By now I have been here in Galway for just under a month. I feel like that is a long enough period of time for my initial impressions to be either reinforced or changed by the people I've been meeting and the time I've spent in and around the city. Before my arrival I knew that Ireland was in a recession and I expected to see more poverty than I have been seeing. Since Galway is a small city, I thought the recession would have had a visibly large effect on the economy and industry of the area. Instead, all of that seems to be superficially covered, especially since Galway is a popular tourist destination, and no one wants visitors to see the true hardships of a city. What I guess surprises me most is that despite the fact that the country is in a recession, the public works departments still seem to be very active on what appear to be non-essential projects. For example, there is a large rotary/traffic circle/roundabout near my apartment which has been under construction since I've been here and they have been making new sidewalks, new bus stops, and they appear to be redoing the whole middle section of the roundabout. The sidewalks that were previously in place were not broken apart or in a state of disrepair, but they seem to be redone only to match the cosmetics of the rest of the construction. Now obviously I am not an expert on construction, road repair, etc., so it is very likely that all the work I've seen has been necessary. It just feels like the city/country/people work very hard to keep up appearances and hide the problems underneath the surface. When I see massive roadwork undertakings I assume that the city in question must have a healthy budget to perform these tasks, which contradicts all I've been told about the state of the Irish economy. One professor even went so far as to assure us this is, in fact, a depression, not a recession, and that we shouldn't be fooled into thinking otherwise. Another professor labeled it a "mancession" because the male work force has been most negatively affected by cut-backs and layoffs. Maybe it is just because we are in the city that the poverty is less visible, but I am surprised that many of the effects of the recession are invisible to outsiders.
Even in the tourist areas in town where street performers do their business (think similar to Quincy Market or Harvard Square, for all you Bostonians) there are very few people who appear homeless or down on their luck. They're there, but they are not obvious at first, and their numbers are far fewer than I've seen in other cities. One of our professors explained to us how some of the social welfare practices work, and she made it seem like people can still get by on what the government provides for short periods of unemployment, but long periods without income prove more difficult for young families and single parents. The support is there but it cannot meet 100% of the need, which isn't surprising or unusual. I, and the rest of my classmates, were taken aback by the professor telling us that the Irish pay about 50% of their income to taxes, in one way or another. We all discussed that if we were paying that much money in taxes we would expect that more support would be provided than what is currently given to people in need. We were also surprised to learn that Ireland isn't even a part of a National Health Service like the UK is, and so there is no universal healthcare. If half of my income was being paid to my government I would expect more back, so it was very eye-opening to learn these things and then start to see the problems with it in our daily lives here.
Just a few more comments to make on the culture here, and then I promise I'll stop rambling.
Okay so as far as the Irish stereotype for drinking is concerned, the college students I've encountered fit the stereotype and then some. They go out Mon-Thurs and have no problems smashing bottles, breaking signs, and leaving tons of crap in their wake. I don't understand how they can do it every night and then wake up for class the next morning (although a lot of them don't plan on going to class every day). I also don't understand how they can afford to be eating and drinking out this much. The drinks are expensive here compared to home anyway, but if you add in the cover charges for certain clubs and music venues, students could be spending close to 100 euro a week on their nightlife alone. I'm just glad I've found some like-minded people from my trip who would rather not be a zombie for 9 am class everyday, and who want to save their money for travel.
Maybe some of my confusion about the economy/culture will be cleared up in my classes in the coming weeks. I'll let you know!
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