into distinct regions. An Ulster/Irish fry in Cavan/Leitrim would also include boxty for example.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxty

I used to love boxty. You could feel your arteries on your heart harden as you ate it!

[Wasp]

jim said:

Potatoes are healthy, the amount of butter we use isnt.

Its those frys, not that the greasy dish you lot get down south would be called a fry, the only true fry is an ulster one. grease fried in lard with some meat, the fatty parts, with fried potato bread.

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Jim]

earl said:

jim said:

Potatoes are healthy, the amount of butter we use isnt.

Its those frys, not that the greasy dish you lot get down south would be called a fry, the only true fry is an ulster one. grease fried in lard with some meat, the fatty parts, with fried potato bread.

an Ulster fry is not to different from an Irish fry. You can then break up fries into distinct regions. An Ulster/Irish fry in Cavan/Leitrim would also include boxty for example.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxty

I used to love boxty. You could feel your arteries on your heart harden as you ate it!

Boxty sounds more like a disease.

Ulster fry has more bread products. English are the worst, they just have meat and ... beans.. who the fuck puts beans on a fry?

[bearhunter]

Setanta, don't get me worng mate, I'm neither saying that NZ is paradise (mind you, I haven't seen rain since December 23rd) and the suicide figures here are ratshit among boys, but there are cultural and societal reasons for that that have more to do with expectations for males and geographical isolation (check our population density and remember that more than a third of the population live in one city). I don't know why Ireland's suicide rate is so horrific given the standard of living. I could understand it 20 years ago when I left, maybe, but with the glorious capitalist dawn of the Tiger?
I got into a fistfight with two cousins when I was home last. The reason? We argued over the value of emigration. to them, children of the Tiger economy, they were masters of the universe. They had created the incredible growth and prosperity by sheer force of will, good luck and a ton of investment money. My argument was that had there not been 86,000 leaving on average every year of the 80s (myself among them) the Celtic Tiger wouldn't have roared, it would have whimpered. Think back - there would have been maybe an extra 200,000 on the dole had people not been emigrating. My point was rubbished and the fight started when one said that it was only the cowards and runaways who left and the "true" heroes were the ones who stayed and created the fine state that the world now admires. (As opposed to my view that many of the best and brightest left and the lazy pricks who were still sitting on the barstools reaped the reward of being in a country where there was suddenly much less competition for jobs.)
I lost the fucking rag completely and hit the wee c*nt. I got a whiff of the same attitude off others while I was home and to be honest, while Ireland's a great place for a holiday, it's not the country I left and I no longer recognise it as such. It's the big fucking tasteless mansions and the new car every year, regardless of need. It's the airy talk of properties in Bulgaria and of flying off to Val d'Isere for a weekend's skiing. You can't tell me people were doing that in the 70s and 80s. I miss the pace of life, the make-do attitude, the camaraderie and the sense of community. In know I probably sound like some old codger banging on about when it was all fields around here. But the simple truth is that Ireland today is not the same country. If you want proof, go for a pint in the Foggy Dew, a pub I adored in the 80s. It is a fucking travesty of a plastic Paddy pub now. And go to the North Star. All changed, changed utterly as another grumpy old hoor once said.

[Jim]

Go up north then, we're still miserable cold and bitter and can't afford a new car every year unless you live on the malone road.

[earl]

I hear ya bearhunter.

I think one of the reasons for the high suicide rate is that young men in this country are under immense pressure to be socially 'successful'. Years ago, if you had a decent, steady job, you were considered successful. Not anymore though. It's not enough to have a job, you have to have a career. You have to have property, one at the very least. You have to have a car. You have to be earning over €40 grand a year by the time you are 30. You have to have a steady relationship, and be married with family by mid 30's. You have to be doing over-time off your own back. You have to have the HD tv, with the surround sound system and a PC.
Sometimes, I think some people in this country now don't judge people by who they are, they judge them on what they own. You are no-one if you don't have at least 2 properties. You are no-one if you don't have a 08 BMW. You are no-one if you can't afford to go on 3 holidays in the year. You are no-one if you don't have a 40" HD tv. You are no-one if you don't have a few initials after your name, or your name on your van.

But would I swap this Ireland for the one of yore? Not a chance. If I ever start a family, my kids won't have to go through what I went through growing up. The down-sides to this modern Ireland are nothing compared to the downsides of the old one.

I know that I may sound like a winging leftie up above, but I'm a capitalist through and through. The new problems that we face are not from open markets or privatisation, but are a side-product of what happens to a country that was historically low on confidence as well as money, and then suddenly found itself at the other end of the spectrum. Some people have substituted wealth for confidence. For some, they are the same thing, and others are just greedy bastids!

I myself can feel many of these pressures. I don't own a car, a house, a HD tv, surround sound system, etc (you can fit everything that I own on this earth into the back seat of a mini). I do have a career, but that's because I wanted one. I don't feel that anyone in particular is putting these pressures on me, rather that you are constantly hearing about this and that, from different sources, and you assume that that is the norm.

So the very reasons that your not a fan of this new Ireland bearhunter are probably the same reasons in most cases for many of the suicides here.

I always found that the West of Ireland got the balance right though. You cross the Shannon, and it's like you've entered a different country. Success has arrived to most places there too, but they never let it go to their heads. Life is a lot less demanding.

[earl]

You won't catch me playing golf. I may consider it if a few mates were going and it was a beautiful day, but that has more to do with this country boy longing for some fresh air and a few hours away from the city!