The boom may be over but, say these three students, it has left in its wake a generation of more confident, more resourceful, more upbeat young people who are determined to make it through the economic slump, writes Louise Holden
NOUVEAU-PAUVRE, après-Bertie, pro-Obama, anti-fees - the students of 2008 have a new wardrobe of labels. They have only known Ireland in the good times. Now they are wondering if Ireland can deliver.
Their CAO forms were exercises in aspiration; choices motivated by passion rather than practicality. Careers in the arts, in architecture, in media and law - how plentiful will they be in the next five years? Are the parties, lattes and online shopping sprees a thing of the past?
Ronan Costello is a student from Carlow, in his second year of law in Trinity College Dublin. Georgie Gavin is a third-year media student from the Dublin Business School, living in Stepaside. Ruth Condren of Castleknock is in her third year of architecture at DIT Bolton Street.
The bubble of optimism has popped, but this recession generation is determined to hang on to some boomtime confidence. Around the table three Dublin students talk parties, politics, petrol and perseverance.
ON BEING A RECESSIONISTA
Ronan Costello senses the change on campus in TCD. "The atmosphere in college is getting more competitive. People are spending more time in the library. Students are not eating out, drinking midweek or getting taxis as much. The endless optimism of the past 10 years is over. The idea that getting a 2.2 is good enough is starting to change."
At the Dublin Business School, a private college that costs up to €5,000 per annum, Georgie Gavin is not immune to the pinch, she says. "The midweek drinking has dried up. People are getting more focused. There's a terror of failing or dropping out. I've stopped driving to college because I can't afford the petrol. It costs me nearly €30 to get home in a taxi at night - I could fly to London for less. I feel like the strings are tightening around the house too, but I don't ask. My parents are self-employed, in the furniture business, so I'm sure they have their concerns."
Ruth Condren's architecture programme is one of the most work-intensive in DIT, so she has no time to earn money. "Luckily my parents are very helpful and can afford to be very helpful because they are both GPs and their jobs are safe. However, like lot of people, they are worried about their pensions. My friends still have a work-hard, play-hard mentality but there are more house parties and packed lunches than last year."
ON THE JOBS OUTLOOK
Ruth Condren saw endless possibilities when she was in school. "We thought we'd walk into a job because a college education was the ticket to anywhere. Even those that dropped out or went on apprenticeships felt pretty confident. My maths teacher Terry Dolan always said there was a recession coming. No one believed him. When I started in architecture the construction industry was riding high.
"My college choice is a long haul and it comes with a career attached, not just a qualification," says Ruth with resignation. "Problem is, the jobs to match the career are drying up. You can't even get a summer placement in an architect's firm at the moment. Last year 18 students managed to get placements. This year only two managed it. I have a fifth year of study to do so I'm hoping that things might have improved [by then]. If not I'll stay in college and do a Master's. I don't want to leave Ireland - I'll wait it out for as long as I can. We lost a lot of architecture talent in the 1980s and I hope it doesn't happen again."
Georgie is not leaving anything to chance. "I'm currently working part time for Spin FM. I'm hoping to be a radio journalist. If I don't manage to get a position here I'll probably go to London and take a course in news broadcasting. I have a lot of friends who went to Australia after college with the plan to come home and start careers - now they're reluctant to come home because they hear that things are getting so bad here."
For Ronan, the idea of being a solicitor or a barrister doesn't appeal. Australia doesn't appeal either. "I like to think that my law degree will open up a lot of doors and I would like to travel in Europe when I graduate."
ON THE RETURN OF THIRD-LEVEL FEES
All three students oppose the return of third-level fees. "We all went on the march last month," says Ronan. "If fees came back now I would worry about my younger brother. Lower-middle-class families get caught out — having two kids in college is punitively expensive." Georgie is in a private college but she still feels the issue affects her. "I'm in a private college but our fees go up gradually. We're at €5,000 now. A lot of the guys who were living in Dublin and commuting home at the weekends are now living at home again."
Ruth is annoyed at what she sees as a disenfranchisement of students. "The way that RTÉ reported on the pensioners' march and the grey vote seemed to suggest that the students just don't care as much. I think it's still assumed by government that most students don't vote. Many can't - it costs €50 to go home on the train. Elections should be held on the weekend. Is the administration afraid of who we will vote for? It's true that the most active party on campus in Bolton Street is Sinn Fein, but that's because no other party is making the effort," Ruth adds. "Not all students are radically left wing - I would regard myself as centre left."
