Are we all a bit depressed?

H

horusd

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I think it was Yeats that said the Irish psyche is naturally depressed. We have brief periods of joy followed by a return to despair. Reading some of the posts on job losses, politics etc, you could well believe Yeats was right.

I was talking to a few Irish people in London recently. One older Dublin guy said he's never go back, we can't move on in Ireland he said. One younger (23yrs) guy said he'd return to his village as soon as he could. London was great, but not home.

London itself is a thriving city, (in the parts I visited), full of energy and attitude. The Londoners seem to expect to succeed and dream big whereas we seem to be in under a cloud of depression. Thoughts anyone?
 
horusd said:
The Londoners seem to expect to succeed and dream big whereas we seem to be in under a cloud of depression.
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There's an old story about the Irish man and the American looking at a mansion. The American thinks "Some day .. I'm going to have a house like that". The Irish man thinks "Some day .. I'm going to get that b*st*rd".
 
Take a risk, setup a business in Ireland and if you fail there will be no shortage of people knocking you. Even the Social Welfare will be hassle for you.
Even while you are trying people will tell you it'll never work.
The lad who setup Ballygowen was laughed at by the nation when he was on the Late Late Show. Who is laughing now....

Here we call these these knockers the hurlers on the ditch.
The armchair experts who know how to do everything but never do it.

I've read it's the very opposite in America, particularly Silicon Valley. People see failure as a learning experience and they are one step closer to success. Could even be the next success story starting from a garage like Apple
 
TarfHead said:
There's an old story about the Irish man and the American looking at a mansion. The American thinks "Some day .. I'm going to have a house like that". The Irish man thinks "Some day .. I'm going to get that b*st*rd".
Click to expand...

That is so true,in almost every walk of life in Ireland thats exactly what happens!
 
Are we depressed or are we a nation of pessimests?, a lot of Irish people I know aren't happy unless they've something to be giving out about
 
I think Irish people get the sense they're "being watched" in Ireland - I dont mean that in a paranoid/CIA/Enemy of the State way, just that people know your business and there's loads of cynics who wouldnt mind you failing. So you spent your time "saving face".

Whereas when you go abroad there isnt the pressure of keeping up appearances. Say if you got arrested abroad for something not so serious - say drunk and disorderly or whatever - it wouldnt be such a big deal. Whereas back in Ireland you're entire family would be afraid of their life it would be reported in the local paper, heaping shame on the family.

So failure is easier abroad, I'd rather start and fail in business abroad than back home. Difference is easier abroad - for instance must have been v hard to be gay in Ireland over the last 100 years.
 
I must say that after the devastating news about the redundancies in Waterford I have rarely felt as low.

The City where I grew up & have always loved seems to be going downhill in a handcart with unemployment reckoned to be approximately 30 % - the Glass is gone , TEVA is gone , ABB Transformers is gone & now Talk Talk.

Pubs where I misspent my youth are gone or going - some days it really is hard to raise a smile.
 

Reminds me of a quototation from Samuel Johnson
"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford."

I travel back to Ireland quite frequently and each time I come over I notice more and more the depression and despondency on people's faces around my neck of the woods.
 

These things go in cycles. Waterford was depressed before. The new redundancies were a hard blow but good times will come again. They said Galway was finished when Digital went and look what happened after that.
 
Galway...An hour to get across the city on Wednesday.Wet and full of miserable
damp people.
 
zztop said:
Galway...An hour to get across the city on Wednesday.Wet and full of miserable
damp people.
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Yes it is true that the traffic is chronic. Probably due to it being surrounded by water on all side, river, sea and lake. More likely bad plannign. But I was there for a short while in August and the craic was indeed mighty. The town was rocking all the way from Eyre square to Spanish Arch. Music everywhere, people outside enjoying the sun. Some kind of boat festival at the Claddagh. You wouldn't have thought it was a recession.

I was in Waterford last year, the weather that side is so good. Stayed in a lovely fishing village, loads of visitors and great vibe. Excellent food.

Maybe we should talk about the postive things to cheer up Friday.
 
Thank God, or whoever you should thank, that you are alive and above ground.
 

Anytime I'm in Galway, a lot of the craic there seems to be of the Plastic Paddy variety.
 
The Country is bankrupt
People losing their homes
Those in houses cannot afford to pay elecrticity bills
Over 400,000 unemployed and no prospects
Talk,Talk leaving
Aviva leaving
Hospitals overcrowded
Abused by that great Irish Institution , the Catholic Church
Fooled by bankers, builders
Fat cat civil servants jumping ship with pots of gold along with former politicians

but ,hey, I'm all right ,Jack
 

Whoever Jack is, he will be seriously depressed if he spends too much time in your company.
 
lol you have to agree he is correct. You try to see the positives but everywhere you turn these days there seems to be very little to be cheerful about.
 


Old style attitude.
Ireland in the Celtic Tiger was a wonderland.

It showed how stupid and incompetently restrictive our banks had been previously.
But the pendulum swung too far, and now its swung too far back in the other direction again.

But in every way Ireland has moved on -

- the yoke of the Catholic Church is broken - people will put it back by choice, not brainwashing.
- the bankers are exposed for the self-serving shower of croney capitalists that they are - bonuses and all.
- we're about to be fed the Mahon/Flood report on corruption in the planning process
- and hopefully soon, some of these fraudulent, incompetent, criminals who ran the banks and our economy like a gambling den, will be brought to account in the courts.

And there are business opportunities out there even now.
You only have to look for them.
But you do have to look.
 
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