Simmering anger

Sunny Disposition

Not joking, but is there a real anger about the state of the country,that's just under the surface?

Over the last few months I've found people are very angry about the state of the hospitals, there is frustration that everyone has known about the problems for 20 years or more, but the crisis continues. People are dying because of the failure to sort it out.

I'm a bit insulated from it thankfully, but there does seem to be a lot of frustration around housing as well, rents in particular are very high. Something I hear a lot of complaints about is social housing, that people are getting near free housing while not working, while people working really struggle. There's also complaints that Ireland has taken in too many refugees, which I think is associated with the housing crisis.

As well as those issues there seems to be issues with capacity at every turn. School places are tight around here anyway, it's near impossible to get a tradesman, you can be waiting months for a dentist.

I think there's a very real weariness and frustration with the direction things have taken in the country. And this is at a stage where we have full employment.

Fianna Fáil and FG are going to get another pounding next time people vote, I'm convinced of it. And SF might benefit, which is strange enough given their recent past, but it's very possible that even more radical people could benefit. As a population we are wealthy but not at all content, I think we are far less satisfied with things than the UK was pre-Brexit.

In general we're not people for coming onto the streets but even since Christmas you've had people demonstrating against how emergency accommodation is provided and the poor state of certain hospitals.

Thelonious Monk

I must be lucky because everyone I know in Dublin are doing well and are happy in life. Then again I'm 42 and none of my friends or family have issues with housing as they already had places to live before the sh*t hit the fan.

Allinall

Most of the anger is from people who won’t get up off their arses and better themselves.

They put their energies into whinging on the internet, or pointlessly stomping up and down O’Connell St or Kildare St.

Woe are we. Nobody will do anything for us.

Yes. Especially yourselves.

It's since the recession, then Covid, and the health and accommodation crisis being at boiling point now, along with inflation and energy hikes. As well as people wondering how Ireland can provide for so many new folks. Makes sense.

Absolutely lots of those complaining are just self entitled types but there are genuine concerns too.

NIMAN

If they can't fix the issues when they have so much money sloshing around, imagine how bad things are going to get if times get tough again?

And they will at some point.

And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance but merely simmering anger.

freshpopcorn

I don't know would I describe it at anger but I find people are very tired of certain issues in life now.

Princess Calla

I don't think this is a new thing.

If you watch "reeling in the years" you'll see many different protests through the years.

I remember outrage in the 80/90's of unmarried mothers getting housing.

Health service has always had it's problems.

What I do think has changed is social media.

Before unless you actively sat down to listen to news/read paper you could wander around peacefully oblivious to what's going on.

You'd have people in the pub/church steps giving out but again easy to avoid.

Now everyone has their phone, Twitter and sites like this make it easier for people to air their views and more people to hear them. It's harder to passively ignore contentious topics.

Pauliedragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120252873#Comment_120252873

This I think is it in a nutshell. We live in a 24hr news cycle these days. I'm early 40's when I was a teen my folks were my age and they watched the six one news newspaper on the weekend and that was it bar the radio on in the background during the day. Now it's non stop. I read about 10 different news sites from Ireland, Australia and the UK before I get out of bed every day. Also the likes of WhatsApp means Joe Duffy or any broadcaster can call some Irish people in Australia or America etc at a cost to nobody to compare the different lifestyles in those countries. Look at sites like boards where u can get advice on moving abroad by starting a thread which takes 2mins. I did it myself last week. Christ typing this reply makes me feel my age😄

Definitely amplified by social media.

Kurooi

For my sanity and wellbeing I distance myself from that as much as I can.

But yes things are shite. I pay for healthcare but when I get sick I have to pay private, I pay for education but schools are impossible to get a kid into, I pay for social welfare and councils buying real estate but numbers of homeless get worse by day. I'm watching areas deteriorate with crime and drugs and there is no policing.

Ireland is full of incredible people, smart hard workers. There is only one explanation for why the outcomes are bad - corruption and corporate handouts at the top.

Francis McM

Things were more difficult in the 1980s. Nowadays people in their late teens / twenties will go abroad to celebrate leaving certs, stag and hens etc. Think nothing of spending €8 or €9 on a pint in Dublin. Think nothing of spending €€€ on designer clothes and coffees etc. Some even drive to school and college. Yet complain about saving to buy a house. Get on your bike. Your parents and grandparents did not eat out much or anything, had higher interest rates and yet saved to buy a house.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120252593#Comment_120252593

I used to be like that until my relatives started to need health services more and more. We had some pretty nasty experiences over the last decade including myself. You should try the A&E trolley experience some time, you won't forget it or what you witnessed while on it.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120253591#Comment_120253591

yeah which is why i'm thinking of splashing out on private when i move home soon, both my parents have it luckily

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120253603#Comment_120253603

Private won't save you. We are all in VHI. What private A&Es are open at 2am or even 10pm? Sundays?

foxsake

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120252675#Comment_120252675

this is just moronic top of your head ranting , the type you'd hear from the chief commander of the local bar counter.

foxsake

the economy is in for a crash because the global debt issues of 2008 were not really fixed.

debt is essentially borrowing resources from the future as some stage the books need to balance. the USA and EU printing a sh1tload of money during the pandemic only exasperates it , people purchasing power is now a lot lot less which means a lesser quality of life than a few years back. Interest rates have risen a chunk from the unrealistic days of near 0%.

in my case i've a moderate mortgage but i'm down 200e a month extra since august. I know others with much bigger borrowings.

renting is even worse if you can even get a place.

