Insider View - On What Went Wrong

Like many of us in Ireland today, Lucy Madden is asking, What Went Wrong?

Some 20 years ago my daughter was the first generation of Trinity graduates who did not, as she said at the time, “get straight on the plane”. For the first time in decades young, educated Irish people had the possibility of making their lives on this island and many of them did, including my daughter, who at that time of graduation could never have envisaged the day when she joined a dole queue.

I saw such a queue recently in the seemingly prosperous surroundings of Maynooth and it stretched as far as my eyes could see. Earlier on the same day I had been in Carton House and walked around in that magnificent parkland and sensed the struggle to keep going that is everywhere now on this island that seemed to be so full of opportunities to my daughter’s generation. Again and again, the question must be asked, where did it all go so wrong?

Part of the problem, as I see it, was the historical necessity to reinvent ourselves. Necessary because a country that is ashamed of its history has no imperative to preserve it. Away with the old, we are the masters now!

We are often asked by bewildered tourists “where are all the old buildings?” and the answer must be ‘gone, eradicated, and lost’. It appears that the reality presented to the visitors to this country is very different from the expectations. With heritage having been identified as one of the top attractions for tourists it’s just a pity that this wasn’t given more credence when the opportunities were still there. But no, a new faux sophistication had us in its grip, and the reinvention of the country took off.

Who wanted to restore an old building when you could buy up a few apartments in Bulgaria? A number of our historic houses are preserved but have hideous structures clamped on their sides and sit in a carpet of tarmacadam. Lovely landscapes have been taken over by golf courses, spas and ‘well-being centres’, fields become car showrooms and shopping malls. Nothing wrong with that, you might say, except that we don’t have population to pay for it all and we are paying now in a very different way.

My daughter of the dole queue has spent some of her now free time this summer happily pedalling along the Great Western Greenway, mentioned previously in this column. This track that runs from Westport to Achill Island has given delight to her and her children at no cost and her remedy for the country’s ills is to cover this island with a network of similar green trails.

Alongside these tracks could spring up cafés and tearooms serving locally grown (yes, she knows the buzzwords) food at affordable prices. Ireland can truthfully be promoted again as a safe, family friendly destination where even the rain can be part of a wholesome experience. What need to fry on an overcrowded Mediterranean beach when you can pedal or stroll freely breathing sweet fresh air of the natural world far away from the polluting chaos of the modern world? It’s not too late and we have it on our doorstep.

And just look what it would do for us besides stimulating micro-enterprises; provide jobs in the building of them; earn precious foreign currency from visitors and encourage our citizens to spend theirs’ at home; revitalise our B&B and small hotel trade and by utilising disused railways and towpaths reintroduce ‘the wilderness factor’ into the Irish experience, so much of which has been lost in our scenic areas.

On the subject of heritage, one small project, as yet in its infancy, is causing interest in this house. Overseas guests arrive who have visited the capital city and found it to be wanting and in truth when compared to many European cities it is a little short of places of interest.

Here again, so much of the past has been eradicated, but there is a new small museum opening on St. Stephen’s Green that will chronicle the history of Dublin. To be sure, when tourists ask us what to see in the city the Little Museum of Dublin will be a welcome addition.

And through small, entrepreneurial projects like this, perhaps will spring up once again a country where young people don’t have to board aeroplanes to secure a happy future.

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Together with her husband Johnny & family, Lucy Madden runs their magnificent 18th century mansion, Hilton Park, Clones, Co Monaghan as a country house which is open to private guests, groups, small weddings and conferences. The restored formal gardens are also open by arrangement. Lucy is a keen organic gardener and also a member of the Irish Food Writers Guild.