Debted to Death

In a sinister twist, the banking collapse that has left many people in Ireland unable to pay their bills (mortgages, loans, etc) has now caused many people to take their own lives as they are being hounded constantly for payment from those same banks.

While many of these debts have been written off by the banks, they still chase after and harass those responsible for paying on them. This has led to suicide on numerous occasions and now the Master of the High Court is speaking out about it.


Edmund Honohan has called for a changing of many laws that are currently is place, so as to protect the many people who feel socially and legally ostracized due to their ever increasing debt. Saying "a new level of debt forgiveness needs to be introduced," Honohan also thinks that legislation needs to be passed so that the effort of the banks isn't in chasing down people that can't pay, but instead in reforming a broken system that has caused this catastrophe in the first place.

Impact of Technology

With the mainstreaming of many new technologies over the past 20 plus years the question has become whether this technology is an overall positive or negative. In many small towns across Ireland the question still doesn't have a decisive answer. While the positives are many (improved medical service time, transportation, information on the go) that now seem impossible to be without, there are also drawbacks (loss of tradition being the main one, more people leaving the countryside).

While these technologies are now commonplace to the larger cities of Ireland, rural communities are still living in a 1990s state of being. Internet in Irish rural communities is less than satisfactory and dial-up is still used in a near majority of the residencies there. This would be completely unacceptable here in America, and it goes to show the differences that rural communities still face in smaller European countries.

Cell phone use has mainly positives in the rural setting. With the ability to call out at anywhere at anytime it has made the agricultural world a much easier thing to manage. Product can be redistributed and redirected with a certain ease now that everyone is reachable and that eliminates miscommunication problems that have plagued the rural set for many decades.

Many people see technology as something that is either inherently good or inherently bad, and what most situations prove to us over and over is that technology is only as good or bad as the people who are using it. Rural Ireland has made great strides in everything from medical services to better work efficiency because of the inclusion of cell phones and the internet and that can only be seen as a very good thing.

Global Branding

There are more than 26 McDonald's in the Greater Dublin region of Ireland. The country of Ireland is home to 77 total McDonald's restaurants. The first McDonald's was opened in Dublin in 1977.

McDonald's is a perfect example of the use of extensive advertising. Over the years they have went from big named stars, to new ideas, songs and slogans, always staying relatively fresh in their approach.

This first commercial is from the mid 1970s and includes one of the first instances of McDonald's slogan about the big mac: Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.

In the early 1990s McDonald's got a huge boost with the release of the Michael Jordan-Larry Bird shootout commercials. McDonald's was already dominating the market at this point, but this was a feather in their cap as they had the biggest superstar in the sports world now marketing their product.

Ireland has recently got in on the "suppose to be funny" part of the McDonald's marketing campaign with commercials such as this one.

The Royal Wedding

A surprising statistic came out after the Royal Wedding on April 29th of this year: Ireland ranked number 1 in internet searches (excluding England) of the term "Royal Wedding." Will the chilly, often cold relationship of these two countries this comes as a great surprise. Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton are famous far outside the United Kingdom...especially next door.

Google Trends is a site that tracks the web searches done by country, thus allowing us to see what many Irish wouldn't freely admit: they are very curious and interested in the English Royal Wedding. The future King and Queen of the United Kingdom outpaced searches for "Osama Bin Laden killed" more than one whole week after the wedding had happened.

A lovely day that was watched the whole world over...even by those who have long held a less than pleasurable view of the royal family.

Response to Bin Laden's Death

With the killing of Osama Bin Laden by the Navy SEALS earlier this week the world has rejoiced in the controversial end of one of its leading terrorists. As the leader of one of the world's most prominent terrorist groups, Al-Qaeda, Bin Laden was in the free world's cross hairs since the attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001. The response and reaction from throughout the world was one of joy and satisfaction. While his death can't undo the carnage is organization has caused, his death has been a major blow to Al-Qaeda and more importantly shows that those organizations that go through with terrorism will be punished.

In Ireland there was a general consensus that this was an event to celebrate. The Taoiseach (or prime minister) of Ireland, Enda Kenny, remarked "The removal of Osama Bin Laden’s ability to plot heinous acts is a major achievement in the effort to rid the world of the threat of terrorism." Kenny pointed out the many "countless deaths" that Bin Laden had been responsible for were not without justice.

Not surprisingly, the most interesting response was that of the Arab world. Ireland's RTE News reports that many in the Arab world are skeptical of the story that has been currently reported. "'Are we sure that he has been killed?' said Tehran shopkeeper Ali Asghar Sedaghat. 'Or is it another game of the Americans?'" Also, many from the Middle Eastern countries believe that this doesn't end Al-Qaeda, but instead brings it more power.

Omar Bakri, a Lebanese Sunni cleric, mourned Bin Laden as a martyr:  'His martyrdom will give momentum to a large generation of believers and jihadists. Al-Qaeda is not a political party, it is a jihadist movement. Al-Qaeda does not end with the death of a leader. Bin Laden was first the generation of the Qaeda and now there is a second, third, fourth and fifth generation.'

Propaganda - Film Edition

Irish film has a long and torrid love affair with the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) and the Irish Civil War (1922-1923). Films such as The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006) and Michael Collins (1996) are two of the most well known films of Irish cinema, both are Palme d'Or winners, and both tell the story of soldiers of the Irish Wars.

Michael Collins tells the story of the title's namesake in such a way that it cannot be interpreted as anything other than propaganda. It tells how Ireland should be a free country, a republic, and that Ireland's people should do whatever is necessary to accomplish this. It has parallels with current times (1996) because there was a lot of uprising in Northern Ireland and there were calls for a unified Ireland. The films director, Neil Jordan, obviously sympathized with this point of view and the film was very much a way to show the importance of unification of all fronts in a classic story. Jordan was born Irish-catholic in the beginning of the 1950s and during that time there were rumblings of a unified Ireland; it was a time to end any British rule whatsoever. This film shows a way to glorify, to romanticize those ideals.

The Wind that Shakes the Barley also was a Palme d'Or winner. This films wasn't as openly political as the first in terms of the country of Ireland. Instead, it focused on the effect war had on the small town people who ended up fighting on the front lines. This films could be interpreted as a call for non-violence.

These are only two of the many films that Ireland has produced on the wars that shaped and defined their country. Even today the topic is highly controversial and in a sense not completely final. There is always talk of Northern Ireland joining Ireland as one Irish country and then there is the catholic vs protestant violence that has ceased greatly in recent years but has never completely gone away.

Press Freedom

Every year Freedom House puts out a list of every country's freedom of the press ranking. The index breaks each country down into three categories: free, partially free, and not free. Also, there are three scores that are used to decide on this final decision: political, economical and legal environments.

Ireland had a total score of 15 out of 100 (like golf, the lower the better), ranking them in a tie for 14th with St. Lucia. Like many Western European countries, Ireland scored very high on this index (11 of the countries ahead of Ireland were also Western European countries). Ireland scored a "4" on Legal Environment, which relates to how the laws in the country are set up to ensure and protect freedoms in the press. For Political Environment they received a "6", and that has to do with the amount of influence the government or partisan interest has in controlling the media. Lastly, they scored a "5" in Economical Environment, which relates to the transparency in the media and how much control or dominance the major media outlets have.

Ireland should be look upon very positively with regards to their media control and the relationship it has with their country. Ever since 2002, when the first internet ratings were listed at Freedom House, Ireland has scored favorably and has never left the top 20 in the world rankings. This shows the importance Ireland places on their freedom of the press.

Here is a look at each regions freedoms. Green means free, yellow means partially, and blue means not free.