El PIP en Libia (Millones de LYD)
CASO ARABÍA SAUDÍ Y DUBA
The period between the late 1980s and the middle of the first decade of the new millennium saw Ireland’s economy transformed, from being at the lower end of economies in the developed world to among the highest. Some, but not all, of this transformation had its origins in the accession of Ireland to the European Union. Ireland joined the European Economic Community in 1973. Other decisions, such as the emphasis placed on education by successive Irish governments, were also significant in bringing about change. This transformation brought with it many benefits, including wider access to work and greater participation in education and – maybe above all – choice about one’s direction in life. This major economic growth came to be known as the ‘Celtic Tiger’.41 As with all change, it brought difficulties also.
39 Schreiter, The New Catholicity, 29.
40 One example of the changing relationship was the closing of the Irish Embassy in the
Vatican. The Statement of the Táiniste (Deputy Prime Minister) is revealing: ‘While the Embassy to the Holy See is one of Ireland’s oldest missions, it yields no economic return. The Government believes that Ireland’s interests with the Holy See can be sufficiently represented by a non-resident Ambassador. The Government will be seeking the agreement of the Holy See to the appointment of a senior diplomat to this position.’ The importance of the Catholic Church is here assessed in terms of its financial significance. In January 2014 the Irish government decided to reopen the embassy.
41 It is beyond the scope of this project to analyse the reasons for the ‘Celtic Tiger’, but an
unrestrained property boom combined with ease of borrowing under a poorly-regulated banking system are generally recognised as key elements.
2.3.2.1 From Prosperity to Recession
The role of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ in shaping modern Ireland has been widely recognised:
For many people in Ireland today these are the best of times; for some these are the worst of times. For many, contemporary Ireland is an Aladdin’s Cave of wealth and opportunity, attracting hundreds of thousands of immigrants. Immigration flows provide a mirror image of another Ireland, when Irish emigrants were attracted to foreign lands hoping to find streets paved with gold, far from the poverty of their rural villages and urban tenements.42
The increased prosperity of the Celtic Tiger era impacted not only on the standard of living of many people in Ireland but also on their values and aspirations. As Harry Bohan argues,
The values that shaped this change were, for the most part, commercial values that rightly belong to the business world but once they begin to permeate other areas of life such as family, community, health, law then we need to sit up and take notice. Disconnection from inner self, one another and the Creator represents a breakdown in relationships. The challenge to the Church is obvious.43
Bohan goes on to say that the challenge to the Catholic Church is to recognise these ‘signs of the times’.44 It is only in understanding these realities that the
gospel message can become relevant in the life of Catholics.45
Many commentators suggest that the effect of the Celtic Tiger on the Irish, particularly the young, has been to make them more materialistic.46 But it is
difficult to quantify this, as people in other generations have usually perceived the young generation as less generous, less hardworking, or less enthusiastic than they were at that age. Paul Tansey, a financial consultant and journalist,
42 Finola Kennedy, ‘The Best of Times, the Worst of Times’ in Freedom, Licence or Liberty: Engaging with a Transforming Ireland, ed. Harry Bohan, Céifin (Dublin: Veritas, 2007), 20. This comment written in 2007 would need revision by the end of 2008, as economic crisis engulfed the country.
43 Harry Bohan, ‘Clustering of Parishes and Pastoral Planning’, The Furrow, 59, No. 7/8
(2008) 408.
44 A phrase found in the first sentence of Gaudium et Spes, which has it origin in Mark 13. 45 Bohan, ‘Clustering of Parishes and Pastoral Planning’, 408.
46 Egan, ‘The Impact of Recent Shifts in Irish Culture.’ Cf Janet Murray, ‘What We Have Is
What We Want: Applying the Values of Psychotherapy to Our Current Social Dilemmas’ in Freedom, Licence or Liberty: Engaging with a Transforming Ireland, ed. Harry Bohan, Céifin (Dublin: Veritas, 2007).