Also despite all the taxes the state services are average at best - there is little oversight in how the money is spent. Money spent on politically slanted NGOs instead of the basics like roads, schools, hospitals etc... will always get people angry

money spent on a lot of foreigners with no connection to Ireland will add to this . people can argue all they like on the merits of this - but there is millions spend on this that could be spent elsewhere.

the poor are always poor but the problems happen when middle class get poor cos then the country reaches a critical mass of disenfranchised

its' all just coming together ,

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120252675#Comment_120252675

From the man who thinks Bertie did nothing wrong 😂

I admire that you have no issue making a fool out of yourself on Boards day in and day out. Credibility shot...

I dont know any middle-class people getting poorer, now the higher energy bill may be forcing them to readjust how they allocate their money but that is it.

It 100% social media, prior ot the era of social media if someone has slight anxiety that had coalesced around the belief there was going to be a recession they had very few people to share that with maybe a few people they work with who most likely got sick of them very quickly, and maybe their family now they share it all over the media reinforcing their beliefs and the media will reflect back what they want to here.

Things have become very uncivil an Ad came up on my news feed for bus driving jobs the comments were an eye-opener a sort of unfocused rage and rambling at Dublin bus, the salaries, asylum seekers, immigrants etc, another Ad for a former council house that is for sale came up on my news feed, and again the unfocused anger and rambling comment like ' that money for a house in knacerville, Why do people feel emboldened and given permission to say things like that?

Its definitely spilled over into real life as well.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120254759#Comment_120254759

To be frank that makes no sense re middle class not getting poorer. Inflation is running at approx 10% and energy costs are going way up. Food inflation is higher due to fertiliser, transport and energy costs. Rent is spiralling. So unless your middle class friends are all getting payrises well above inflation, they are getting "poorer". They may have Covid savings to offset it but their disposable income is suffering. A night out (restaurant, wine, pub) these days is around 25-50% higher than it was a year ago.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120254800#Comment_120254800

Pubs and restaurants around here are packed all the same.

We're not faring any worse than other countries.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120254800#Comment_120254800

That's a point, however, it's now not become poorer in the accepted sense it's not going without food if they pay utility bills, it's pay utility bills and have less discretionary spending.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120254815#Comment_120254815

Give it time, always a lag effect with inflation and higher interest rates. And the Covid savings are taking the hit initially.

Disposable income month to month is down for the vast majority no matter how busy the pubs are.

The only simmering anger I see is on the interweb, mostly from people who feel society/life owes them more than they are actually entitled to.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120254878#Comment_120254878

We'll see but I can only go on what's happening and my own, my family's and my friend's experience and it's certainly not a source of anger. The internet has a lot to answer for.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120254902#Comment_120254902

It's now as simple as that.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120254902#Comment_120254902

I know the type you mean but it's not just them. It's people working hard but not paid enough to afford the stupidly high rents and energy bills.

Danzy

The haves are happy, the have nots are not happy.

There is a real gap opening up in society here between those who are in cosseted sectors of the economy, whether that is public service, corporate roles, multi nationals etc, private businesses that are able to match inflation and the rest.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120255181#Comment_120255181

Who are the rest?, how come a divide didn't open up in the 1980s or 1950s when they really were the haves and the have-nots as well as huge unemployment?

screamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120255210#Comment_120255210

The fabric of society has changed utterly. In years gone by, people conformed sure they were afraid what the priest/ neighbour: community would think of them. Insular little Ireland where you were God fearing and compliant. But, no more. People don’t care what others think of them, they are reading different sources and making up their own minds, instead of being told what to think and how to act by the church and state. It’s a bold new world.

as for things being harder in the 80s I totally disagree. Back then, house prices were low even if interest was high, mortgages could be secured on one wage. Try these days, out of reach for even 2 people in a lot of cases. Add in childcare costs, and all the money spent to keep up with the Jones’s, it’s much harder. Consumerism is at fever pitch. Back in the 80s it was not like that. No one had anything, and keeping up with the Jones’s wasn’t hard as no one had a pot.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120255290#Comment_120255290

What makes you think people care what you say now?