Does Ireland have a strong sense of community?

steddyeddy

When I was younger there was a strong sense of community where I lived. Today there seems to be less of a sense of community spirit. People seem more isolated than they were years ago. I think isolation in communities plays a big part in depression and suicide. Is there a loss of community spirit in general or is it just because we get older and we move away from our communities?

How Soon Is Now

steddyeddy wrote: »

When I was younger there was a strong sense of community where I lived. Today there seems to be less of a sense of community spirit. People seem more isolated than they were years ago. I think isolation in communities plays a big part in depression and suicide. Is there a loss of community spirit in general or is it just because we get older and we move away from our communities?

Depends where you live really.

I mean i grew up in the city so everything around me was mostly changing and people where coming and going outside of the kids who lived on same street as me there wasnt really a community as such more students business people etc.

I then moved to Co Dublin and big difference much smaller village one of those everyone knows everyone places and have to say i quite liked it for the most part!.

I am kinda in between now theres a fair amount of family's living where i am but i only know the people living on one side of me so. Theres also a lot of foreign nationals living around me so it breaks things up a bit with different cultures and languages.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Again, it must depend on where you live. Personally, my local community spirit is every bit as strong as it has been right through the decades.

Iranoutofideas

There's sweet FA where I live.

Rasheed

Huge amount where I am. But I'm from here, grew up here, family's here, am hugely involved in GAA and community based activities so, as others said, I think it depends on where you are and how you go about your life.

B.A._Baracus

I grew up in west dublin and the estate used to throw parties out in the street.Sounds crazy by todays standards :pac: But the neighbours did it (the 80s we are talking here) But as time went by the same neighbours would barely say hello to each other, let alone have a chat. Sure I also remember neighbours popping in to randomly chat or borrow sugar.

When I compare and that stuff to now? yeah ... it has certainly changed alot.

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

I've lived in apartments since I moved out of home a good few years ago so moved around quite a bit. Always get on with my neighbours but it is hard to get 'close' to them if you live in a place for a year, neighbours are also apartment people so people move in and out all the time. In my current place I'm on my third next door neighbour.

What I do think is great and has truly revolutionised human communication is the internet. Facebook and Whatsapp are fantastic. In the past a good friend might go to Oz or the US and that's it, they're gone forever but now you can have daily contact if you want. None of this, we haven't talked for years business. So our sense of community may very well be different to what it was but it is still there.

Pumpkinseeds

I was born in the 70's and people tended to stay in the same neighbourhood for years, so they got to know each other. Even if you didn't know your neighbours personally you knew who they were and what their names were. Times were different and values were different. Today people move around a lot more and there is a more diverse mix of people. In my town as in most others, people were mostly white and Catholic, even Protestants were a novelty.

I say hello to some of the neighbours if I see them out and about but I don't know them and tbh I don't really want to know them. We don't have kids or a dog and we don't go to bars often so we don't really come into contact with them often. Sense of community isn't really important to people any more. It would be nice to have it rather than the opposite though.

Mint Aero

I think in general if you're not "involved" in the GAA you're shunned by the village idiots in a lot of small rural villages like where I hail from.

Oddly, the "best" players of the local GAA when I was growing up are now all bar one or two, on the dole, drug & alcohol abusers. The one or two I mention who didn't end up this way are very strange mammy boys type who appear to be adopted by all the village idiots as their own kids. And of course are some sort of a teacher or something.

In all, the "community" spirit is too closely linked with the GAA and given the state the country found itself in over the past decade, one can only deduce that this truly isn't for the best.

My name is URL

Mint Aero wrote: »

I think in general if you're not "involved" in the GAA you're shunned by the village idiots in a lot of small rural villages like where I hail from.

Oddly, the "best" players of the local GAA when I was growing up are now all bar one or two, on the dole, drug & alcohol abusers. The one or two I mention who didn't end up this way are very strange mammy boys type who appear to be adopted by all the village idiots as their own kids. And of course are some sort of a teacher or something.

