by Steve Lussing

Created on: November 11, 2008

Not being even remotely related to anyone of Irish descent, I am not really in touch with the social trends within that country other than what I learn by conducting regular online research, or reading the occasional news byte from Ireland in the papers. Based on that kind of exposure one might suppose that, since the IRA has officially declared a cessation of militant terrorist activity related to its quest for the Independent Irish Republic, one might see a newfound loyalty to the local pub, with the fear of becoming a collateral statistic giving way to friendly diplomatic discourse over a pint or two of Guinness. I guess I was wrong.

In my thinking about the noted reduction in interest in public drunkenness on The Emerald Isle, I cannot help but find reason in the remarkably successful recent economic growth of that country. It is probable that this very success lies also, at least partially, at the root of the reason for the retreat of the IRA, for embedded in that success is a financial prosperity being enjoyed by a population apparently no longer dissatisfied with a depressing economic climate and the reality of its exploitation by a bigger power, a release from whose grip those who supported independence in the first place found its raison d'etre.

Coupled with this economic success is a significant rise in the Irish standard of living and its corresponding compliance with the social trends enjoyed by the rest of the Western World. Life is now more concerned with productivity and consumerism. Capital investment and corporate mergers and takeovers by Big Money have changed the landscape to a point where the local pub is in danger of becoming an obsolete relic of a not so distant past, and no doubt quite often the object of a wrecker's ball, as development takes precedence over petty sentimentalism. Alas, the Irish character might be in danger of changing.

As to whether this is to be regarded as a sacrifice for the better good is no doubt a subject for debate in more than a few holdouts; those little dens of inequity whose proprietors see no reason to adapt; those enclaves of rural conservatism frequented for the most part by a pedestrian clientele, some of whom no doubt find their ways home on the backs of the always popular four-footed equine conveyance trudging their way back from the pub on well-worn and familiar trails without the slightest encouragement from their inebriated masters.

Seek them out and ye shall find them'. I doubt very much that the old-fashioned rural Irish pub has completely passed on into the ether of timelessness to remain but a hazy memory of another time. Urban sprawl brings with it a new landscape and modern ways. But, the city is not the country. That part of Ireland will remain the same, as will the Irish affinity for stout ale and rye whiskey. You can take a man out of the country, but you'll never take the country out of the man. True, especially for the Irish.

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