An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Ireland by John Waters Duckworth 187pp, £12.95 in UK
John Waters's fiercely provocative views are well-known to Irish Times readers. In his new book, debunking the "economic miracle" of the Celtic Tiger, this lad from humble County Roscommon origins claims to be speaking out for ordinary folk against those whom he hates most - the "Dublin 4 oligarchy of arrogant liberals" who, he says, have imposed on the Irish a damaging, ill-conceived modernisation and are trying to destroy their traditions by demonising their past. Ireland, he says, "far from being rejuvenated, is actually in collapse", and the Irish are "trapped in a perverse loneliness disguised as prosperity". Is he right? Certainly, the Irish have felt some malaise in recent decades, as political muddles and corruption leave a sour taste and the people inevitably are left confused by changing values. But does this mean that they don't want modernisation, or find its price too high, as Waters thinks? Is he right to see the Irish debate as polarised between modernism and tradition, with no subtle middle ground possible? In this, as in much else, he wildly overstates his case, in this brilliant, thoughtful, witty and infuriating book.
He claims not to be an arch-traditionalist himself: he sees the need for modern change, he admires Mary Robinson and her ideas, he is sharply critical of the Church and is even bored by Gaelic football. But he is, avowedly, an arch-nationalist, of the most myopic kind. What I find most amazing and distressing about his study of Modern Ireland is that it contains virtually no comparisons with other countries, nor even any reference to them, except just a few to the ex-coloniser. Such a book would be inconceivable in any other European country. It is parochial navel-gazing at its most extreme, just the kind of attitude that does Ireland so much harm.
Waters thinks that Ireland should rely as little as possible on outside help or ideas, but should seek its own solutions. He hates the EU - even when it brings aid - as a cold, bureaucratic monster. Fair enough; maybe it is. But, unlike so many other younger Irish, he equally shows no broader affinity, cultural or human, with the new Europeans. Yet so many Irish today, travelling in Europe, making friends there, see it as part of their heritage and Ireland's great chance for the future, not just in economic terms. Above all, they seek it as an escape, into a wider club, from the old unequal faceto-face with Big Brother.
Writing as a Briton of Waterford Protestant extraction, I totally agree that British rule did cruel harm to Ireland. I would also agree with Waters that it is partly the Irish people's own fault if, since 1921, they have not rid themselves sooner, or better, of their old colonial complex. As Waters sees it, since 1921 two Ascendancies of "native settlers" have taken over from the British and merely aped their ways. First, in the 1920s, a Church-backed middle-class elite "stole" the Revolution from the people. Then, since the 1960s, a different elite of modernists has, he says, been pulling Ireland from its true path, into the cesspit of foreign-owned industry and other ills.
He cites the rise in crime, the sad new suburbs, the closures of little local shops and firms, the worry about the future, as evidence that modernity is destroying Ireland. But surely other countries have just the same problems. And Ireland cannot escape them by insulating herself. Most Irish want the modern world, warts and all. Waters believes that the Celtic Tiger's claws have hurt most people, who see little benefit from it. Certainly, the gains are very unevenly spread, and modernisation should have been better managed. But the recent economic progress is real - ask the returning emigrants - and the Irish have a right to be proud of it, after their centuries of poverty.
Waters laments the waning of old traditions - again, a common European problem. But surely Ireland is one of those European countries which best show that modernity and tradition are not totally incompatible. You can take the benefits of the one, while not jettisoning the other - witness the music revival since the 1960s, the huge success today of Irish culture abroad.
John Waters the doom-monger offers no solutions to Ireland's "plight", save to say vaguely that it needs "a spiritual renewal . . . a miracle". Lovely - but what does he mean? Surely not a return to some Dev-ish ideal of frugal self-sufficiency? Modern Ireland today is at a crossroads of destiny, where those "laughing maidens" of de Valera's idealised vision prefer to jive in modern style - as the sage of Castlerea ought to know better than anyone.
John Ardagh is the author of a number of books on modern Europe, including Ireland and the Irish