Ireland 2023: An Irishman's Diary
35. Ireland winning the Eurovision again, thanks to the Rubber Bandits
36. The reformed Seanad - especially the decision to fill the seats by public lottery.
37. Watching the Seanad the election results on Winning Streak.
38. Dublin’s award-winning street urinals, disguised as Georgian doorways.
39. Henry Street at Christmas: “Get the last of the iPhone 20s - two for a fiver.”
40. Those draconian new On-the-Spot fines for dog-fouling. Tough on Spot, but good for the environment.
41. The decision to make losing the run of yourself an offence under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act
42. The way people have stopped calling everything that's even slightly famous “iconic”. That used to really annoy me.
43. RTÉ’s self-imposed ban on suggestions that the dead man was known to gardaí.
44. Season 13 of Love/Hate. Some people think they’re tearing the arse out of it now, but I still enjoy it.
45. The extraordinary success of that new Chinese business park at Cong, in Co Mayo.
46. Or “Hong Cong”, as the local wags have called it.
47. The new Galway City bypass, bypassing the old bypass. A big improvement in traffic flow.
48. Getting that honorary doctorate from Trinity recently for my services to Irish journalism.
49. The discovery of a vast oil deposit off the coast of Donegal last year.
50. The inspired decision to buy shares in the exploration company a month beforehand, when they still cost nothing.
*This article is part of the Ireland 2023 supplement published in The Irish Times. The supplement, a project to support Hireland, seeks to envisage how a newspaper might reflect a brighter future for Ireland a decade on.
The Irish Times & Hireland
Hireland is a not-for-profit social movement. It aims to contribute to Ireland's recovery by helping to generate one job at a time by tapping into collective entrepreneurship and by underlining people are central to the solution of Ireland?s current economic and social difficulties. To date its efforts have helped create more than 4,000 new jobs. Run on a voluntary basis and including many young job seekers it challenges employers, institutions of State and Irish people to think differently about how they can play their part in creating a better future for Ireland, most notably in creating jobs.
It also believes that envisaging better conditions for the Irish economy and society helps improve sentiment and translates into an increase in genuine job creation, sooner rather than later when there is overwhelming evidence of up-turn.
As part of their activities for 2013, they wished to feature how a newspaper might reflect a brighter future for Ireland a decade on. The Irish Times is supporting the project by publishing today a special edition of what, perhaps, might be carried in the issue of January 30th, 2023, with contributions from reporters, columnists, outside contributors and letter writers.
The contents may be fanciful, come with a humorous twist or be tinged with wishful thinking, but it is primarily designed to highlight some better options, broader thinking and the possible merits of pursuing certain courses in an imperfect world.