In all, the "community" spirit is too closely linked with the GAA and given the state the country found itself in over the past decade, one can only deduce that this truly isn't for the best.

Someone didn't make the cut for their GAA team as a kid :rolleyes:

Pumpkinseeds

Mint Aero wrote: »

I think in general if you're not "involved" in the GAA you're shunned by the village idiots in a lot of small rural villages like where I hail from.

Oddly, the "best" players of the local GAA when I was growing up are now all bar one or two, on the dole, drug & alcohol abusers. The one or two I mention who didn't end up this way are very strange mammy boys type who appear to be adopted by all the village idiots as their own kids. And of course are some sort of a teacher or something.

In all, the "community" spirit is too closely linked with the GAA and given the state the country found itself in over the past decade, one can only deduce that this truly isn't for the best.

Here, here. I hate all things GAA too. Maybe we should start a new forum for those of us who despise all things muck savage, mouthbreathing, sh8tkicking GAA:D Seriously, I fcuking hate all things GAA, and no, I never 'didn't make the cut', I had no interest in it.

Rasheed

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

Here, here. I hate all things GAA too. Maybe we should start a new forum for those of us who despise all things muck savage, mouthbreathing, sh8tkicking GAA:D Seriously, I fcuking hate all things GAA, and no, I never 'didn't make the cut', I had no interest in it.

But you do have interest in it! Interest in hating it!

Manach

Ireland has changed, sometimes for the better sometimes for the worst. Whatever else the Church is/was, it did engender a sense of community. Belonging to a common ritual and belief, where the community gathered at regular times to pray and talk after mass.
Now it is the individual which is ,ironically, king. Where the state seeks to foster community, many times rather cringingly, while in the background merrily taxes in the name of common good where monies mostly go the lobbying interests. So we are left now with the shorn sense of local sentiment barely extending to the front door.

Teyla Emmagan

There are other ways to go about being involved in your community than being in the GAA!! I volunteer for 3 separate groups locally, so I see loads happening in my area and feel there is quite a good community spirit in the area (and this is in one of Dublin's burbs). But if didn't leave my house I would probably feel otherwise. Smaller towns/villages find it much easier to sustain then urban areas where there issue a more transient population, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. You have to be open to being involved though.

368100

My name is URL wrote: »

Someone didn't make the cut for their GAA team as a kid :rolleyes:

No, I agree with mint aero on that one.... I'm in a small rural community and it the way it is, that if you play GAA you're forgiven for all sorts like starting fights in local pub and causing trouble at community social events. For someone like myself, who never had any interest in GAA but leads a "normal" life holding down a decent job, enjoying a quiet life and generally trying to have respect for other people..as I'm not into GAA it would still seem that I'm slightly shunned for this reason.

Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

I've lived in apartments since I moved out of home a good few years ago so moved around quite a bit. Always get on with my neighbours but it is hard to get 'close' to them if you live in a place for a year, neighbours are also apartment people so people move in and out all the time. In my current place I'm on my third next door neighbour.

What I do think is great and has truly revolutionised human communication is the internet. Facebook and Whatsapp are fantastic. In the past a good friend might go to Oz or the US and that's it, they're gone forever but now you can have daily contact if you want. None of this, we haven't talked for years business. So our sense of community may very well be different to what it was but it is still there.

Huge if true.

suicide_circus

"Sense of community" is the battle cry of the nosy gossip merchant.

NotASheeple

From what I remember of the sense of community I experienced. Once they know who you are, what you do, who your parents are and what they do. The sense of community rapidly diminished.

My name is URL

368100 wrote: »

No, I agree with mint aero on that one.... I'm in a small rural community and it the way it is, that if you play GAA you're forgiven for all sorts like starting fights in local pub and causing trouble at community social events. For someone like myself, who never had any interest in GAA but leads a "normal" life holding down a decent job, enjoying a quiet life and generally trying to have respect for other people..as I'm not into GAA it would still seem that I'm slightly shunned for this reason.