argues for the benefits of economic prosperity and the free market philosophy that has underpinned it. He writes,
as a sovereign state, Ireland has suffered long periods of economic failure, most notably in the first forty years of its existence. The social impacts of that failure – mass emigration, population decline, poverty – provide little reason for nostalgia.47
However, even Tansey, with his benign analysis of the Celtic Tiger era, acknowledges that while many people benefited from the new-found prosperity, there remained a significant amount of poverty and there was a large gap between the vastly wealthy and those who struggled to survive. The recession, beginning around 2008, does more than just suggest that some of this new- found prosperity was built on shifting sands. The early months of 2009 uncovered the shaky (ethical as well as financial) foundations of the vast economic growth of the previous twenty years. The global financial crisis, along with local factors in Ireland, contributed to rapid decline in living standards. During the period of prosperity and the succeeding recession, ‘Ireland has seen the single biggest transfer of resources from low and middle income people to the rich and powerful in its history.’ An Irish Bishops’ Conference report states,
A 2007 study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) examined the social impact of the Celtic Tiger and addressed the common criticism that it left the poor further behind. The study divided Irish society into three categories: the first is constituted by the 80% who are, in general, free of serious financial problems; approximately 10% of people are placed in the second category of ‘economic vulnerability’ as they struggle to cope with debt and sudden expenses; the third category, about 9% of the population, are classified as ‘consistently poor’. It describes Irish society after the Celtic Tiger as characterized by tiered levels of deprivation – the scale and pattern of which vary depending on whether one focuses on economic vulnerability, consistent poverty or the combination of low income and multiple deprivation.48
However, while the recession has had an enormous negative effect, many Irish people continue to have some of the highest income standards in the world. The
47 Paul Tansey, ‘“Rich Is Better”: The Irish Economy over the Last Ten Years’ in Tracking the Tiger: A Decade of Change, ed. Harry Bohan (Dublin: Veritas, 2008), 28.
48 Irish Commission for Justice and Social Affairs, ‘In the Wake of the Celtic Tiger: Poverty in
Contemporary Ireland’, Irish Catholics Bishops’ Conference, www.catholicbishops.ie/wp- content/uploads/images/stories/features/poverty/icjsafinal.
true impact of the Celtic Tiger and its aftermath on the fundamentals of culture in Ireland cannot be fully appreciated at present, as only time and distance will allow this to become clear.
2.3.2.2 Influence of Demographics and Migration
Apart from economic change, the Celtic Tiger has brought other changes in Irish society. Canon Connor Ryan lists demographic change – both urban and rural – liberalism, individualism, instrumental reasoning and religious belief as significant changes that mark the Ireland of the new millennium.49 Some of
these categories are particularly illuminating. For example, the demographics of Ireland have shifted with a million more people living here than fifty years ago.50 The increase in population has come about firstly, through the virtual
demise of emigration which had characterised Ireland since the Famine; and secondly, an influx of immigrants seeking employment in a more prosperous Ireland.51 Migrants bring with them different frames of reference as well as
different rituals, languages, food, clothing and other cultural artefacts which impact on the culture at large.52 One of the interesting results of this
immigration for the Catholic Church has been an increasing number of people, particularly from predominantly Catholic countries such as Poland and the Philippines, who are now part of parish communities. Throughout Ireland, in both rural and urban centres, there are regular masses for the Polish and other non-Irish ethnic communities. Where these immigrants have integrated into Catholic parishes they bring with them their culture, devotions and spirituality. Over time this will impact on the nature and ethos of Catholic parishes and bring about further profound change.
49 Canon Conor Ryan ‘The Changing Face of Ireland Today’ in Time [to] Change, ed. Joseph
Putti (Dublin: Veritas, 2006), 11-24.
50 Statistically this represents an increase of one third of the three million people living in
Ireland in that time, with the population now at over four million. It is particularly important as population continued to fall in the aftermath of the Great Famine of the 1840s, mostly due to emigration, until 1971; the sustained population increse of the past decades is therefore unprecedented for Ireland.
51 There was a net increase of 186,000 in immigration between 2002-06, the highest figure
since the foundation of the State: The Council for Research and Development: A Commission of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, ‘A Report on the Preliminary Results of Census 2006’ (Maynooth, Kildare, 2006).
Another major change is the growing urban population.53 Ryan suggests that a
shift from a rural to an urban lifestyle is not just a question of where you live, but how you interact with others within the community. An analysis of the 2006 census shows significant difference in Mass attendance in rural communities: for example, in farming areas it is 71%, compared to that in commuter belts around the big cities, 37.6%.54 The demographic within commuter belts shows
young families, who, with both parents working and travelling long distances each day, are less likely to become embedded in local parishes as did previous generations when the parish was the centre of community.
These significant shifts in the Irish population are important, because apart from internal factors (discussed later) the Catholic Church has to contend with a rapidly-changing context in which to proclaim the ‘Good News’ of Jesus Christ. These factors impact significantly on the need for lay volunteers in the Church in Ireland. Donal Harrington, in an article written in 1993, wrote of the changing relationship between the official Church and the media.
It would seem more accurate to say that this is a time of transition, that the Church is still coming to grips (as is most everyone else) with what it means to live in a secular, pluralist, post-Christian society, and that it still retains many vestiges of the monolithic world view of the past.55