How would Ireland cope without the help of other countries?

Sh1tbag OToole

If there is a massive outbreak of the next version of Bird Flu that wipes out most of the human population and Ireland manages to close its borders on time - unlikely they will but anyway lets assume they do close them on time and Ireland remains blissfully unaffected by the disease

How bad would the food shortages get? We import a shocking amount of food but a lot of it is non-essential stuff like pasta sauce with Polish horsemeat in it.

Would mayhem break out, burning buildings everywhere and people bating each other on the street with sticks with nails sticking out on one end for scraps of food?

What about the few factories we have left, would people show up to work and re-purpose them to produce goods for the domestic market as best they can? As soon as anything breaks parts would have to be ordered in from the Youkay or China. A shocking range of every day parts for machines and consumables just aren't made in Ireland

Unlike North Korea (the only other country I know of that tried to have a crack off self reliance in recent times) we have plenty land for our population and up to date knowledge on how to make stuff, no shortage of oil and gas so really we should fare better than those boyos unless it all goes to hell pretty much straight away.

antodeco

Well isint your username just wonderous at this time on a Monday

Seachmall

Ah sure a few spuds in the pot and a nice cuppa and we'll be grand.

Agricola

Can we swap out bird flu for a zombie apocalypse? I have a few ideas involving human fertilizer.

ejmaztec

Whatever advantages we'd have in such a scenario would soon be fucked up by some people in high places.

Discostuy

I still have the Sellafield iodine tablets somewhere so should be ok for a while.

SEPT 23 1989

A shortage of cigarettes in certain quarters would pour petrol on the fire

Iwasfrozen

We'd fare better then most. We could grow a lot of food but other things would need to be synthesized. We have the knowledge to do that though.

Lapin

More coffee please OP.

ArmaniJeanss

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

Unlike North Korea (the only other country I know of that tried to have a crack off self reliance in recent times) we have plenty land for our population and up to date knowledge on how to make stuff, no shortage of oil and gas so really we should fare better than those boyos unless it all goes to hell pretty much straight away.

I see a slight problem here.

Agricola

In my considered opinion, this is Ireland. The place barely functions at the best of times. We'd all die in a fire.

LuciusPax

What if the rest of the world was so consumed by the onslaught of bird flu and zombies and werewolves and orcs and stuff, that Ireland would have to take extreme measures and attach rockets or balloons to the country to lift it up out of the sea and make it a floating island suspended in the sky.What would we do then?How would we cope?These are the questions I want answers to.

Sh1tbag OToole

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

I see a slight problem here.

The "shell go to hell" gas field, oil field that Providence found, refinery in Cork. Unless those industries are hugely dependent on spare parts and stuff that isn't or can't be made in Ireland we should be alright.

ejmaztec

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

I see a slight problem here.

I think he's mistaking oil and gas for wind and piss.

peterk675

Seachmall wrote: »

Ah sure a few spuds in the pot and a nice cuppa and we'll be grand.

We'd run out of tea lively!

CrabRevolution

Faced with an unprecedented disaster the likes of which humanity has never witnessed, we'd all join together on a scale never seen before and set aside our differences to build utterly massive greenhouses with artificial climates to grow tea, solving said disaster.

Also assuming it's some viral disease that killed the rest of the world, after a while all other land will likely be safe as the virus will have run out of hosts and died out. Then 6 million of us will go out and recolonise the world, everyone getting 25 sq km for themselves.

Sh1tbag OToole

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Faced with an unprecedented disaster the likes of which humanity has never witnessed, we'd all join together on a scale never seen before and set aside our differences to build utterly massive greenhouses with artificial climates to grow tea, solving said disaster.

Also assuming it's some viral disease that killed the rest of the world, after a while all other land will likely be safe as the virus will have run out of hosts and died out. Then 6 million of us will go out and recolonise the world, everyone getting 25 sq km for themselves.

I'll be putting a one-off house in the very centre of my 25 sq km plot.

There would have to be some sort of agreement that once you leave Ireland you don't come back. Just to be sure no stray bit of virus makes its way back

Grayson

peterk675 wrote: »

We'd run out of tea lively!

Nettle tea?

Grayson

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Faced with an unprecedented disaster the likes of which humanity has never witnessed, we'd all join together on a scale never seen before and set aside our differences to build utterly massive greenhouses with artificial climates to grow tea, solving said disaster.

Also assuming it's some viral disease that killed the rest of the world, after a while all other land will likely be safe as the virus will have run out of hosts and died out. Then 6 million of us will go out and recolonise the world, everyone getting 25 sq km for themselves.

Jesus, that's a terrible thought. the whole planet being irish.

Grayson

I've just thought of something worse. Would harp be the only larger?

CrabRevolution

Grayson wrote: »

Jesus, that's a terrible thought. the whole planet being irish.

If it's the entire island thats saved, (which is most likely unless the virus reaches the North and then in a sudden bout of partitionist thinking stops at the border) the guts of a million of the survivors will consider themselves British.

Thinking waaaay too much into this....

Fr_Dougal

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

The "shell go to hell" gas field, oil field that Providence found, refinery in Cork. Unless those industries are hugely dependent on spare parts and stuff that isn't or can't be made in Ireland we should be alright.

So we're screwed then.

Sh1tbag OToole

CrabRevolution wrote: »

If it's the entire island thats saved, (which is most likely unless the virus reaches the North and then in a sudden bout of partitionist thinking stops at the border) the guts of a million of the survivors will consider themselves British.

Thinking waaaay too much into this....

You'll also have all the "damn foreigners" left but they'll eventually be assimilated into the stout drinking, ceili dancing diddly-eye music playing rest of us

Tonyandthewhale

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

The "shell go to hell" gas field, oil field that Providence found, refinery in Cork. Unless those industries are hugely dependent on spare parts and stuff that isn't or can't be made in Ireland we should be alright.

I'd be fairly skeptical that a few tiny and poorly developed off-shore oil and gas fields are a sufficient basis for national self-sufficiency. Most countries have at least some oil and/or gas, it doesn't make you the next saudi arabia.

Sh1tbag OToole

Tonyandthewhale wrote: »

I'd be fairly skeptical that a few tiny and poorly developed off-shore oil and gas fields are a sufficient basis for national self-sufficiency. Most countries have at least some oil and/or gas, it doesn't make you the next saudi arabia.

Even if they sustain us for a couple of years it will be a great help to stop chaos from setting in and buy us time to sort out another source of fuel. A lot less oil will be used, all the people in the financial services sector and insurance can probably stay at home.