I know that the GAA can be very parochial at a local level, and I don't doubt that in some places those involved with it are treated better by communities, but it's quite simply bull**** to say that unless you're involved in the GAA then you aren't seen as part of the community.

I live in a small village which is big into GAA and have never played, been involved or had any interest in the sport or organisation. There are ways to involve yourself in local communities other than been part of that particular clique.

I'd say Mint Aero's attitude has a bigger part to play in why he felt alienated rather than his lack of interest in GAA. Doesn't seem like he wanted to be part of 'a local community' at all.. seeing as he even thanked the following post

"Sense of community" is the battle cry of the nosy gossip merchant.

Each to their own, but don't blame others for your disinterest in such things.

cloud493

Yes there is.

Areyouwell

Does any other country self-flagellate itself so much over a national sport? I'd never played GAA and was never really interested. But when I compare it to the likes of Cricket, feck I'm glad it's the national sport of where I came from. But some of the hate & generalisation nonsense directed at it really is cringeworthy.

pragmatic1

In my area of Donegal there's still a very strong sense of community. People help each other out, but then there's a fair amount of gossiping ****e too. Pros and cons.

Packrat

Areyouwell wrote: »

Does any other country self-flagellate itself so much over a national sport? I'd never played GAA and was never really interested. But when I compare it to the likes of Cricket, feck I'm glad it's the national sport of where I came from. But some of the hate & generalisation nonsense directed at it really is cringeworthy.

Boards =/= Ireland.

Lots of knobheads here who love to hate everything Irish in order to appear "different" or edgy.

Ignore them: there are knobheads everywhere, just that this place attracts angry "chip on shoulder" types.

Pumpkinseeds

Rasheed wrote: »

But you do have interest in it! Interest in hating it!

OK, for the sake of clarity, I have no interest in and have never had any interest in playing a GAA sport. Happy now? :P

Pumpkinseeds

Packrat wrote: »

Boards =/= Ireland.

Lots of knobheads here who love to hate everything Irish in order to appear "different" or edgy.

Ignore them: there are knobheads everywhere, just that this place attracts angry "chip on shoulder" types.

Sounds like you're a bit of a knobhead tbh.

Packrat

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

Sounds like you're a bit of a knobhead tbh.

Really? As if it's MY posts and not yours which are constantly reported for personal abuse.

Self awareness deficit much?

KERSPLAT!

MOD

Give it a rest

Duckworth_Luas

Mint Aero wrote: »

In all, the "community" spirit is too closely linked with the GAA and given the state the country found itself in over the past decade, one can only deduce that this truly isn't for the best.

OK, here’s what we’ve got: the Gaelic Athletic Association, in conjunction with the Tidy Towns Committee -

Under the supervision of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association -

Are forcing our parents to go to bed early in a fiendish plot to eliminate the meal of dinner.



We’re through the looking glass, here, people…

ygolometsipe

IMO there is a certain love/hate relationship in the community idea. Sometimes I get the opinion that neighbors will go above and beyond to help each other which is great.

Then with the gossip, the local village seems to be a far darker world than what is visible, cheating, court dates, divorce, poverty, alcoholism. family suing family, land disputes.
Its not all sunshine and roses and for the most part people in the country just get by.

Living in a rural community is likely great if you fit in, if not, it can be very isolating.
And everyone will know your business,

Also. I was really shocked when I found out how many of the family's in my village are related in some way. Its less of a village and more of a large extended family.

I think that's why a lot of people leave small villages.

steddyeddy

I lived in Wicklow and Dublin and as you'd expect I encountered more of the GAA thing in WIcklow. I never felt excluded but I know people who live in Donegal big into the game. They are good players and always get the game but sometimes they said they couldn't turn up with college or work ect. They said some people in the town gave them a frosty reception after they missed a game.

The part of Dublin I lived in had a strong sense of community as did Wicklow. The problem with strong communities is that sometimes they go hand in hand with gossips. I remember being quite bewildered that some local girls took a keen interest in who I was sleeping with :S.

Dandy Dandridge

Absolutely not.