All three agree students are about to get political again. "Students are being radicalised by the talk of recession," says Ronan. "There are real issues to fight for, not just car-parking spaces."
ON POLITICS AT HOME AND ABROAD
A regular newspaper reader and self-confessed media junkie, Ronan has just recovered from "a minor obsession with the US election. We stayed up all night to watch the election results wearing 'Barack to the Future' T-shirts." The local landscape doesn't have the same appeal. "I'm a big fan of Bertie and I think he's even more popular now that he has gone . . . I don't know where Irish leadership is going to come from. Obama is a liberal politician; if he can do it in America we can do it here."
Georgie comes from an avowedly Fianna Fáil family. "We always read the Irish Independent because my family don't like the way the Mahon tribunal was reported in The Irish Times," she says. "There's plenty of current affairs chat over the dinner table and plenty of doom and gloom too, but we don't blame the Government. There are bigger issues at play."
Ruth's aunt is in politics but her family also finds more inspiration across the Atlantic these days. "We're fixated on American politics . . . I always read The Irish Times but in Bolton Street the majority of students are male and they all read the Herald and the Star. I voted Fianna Fáil in the last election. If I was faced with a choice between Enda Kenny and Brian Cowen today I would vote Fianna Fáil again. I have some faith in the younger crop of Fine Gaelers like Leo Varadkar and Linda Creighton, but for now, I'm more comfortable with Fianna Fáil. I strongly disagree with Labour policies."
ON IRELAND AND THE BOOM
"Life is easier for me now than it was for my parents in college in the 1970s," says Ruth. "I do worry about getting a job, but I know that economies work in cycles. We might actually be a lucky generation - by the time I leave college I might be able to afford a house in Dublin, rather than Westmeath. Despite what everyone says about the boom years, I think Ireland is a much nicer place to live."
Georgie also feels things will never be as hard for the Irish again. "My parents set up a business before the boom and the early years were very difficult. There are so many opportunities now - if you're prepared to put your back into it. If I have to cut down on a few luxuries, so what? Ireland is a better place than it was in the 1980s. There are more opportunities. People have drive. They have seen what can be achieved."
Ronan scoffs at the idea Ireland is a less pleasant place to live since experiencing wealth. "The boom bestowed confidence. It will see us through the next few years. We are more resourceful. We will knock on doors. There is nothing we lost on the boom years that we couldn't afford to lose. We are less begrudging, more upbeat. We inherited that from the US. If that is an example of how we have been Americanised in Ireland, I applaud it."
Snapshot of three students
Georgie Gavinis a third-year journalism degree student in the Dublin Business School. She lives with her parents in Stepaside. She went to Loreto Beaufort and originally took a degree in management but switched to journalism on graduating. At 23 years old, Georgie is already building a career in broadcasting, working as a "Spinnie" and occasional newsreader on Dublin radio station Spin FM. If she can't get a full-time position there after graduating she plans to study broadcasting in London. She loves reading, travel and Snow Patrol. Her favourite waste of time is messing about on Facebook and watching The Apprentice on TV3. She reads the Irish Independent and listens to Spin FM. She votes Fianna Fáil.
Ronan Costellocomes from Carlow, but lives in Dublin. He is in his third year of law at Trinity College Dublin. He played a lot of rugby at school in Gaelcoláiste Cheatharlach but now that he's in college he spends more time in the swimming pool. Ronan is a keen film buff and likes to while away his studying time on rottentomatoes.com or watching the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. He doesn't fancy the idea being a lawyer and he plans to leave Ireland and travel Europe when he graduates. Ronan reads The Irish Times and is addicted to satellite news channels. He has no political allegiances, but is active in the TCD Students' Union and writes for Trinity News.
Ruth Condrenis a fourth-year architecture student at DIT Bolton Street. She travels to college each morning from Castleknock. At school, in Mount Sackville, Ruth loved singing and debating. Now she has little time for those pursuits because she has 30 to 40 lecture hours a week. Ruth knows future in the Irish construction sector is uncertain but she loves Dublin and has no plans to leave. When she gets free time she likes to go out with her friends from college, or stay in watching Gray's Anatomy and listening to the Foo Fighters. Ruth reads The Irish Times but admits she is unusual in her college which is mostly made up of male Herald and Star readers. Ruth voted Fianna Fáil in the last election.
