Irish Economy – Can us rats save the sinking ship?

January 6, 2009 Leave a comment

On the recent twelve pubs of Christmas event I had a discussion with the distinguished ex-president of the chamber of commerce (you know who you are – Graham!). Given this event involves 12 pubs , in one night, the following has been translated back into English. The main thread of the conversation is that only us rats can save the sinking ship. Calling every person in Ireland a ‘rat’ perhaps isn’t good PR on my part, but it’s a good analogy for the current state of the Irish economy.

Ship Sinking

Now, I’ve been known to follow previous Government advice and ‘shop around’ for the best value (including at the Quays in Newry). However, if everybody follows this ‘me first’ approach we’ll be quickly in a race to be first to leave the sinking ship. But what if, instead of cutting and running, we stayed to plug the leaks in the Irish economy and kept it afloat?

The trouble in staying to plug the leaks is that this requires consensus that everybody helps out– and consensus is in short supply at the moment. All groups in Irish society are fighting to shift the inevitable pain of the recession on to somebody else. The lack of consensus is worsened by the fact that those who did well in the boom, and those seen to be responsible for the bust, are not necessarily those that are feeling the most pain right now. Without consensus, you’ll be left alone with your bailer as the water closes over your head.

Consensus is not necessarily the same as partnership – it’s a broad understanding within Irish society of the way forward, accepting the pain that the steps to recovery will take. The cause for gloom is that in the 1980’s it took 7 years (until 1987) to get a similar understanding , and even then the pain wasn’t evenly felt. Some cause for optimism is that because Ireland is a small country, once consensus is reached, it can very effective (Exhibit B is the Celtic tiger years that followed before it morphed into a bubble around 2002-3).

So , what’s it going to be – stay and float, or all sink on our own?

Filed under economics, economy, Government, jobs, newry, public sector

You know the Irish Economy is hurting when …

June 26, 2008 6 Comments

You know the Irish Economy is hurting when Sainsbury’s Supermarket in Newry (in Northern Ireland) has to close it’s doors at 7.30pm on a Saturday due to too many shoppers from the south trying to get in.

For those of you that don’t understand the above line: It’s unusual for an island as small as Ireland to be blessed / cursed with an international border running through the middle. Bad for politics , good for shoppers as it’s much cheaper to travel from the southern part (in the Euro zone) to the northern bit (where they use Sterling) to save up to half on your weekly grocery bill.

Travel to Sainsbury’s supermarket in Newry on the last Saturday before Christmas and you’ll see something just short of a riot as southern punters fight over the last bottle of (cheap) beer. But they’ve never closed the door due to too many people before – which is what happened last Saturday evening. Even more unusual in that June / July are normally very quiet months for shopping in the North.

Now discuss (in less than 100 words): Did this happen because …

  1. Irish people are fed up with rip off prices in Dublin and are finally voting with their feet?
  2. There’s a lot of hidden pain out there – people with no money but desperate to ‘keep up appearances’?
  3. Both of the above

Filed under Business, Dundalk, newry

Anybody up for Seedcamp Ireland (Dublin | Belfast | Newry | Dundalk)?

July 19, 2007 3 Comments

At a recent OpenCoffee Dublin event Brian Cleland of InterTrade Ireland mooted the idea of a Seedcamp Ireland. He’d love to see it be held in Newry or Dundalk (as cross-border networking is really his thing), but is realistic enough to consider other locations.

Seedcamp logo

To quote the main Seedcamp website:

Seedcamp is where Europe’s top young founders can come together in one place.

From securing funding to developing the right network, young entrepreneurs in Europe face challenges in building globally competitive technology businesses. Through the provision of seed capital and a world class network of mentors, we want to provide a catalyst for Europe’s next generation of entrepreneurs.

We might need to use a different name, but would you be interested in an informal meetup of startups and investors? Given the turn in the property market, would investors be ooking to put their money into the startup technology sector? Where would you like to see it held?

Filed under barcampbelfast, Belfast, Business, Dublin, Dundalk, Entrepreneur, event, Events, meetup, network, newry, People

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