ACTIVISM:YOUNG PEOPLE in Ireland have every reason to be angry. Their opportunities have diminished, budgets supporting their education have fallen and the prospect looms of higher taxation in the future to pay off debts incurred by the decisions of those who came before them.
It has repeatedly been said that if the burden placed on the shoulders of Generation Next in Ireland had been inflicted on their Greek or French counterparts, there would be scenes of anarchy on the streets.
There have been sporadic and largely mild-mannered protests by young people here in recent years, predominantly over rising college fees and falling grants, but an Irish spring has yet to kick off and appears unlikely any time soon.
Is the limited revolt a sign of malaise with political structures? An acceptance that the medicine prescribed must be swallowed?
Having witnessed social and political upheaval in the US in the 1960s, Helena Sheehan, professor emeritus at DCU school of communications, says it has “been hard to behold the turning of the tide” when it comes to protest since the 1980s.
“This has been a global shift,” she says. “Even so, such protest as has existed in Ireland has been at the lower end of the scale compared to a country like Greece with stronger left traditions.”
Sheehan says political and social activism have increased in Ireland recently, with social media providing a channel for like-minded individuals to share their views. The Occupy movement was “powerful in registering” smouldering disaffection and bringing together people, albeit briefly, who felt isolated by the political system. However, many youths captivated by the movement did not get involved.
Why was that? “Some just want to get on with their own lives,” Sheehan says. “Others want to resist, but don’t have confidence that it would have any effect . . . I think that passivity has been passed from one generation to the next and only a minority break free from it, and not enough here in Ireland.”
University of Limerick journalism lecturer Tom Felle says students appear to be knuckling down in college to position themselves for the future. This is in spite of the difficulty in which they, and often their parents, find themselves.
“I think students are very pragmatic and realise the country is in a bad way and that protesting isn’t actually going to do any good in many cases,” Felle says. “A lot of [student militancy] was lost during the Celtic tiger years when money was available for everything and perhaps the institutional memory of protest was lost in that period.”
Felle says political societies in universities, from the Socialist Workers Party to Fine Gael, are attracting members but an 18-year-old would need to be “incredibly motivated” about an issue to march on the streets about it.
“If you’re 18, you haven’t really been too affected by banking collapses or you probably haven’t lost your share portfolio . . . Students still protest about fees because it’s what interests them.”
Some members of Generation Next are turning their backs on party politics and seeking other ways to better the world in which they live. Serena Mizzoni of social innovation platform Ashoka Change Nation, which seeks solutions to environmental, education and health issues, says the number of young applicants to programmes run by the organisation has been considerable. She does not believe the same level of interest existed three years ago.
People with backgrounds in areas as diverse as finance and teaching from all over Ireland and abroad have sought to get involved in improving aspects of Irish life, she says.
“Social participation gives anybody, regardless of your background or skills, an opportunity to get involved in making a change, and politics doesn’t allow for that.”
Kate Doyle (20), a student at UL, says many young people are reluctant to join political parties and organisations “because of the backlashing” these groups have received from their parents and educators.
She says there was considerable optimism among her peers when the government changed a year and a half ago but it now appears to be more of the same, with scant consideration being given to “what’s going to happen 10 years from now when we, or what’s left of us, are trying to deal with the consequences”.
“Over the last couple of years little things used to annoy me in terms of what the Government was telling us to give up because of the recession but I kept telling myself everyone has to do their bit,” says Doyle.
“The last straw for me was when [Minister for Finance] Michael Noonan said emigration was a free lifestyle choice. Has he ever spent an afternoon at departures in Dublin airport?”
Having been raised in the boom, Doyle says she is often told she has had it easy and that recent events have been passed off as “welcome to the real world” moments for her generation. “What people forget is the environment during the Celtic tiger was created for us. We have literally been thrown into a polar opposite.
“None of this is our fault. We never did anything to deserve this.”
