SECOND OPINION:AGEISM IS still alive and well in Ireland. Stena Line is now advertising the amount of luggage you can bring when you travel on one of its ferries, including as many suitcases as will fit in the car, the dogs, and Grandma. This is blatantly ageist.
The word luggage means “that which has to be lugged about” or, according to The Life of Samuel Johnson in 1826, “anything of more bulk than value”.
Many events connected to ageism are happening this month. Bealtaine, the collaborative arts festival co-ordinated by Age and Opportunity, is in full swing and lasts until May 31st.
The overall theme is to celebrate creativity in older age and more than 3,000 events are planned throughout Ireland. There is a feel-good factor to all this activity, but it will not reduce levels of ageism in Irish society one whit.
Bealtaine actually contributes to ageism because it perpetuates the myth that older people have a different kind of creativity and they need events suitable for their age group.
I was in a well-known Galway pharmacy last week looking for its battery-recycling facility. Instead of simply showing me where it was, the shop assistant insisted on taking the bag of batteries saying “I’ll do it for you love, save your legs, pet.”
The young woman probably thought she was helping out an old lady (I am 62) but since I walk five or six miles every day and am probably fitter than she is, this response was over the top.
Prof Ian Graham recently launched the new European guidelines for the prevention of heart disease and was quoted in this newspaper as saying “telling a 40-year-old male smoker that his risk of heart attack is the same as that of a man aged 65 is a powerful message that is going to get his attention”.
RTÉ is now running a series of radio programmes on ageing and living in a city. What has age got to do with it? Where you live and the quality of facilities in the area is what matters. Age is irrelevant.
In fact, cities that are planned to suit children in buggies are generally suitable for all age groups.
Call me paranoid but I see similar examples of ageism most days of the week.
This year’s Bealtaine theme is “What kind of old do you want to be?” Most people I know want to be the same kind of “old” as when they were young and middle aged.
In my 20s and 40s I liked travel, drama, reading, politics, good wine and hundreds of other activities. That is the kind of old I want to be, just more of it. Older people want exactly the same choices and opportunities as younger people.
There is another myth that older adults are a massive economic burden on society and that younger generations are footing the bill.
A new report from the University of London shows that older citizens are actually an economic plus and over-65s now add £40 billion (€50 billion) in new wealth to the British economy. This will jump to £80 billion by 2030: more than enough to pay for the very small percentage of older people who may need long-term care.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office show that people over 65 in Ireland are equally productive. There are more over-65s involved in voluntary groups, including political organisations, than those aged 15-34.
Age and Opportunity promotes greater participation of older people in an inclusive society. This will not be achieved by special festivals.
It would be great if the 600 organisers of Bealtaine used their considerable energy to increase the participation of all adults in the thousands of other arts festivals and activities that take place in Ireland every year.
These are normally attended only by people from higher and middle socio-economic groups and I’d be prepared to bet that Bealtaine audiences are the same.
People learn to be creative and how to participate when they are young and then continue these habits as they get older. This is not to say that people can’t change at any age, they can and they do, but someone who does not participate in Irish life at 30 or 50 is very unlikely to start at 65 or older.
It is an unfortunate fact that interested people stay curious and bored people stay bored, no matter what their age.
Jacky Jones is a former regional manager of health promotion with the HSE