Earlier this week I spoke on a Nevada Public Radio panel about the Irish debt crisis and its likenesses to the situation in Southern Nevada, which, like Ireland, experienced the abrupt collapse of a property bubble.
As I write, it remains to be seen whether Ireland will actually pay off the outrageous (banking) debt that has been settled upon us, courtesy of our inept, lame-duck government (itself the product of a rotten political system).
My main point in the discussion–besides pointing out that we are being penalized unfairly–was that civic reform is vital. The public space in Ireland is currently agog with initiatives, most at an early stage of gestation, testifying that a historical opportunity is upon us.
If we leave our public life unmended, darker forces, in my view, will seize the initiative. Besides emigration, political violence is another Irish “solution” to Irish problems.
You can download/listen to the radio show here:
Stay tuned for details of a new online initiative being cooked up by myself and some friends here in Westport. Flickr image by karen horton
Here’s an original story I told at an Open Mic in the 
Here’s an original story I told at an Open Mic in the