Ireland, a love story
“You will be back in 3 months time” my dad said. “Ireland is a third world country.” He was a truck driver in the 1980s, delivering goods to Ireland when the country was in recession and likened the country to one that was in chaos and in serious economic trouble. Understandably he thought that as a Belgian girl, I would miss certain things that come for granted in a rich, industrialized country. The Ireland of 2002 was not a third world country anymore, in fact it never was. In 2002, the country’s economy was booming and tenderly called the ‘Celtic Tiger.’ For a while, it had the lowest unemployment in Europe, but when it fell into recession in 2008, we suddenly became the country with the highest number in unemployed people. From…
Irish character, Edna O’Brien
“When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.” (Edna O’Brien) © Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me, 2011-2012.
Ireland
Your feet will bring you where your heart is (Irish proverb) © Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me, 2011-2012. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
W.B. Yeats, the collected poems
“You that would judge me, do not judge alone this book or that, come to this hallowed place where my friends’ portraits hang and look thereon; Ireland’s history in their lineaments trace; think where man’s glory most begins and ends and say my glory was I had such friends.” (William Butler Yeats) © Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me, 2011-2012.
The big Irish divide
Last month I finally visited Shankill and Falls Road after taking time out to see “the other part” of Ireland: Belfast in Northern Ireland. I’ve been living on this green island for 10 years now and had been in Belfast on shopping trips before, but had never seen the inner city and the famous Shankill and Falls Road areas. Somehow I felt like I knew a lot about its history already; that this knowledge shaped my idea about the centuries old divide… that was until I saw the areas affected by it. ‘Loyalist‘ or ‘Unionist‘ (those who prefer to stay under the British flag) and ‘Nationalist‘ or ‘Republican‘ (those that want an independent and united Ireland, where Northern Ireland is returned to Ireland) weren’t just words anymore; they became areas,…
Old Library, Trinity College
© Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me, 2011-2012. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Oscar Wilde’s gutter
“We’re all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” (Oscar Wilde) © Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me, 2011-2013.