Ireland today
Activity 1
Angela’s Ashes!
I have chosen to work with a passage from Angela’s Ashes. The passage I have chosen begins at page 246 line 8 What is dad to do… to page 249 line 6 …we can all go to America.
I intent to use this passage the middle of 8th grade or the beginning of 9th grade. The language and the topic are quite difficult but I believe the issues will motivate and engage a teenage class.
I plan to work with this book in my course on Irish culture and history. I will arrange for them to read about and work with Irish history, and when we read about the 1930ties to 1940ties I will let the pupils read this passage.
The vocabulary in this passage is not easy for Danish pupils in the 8th or 9th grade. It has not been prepared and simplified for pupils on this level. Words like eternal damnation, munitions, lower class, iron tongs, the dole, night girls, wireless and tormenting need to be explained.
Also some cultural references make it difficult for this group to read the passage. Expressions like tuppenny seats, fish and chip shops, scratching their arses on the queue at the Labour Exchange, look what the English did to us for eight hundred years, able to lord it over the families that don’t also need some extra explanation.
With this in mind I chose to work with some words and expressions. The pupils are already familiar with the Irish history in this period. I will start by giving them a brief orally introduction of who the author is and a short resume of his life story. After that I will pick out some of the difficult words: e.g. the dole, wireless, tormenting, lower class. I will ask them to use their dictionary and find the right explanation for the words.
E.g.
A: radio
B: To cause suffering
C: people with a low income
D: where you get your money from when you don’t have a job
After that I will ask the pupils to read the text at home. We will start the following lesson by reading part of the text loud in class or maybe the whole text depending on how it goes. After that we will talk about the above-mentioned cultural references.
After the reading I have prepared some questions for them to answer in groups. I would like to concentrate on the Irish situation in the 2nd world war. Who did they support and why? I will ask them to reread the song on page 247. The song some Irish families sang during the 2nd World War. Why weren’t they loyal to the allied and why did they chose to work for them (the English) anyway? I think it is important that the pupils understand why the Irish reacted on the war the way they did. I want them to understand how poor some Irish were at the time. From this lessons I hope the pupils will also understand the relationship between the English and the Irish a little better.
I hope you will enjoy working with this as much as I have!
IRELAND TODAY
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Rainbow over Ireland |
Until the 1990s Ireland was known as” the sick man of Europe” (Observer 217/218, 1999). After the economic boom Ireland experienced at the end of the 20th century, this is no longer a nickname that fits.The reasons for this “boom” are many. One of the most important reasons[1] is the increase in foreign investments in Ireland – particularly from the United States.Ireland has become a country where business is very profitable. This is due to the fact that the Irish government decided to introduce cutbacks in public spending and in that way restore the nation’s finances. Once this was in place the interest rate fell and tax cuts were introduced. When the price for borrowing money fell the consumption increased and business investments followed.Also Ireland has developed health care and education considerably during the last part of the 20th century.So Ireland is no longer a country you flee. On the contrary the green island has become attractive – not only to the Irish themselves, but also to people from other countries.
Immigration, emigration and net-migration in Ireland, 1987-2003[2] In 1996 Ireland reached its migration “turning point”. It now had more immigrants than emigrants. Irish emigration in the 20th century peaked in 1989 and has been on the decline ever since. Immigration So Ireland has changed from being a land of emigrants to being a land of immigrants. Because of the low unemployment rate, but also because of an excellent health care and free education Ireland has become interesting to people seeking asylum, people from other EU countries and even Irishmen who have emigrated.Ireland’s labour immigration policies are among the most liberal in Europe, and until 2004 parents to children born in Ireland had an automatic right to permanent residence. In 2004 the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern conveyed that the system was misused, since 60% of the female asylum seekers were pregnant when they applied for asylum. Later the same year a Supreme Court judgement removed the right to permanent residency for parents of children born in Ireland. In January 2005 a new Nationality and Citizenship Act came into effect. Children born after first of January 2005 will get the same citizenship as their parents.People seeking asylum come from Nigeria, Romania, Moldova, Zimbabwe, Ukraine and Poland. It is quite a paradox that many of these people have the same integration troubles as similar people in Denmark. Henry McDonald, an Ireland Correspondent at The Guardian[3], wrote an article about how children from non-Irish ethnic backgrounds were not allowed into the local Catholic schools – simply because they were not Catholics. Since 90% of the schools in Ireland are Catholic schools it can be very difficult for people of other beliefs to become integrated into the community. The Irish government believed that the need for migrant workers would fall dramatically after the EU enlargement in 2004. (10 countries) They decided to grant access to the Irish labour market to all members of the EU. This meant that Ireland could get all the labour it needed from the EU and many people from other member countries of the EU move to Ireland today. The return of the Irish During the last 10 – 15 years many Irish emigrants, who left their home country to seek happiness and fortune abroad, have returned to Ireland.Actually nearly half of the immigrants that rush into Ireland these years are Irish. They may have been born in another country, but by Irish parents and therefore they are considered Irish.Now you can easily find a job with a good salary and promotion possibilities. The housing situation and the general economy of the country are developing at great speed. Education has become free. There is no longer any need or reason for not living in your home country. It is obvious that emigrants have maintained a longing to return to their families and their home country and the present situation in Ireland offers many emigrants the possibility to return. Emigration With an increase of immigration, the number of immigrants has exceeded the number of emigrants, but still today a large number of people are leaving Ireland. From a population of 6 million people roughly 200,000 emigrate every year. In comparison with other European countries it is a relatively large number. The reason for leaving varies, but a common denominator is meeting personal demands. A large part of the emigrants leave: · To improve their possibilities of further education· To advance their careers· To find better jobs with possibilities of promotion · To obtain better salaries A majority of the Irish emigrating within recent years are fairly well-educated specialists attracted by low cost of living or seeking new challenges within the labour market. The largest group has found employment within technical or computer-related industries.To a minority the social, political and cultural policy in Ireland is the reason for their decision on emigrating. The situation in Northern Ireland has been the crucial factor to a small group of emigrants. To a relatively large group, the main reason for leaving is simply the desire of exploring the world, looking for adventures. Present emigrants are spread around the world, but they have a large preference for English-speaking countries of which the USA is the favourite. Sources: The Irish Mind Abroadirish-go-to-australia migration.ucc.ie/irishinpariswww.globalvisas.com www.migrationinformation.org www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstorywww.guarian.co.uk/world/2007/sep/25/schoolwww.community.meath.ie/culture
[1] According to the OECD (organization of industrial countries that works for the expansion of trade and economic growth)[2] Source: Central Statistics Office (CSO); Dublin
[3] British newspaper
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