So few people know their neighbours that Macra na Feirme is handing out advice on how to say hello, writes Kathy Sheridan
It might not be everyone's cup of tea, standing on the local green on a rare day off, you and your name sticker, locked into small talk with the moron whose house alarm kept you awake half the night. But hang on. At least you know his name now. Very soon, you will have his number. Then you can tell him where to stick his alarm.
The sticker says his name is Ron. On further inspection, he turns out to have a very normal wife, who happens to work in the same line of business as you. Ron, someone adds, also happens to be the best mechanic in the county and - here's a co-incidence - your old banger is threatening to give up the ghost. Before the evening is out, you're exchanging phone numbers and house keys. Next time the alarm goes off, you'll be nipping around to check it out and switch off the infernal thing.
That's the kind of scenario Macra na Feirme had in mind when it dreamed up the Know Your Neighbour Weekend, planned for next Saturday and Sunday. It is brilliant in its simplicity. No agenda. No big issues. No big debates. Just pass around the flyers, slap on your sticker, arrange a silly football game (try pitting all the odd numbered houses against the even numbers, suggests Macra president Colm Markey), make a 30-second speech (one prepared earlier by Macra) and get to know the neighbours.
Markey, a 34-year-old farmer, lives in the little townland of Togher, near Termonfeckin, Co Louth, where in the past 10 years, some 30 new houses have appeared within a half-mile radius of his home. "I wouldn't have a clue who most of them are. Everyone is so busy and tunnel-visioned. You hear talk about dormitory towns. You wouldn't expect it here but this is a dormitory community."
His sister leaves her home on a new Drogheda housing estate at 5.45am to beat the traffic on her way to work in Newbridge, Co Kildare, and rarely gets home before 8pm. His colleague in Macra, Ciara Hendley, has just moved into a new apartment in Clonsilla, Co Dublin. "I have a banger of a car and it occurred to me that if it didn't start in the morning, I don't know any of the neighbours . . ."
Des Kelly, a 34-year-old electrical contractor, lives in Griffeen Glen, a five-year-old, 550-house estate in a development of around 7,000 new houses in Lucan. A trip on the 25A bus can be an eye-opener to an area where thousands more houses are planned. "My brother calls it 'Roundaboutland'," laughs Kelly, who lives with his partner, Claire. Full of praise for the amenities - which include a playground, sport and leisure centre, and fully-maintained parks - he socialises regularly with his immediate neighbours on a little crescent of 12 houses.
Thanks to one neighbour, Daniel, a Frenchman, the crescent becomes a little corner of France most Sundays as neighbours get down to boules on the green and a glass of wine or two. The neighbourliness extends to lifting the fencing posts in adjoining back gardens if someone wants to have a barbecue and needs overflow space or wants to give the family dog a run while they're away.
Kelly recognises that not everyone on their estate is as well integrated - or even wants to be. "We know that a lot of people are just passing through. Some only stay here during the week. Some don't want to mix at all. But the idea is that people are aware of their neighbour, and keep an eye on things while they're away."
AT ANOTHER LEVEL, however, every person involved in this initiative is aware that there are some weighty issues at stake. A three-year-old report from the National Economic and Social Council pointed to the natural flow that comes from informal, unstructured networks of friends and neighbours into more formal participation in groups and society.
Only authentic hermits and the most determined recluses can have failed to pick up the message - belatedly adopted by everyone from the Taoiseach down - about the dangers of atomising communities and the fall-out in terms of isolation, alienation and disempowerment.
"You can have heavy debates about big issues like planning, commuting, suicide, Travellers and immigrants and you can discuss what can be done about them - but you'll never get solutions at this level," says Colm Markey. "The solutions are in the little things. Neighbour is a microcosm of community."
To which the instinctive answer might be: "Of course". But a report published this week to mark the anniversary of Live8 and Gleneagles suggests otherwise. Most Britons now believe that the key to the good life is to look after their own interests, not the community's.
Mary Davis, chief executive of Special Olympics Ireland and recently appointed chairwoman of the new Task Force on Active Citizenship, is clearly shocked at the news. "I genuinely do not believe that people feel like that anywhere," she says.
"For the Special Olympics in Northern Ireland a few weeks ago we were able to recruit thousands of volunteers in just two months and they couldn't do enough for us. I had a chat with a lot of the volunteers and the general feeling they had is, 'Life has been good to me, I haven't had any major upsets and I wanted to do something'."
The task force, appointed in April by the Taoiseach, has had two meetings so far and produced a consultation document (available on the website). "I don't believe we [ as a people] are as bad as we think we are," says Davis. "I think when an organisation wants help, we just have to approach people in a different way. Yes, everyone's time is precious but if you approach someone to help you - how many are going to say 'no'? I think we need to look at it in a different light, at how Ireland is today. People want to get a good outline of what they have to do, do it, finish it and move on. And if it is a positive experience, you will get them coming back again."
But she is adamant that none of this can be done without resources. "Take a sports organisation. Even when the organisers do get the volunteers, have they the resources to train them, to keep them going, keep them involved?"
Despite the high calibre of the task force membership, some would question the need for it. The three-year-old NESC report - just one of a whole slew of studies and research on the subject of social capital - included 24 clear recommendations, one of which was the designation of a Government department to co-ordinate strategic thinking and policy design. The response has been to create a task force. Mary Davis thinks the recommendation is a good one, so the task force in turn will probably recommend the designation of a Government department to co-ordinate strategic thinking, and so on.
Meanwhile, Macra continues to build from the ground, adding to its database of residents associations (1,500 so far) and pushing the notion of knowing your neighbour. Macra's Ciara Hendley says that it can only do so much: "Only you can get to know your neighbours."
www.knowyourneighbour.ie
www.activecitizen.ie