I hear Drogheda’s now an apartheid free zone – I’m sure Bibi Netanyahu and Donald Trump will be unable to sleep due to spectres of burning stars and crescents haunting their dreams. Someone pointed out that making our city a litter free zone should be a more important goal, though it may be a bit more difficult to achieve.
Apartheid, which means “apartness” in Afrikaans, was a system of entrenched racial segregation in South Africa. But the word has evolved and is now often used to refer to people and groups excluded from enjoying the rights and privileges available to other sections of a society.
The tens of thousands of young people, and many not so young, financially imprisoned in their parents homes and denied the chance of ever owning their own home may feel there is a form of apartheid at play. This has left a good percentage of a generation unable to gain independence and begin to start a family of their own.
While this societal segregation may not have been intentional, it’s real and largely the result of government policies over the last 15 years. The 2022 census shows that over 440,000 adults aged 18 and 34, or 41% of that age group, are living with their parents at home and it’s probably over the half million mark by now.
I know many young people who work hard and save all they can but still cannot escape the family home as the price of a modest starter property keeps running out of their reach. A lot of young couples might also feel there is a form of apartheid in operation, giving institutional investors and housing bodies first choice to block buy new properties before they even have a chance to make a bid.
The Department of Finance’s recent Future Forty report suggests the housing crisis won’t fully resolve until around 2040 with demand for new homes outstripping supply until at least the early 2030s.
This means prices will continue rising, and so will rents, locking out a large section of society from owning or even renting a home of their own.
The irony is that Gaza could well be rebuilt by the time the Irish housing crisis finally ends but the young people in their former childhood bedrooms could still be languishing there in middle age. While it is understandable that solidarity should be shown with the beleaguered people of Gaza, Drogheda is in a terrible state and getting worse and there is a perception it has been forgotten, it certainly has been neglected.
On a national level there has been an increasing tendency for government ministers to focus on international events which have no bearing on this country while failing to deal adequately with critical issues at home. On Wednesday Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary claimed that the Taoiseach is touring the world instead of implementing his Programme for Government. He has a point: Ireland has a Minister for Foreign Affairs and a junior minister in that department charged with looking after international issues while there are senior and junior enterprise ministers to deal with overseas trade.
It’s all very well for ministers to talk about building peace in the Middle East but it’s hard to take them seriously when they can’t even build a children’s hospital or a metro system. The Government might keep in mind the famous Serenity Prayer which calls on the Good Lord to help us all to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can and wisdom to know the difference.
Forget Town Twinning, Drogheda’s Real Sister City Is in Fuerteventura
There was a time when towns had “twins” somewhere in the world and in Drogheda’s case it was paired with Bronte in Sicily and Saint-Mandé in France.bI doubt if many people from this borough have been to those towns in recent years but the same can’t be said for Corralejo on the beautiful island of Fuertentura. It’s a top holiday destination for many Drogheda people and for others it is an actual home from home with some spending the winter months there.
No one is quite sure how it all started but it may be down to Marian Park native Linda Carroll who for many years ran Murphy’s Irish Bar in Corralejo. I’ve been there dozens of times (I’ve lost count) and on one occasion I counted 14 people from Drogheda in her bar. People from the town are still flocking to the island and last week I met many of them in O’Neill’s Irish Bar run by Dubliner Dave O’Neill.
It’s a pity that the twinning system is no longer in place as Corralejo would be an ideal partner but then again our corporation organised that back in the day. If it was left to Louth County Council to make a new pairing it would probably twin us with some inaccessible town in Outer Mongolia which is only accessible by paying a toll.
When Hotels Treat Adults Like Teenagers
“We have ways of making you drink”…in our bar seems to be the message from a certain Munster hotel which won’t allow guests to have booze in their rooms. A friend recently stayed in this establishment and received a message from management stating that alcohol found in the rooms would be confiscated and held until the guests checked out.
Surely it’s not the business for the management to determine what people can or can’t do in the room they paid for as long as they don’t break the law, cause a disturbance or annoy other guests. I’m sure if the guests were buying drinks at the bar, and paying through the nose for it, then bringing it to their rooms there would be no objections.
When I was a teenager my mother had a similar policy only Maggie would pour the drink down the sink but you don’t expect that after paying top dollar for a hotel room.
Love It or Loathe It, Ryanair Changed Who Gets to Travel
We often criticise Ryanair but without that budget airline a lot of people would never have had the chance to travel around Europe or avail of summer holidays. Back in the 1980s when I lived in England it was almost impossible for ordinary folk to fly back to Ireland because of the cost of an airline ticket.
I would usually drive and get the ferry from Holyhead but it was a hard drive from London to Drogheda and it often took the best part of 24 hours depending on the weather in the Irish Sea. On the other hand I left Fuerteventura at 7pm on Tuesday night and was in Drogheda not long after midnight on a flight that cost less than an Aer Lingus ticket from London to Dublin in 1989.
This is one of the best examples of the necessity of competition as other airlines had no option but to slash their prices and compete with Ryanair or go bust.
