Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
EU nationals. Ireland's booming economy at that time needed a cheap labor force
to fill the growing number of minimum-wage jobs. Hardworking, ambitious young
Poles headed west to the land of opportunity. Ireland was their first choice because
of its Catholicism, stronger economy, and opportunity to learn English (the inter-
national language of business). Now many of my favorite Irish B&B owners purr
about their Polish chambermaids as if they were the latest innovation in household
appliances, saying, “I don't know how I got along before without one!”
Granted, the Poles are not the only Eastern Europeans learning about capitalism,
Irish-style. But the numbers of arriving Poles dwarf the number of Slovaks, Latvi-
ans, Estonians, and other Eastern Europeans headed to the Emerald Isle. Many Irish
have taken to calling them all “Poles,” just as many Americans might mistake a
Guatemalan or Venezuelan for a “Mexican.”
The healthy influx of new blood has added ethnic diversity to Ireland not seen
since Spanish Armada sailors washed ashore 400 years ago. The Catholic Church
has been re-energized with Poles attending Mass. Intermarriage is creating fun new
combinations of names like Bridgit Jaruzelski or Colleen Kraszewski. And in the
most recent Irish census, Polish has replaced Irish Gaelic as Ireland's second most-
spoken language, with 120,000 people speaking it in their homes.
However, the recession has some Polish immigrants thinking twice. As the re-
cession hit Ireland in 2008, Dell computer decided to close its big plant in Limerick.
Where to move this facility? Production is now being handled by cheaper labor in
a Dell factory in Łód
ź
, Poland. And now many Polish immigrants are headed east,
looking to apply their Irish business skills back home.
This century's rapid growth and then decline has caused other problems. Urban sprawl,
big-city traffic snarls, water and air pollution, and the homogenizing effects of globaliza-
tion have left their mark. Per-capita consumption of alcohol has tripled since 1970. And
in 2008, the irrationally exuberant Irish housing bubble burst, wiping out retirement nest
eggs and littering the Irish landscape with empty “ghost estates” (built on spec during the
boom, these snazzy housing developments remain mostly unsold). The average value of
Irish homes dropped 45 percent between 2007 and 2011. The final stage of this humbling
financial buzzkill came in the fall of 2010, when the EU bailed out Ireland's teetering
banks (an event wedged painfully between similar bailouts of Greece and Portugal).
Today's Irish parents (who remember 20 percent unemployment in the early 1980s)
worry how their affluent young adult children will adjust to the new economic realities.
Still, the Celtic Tiger economy, although tamed by the recession, taught the formerly
downtrodden Irish that their luck can change for the better. The Irish—now skilled and
business-savvy—are primed and ready for the next recovery. It can't come soon enough.
Meanwhile, the challenges of immigration (new arrivals into Ireland) have replaced
problems associated with the generations of emigration (young people leaving Ireland).
