Still haven’t learnt
We may cry about losing our language: we lost as much again when we lost the meitheal. Yet in Dublin today we are experiencing newer and more powerful technologies and we are, in our economist-dominated society, admiring their potential and measuring their possible applications in economic terms only. We have not yet learned to appraise them for the social consequences they may have for what’s left of rural society, to see how we can be masters of the technology rather than slaves dragged unthinkingly behind it.
A survey on trends in rural Ireland … shows that one-quarter of rural dwellers commute more than 40 miles a day to work, and that over 40% of all non-farm rural households have no involvement in any community, voluntary or sporting organisation and have little or no contact with their neighbours.
Many commuters are simply ’sleeping’ in their rural homes. This disconnectivity and lack of neighbourliness is creating concern for the social fabric of many rural areas.
As a nation we are in denial. Our dreams reflect that we are a rural people. We plan our cities, towns, villages, and houses as if we were all farmers. Our cities are no more than collections of villages sprawling into each other. Our low-density housing estates and one-off houses echo the small holdings of the past. Everywhere we look we see the potential for our society diminished or destroyed by the refusal to face up to the reality that we are a post-agriculture society.
The old meitheal was based on the principle of economies of scale - even if it was on a small scale. The old meitheal is dead and gone. The society that sustained it and made it a necessity no longer exists. We need new kinds of meitheals now, the kinds that take advantage of the economies of scale that large urban centres provide, the kinds that make public transport workable, the kinds that make sports and arts facilities viable, the kinds that make interesting and diverse social interactions possible - in short, the kind of things that enhance our quality of life and give us the potential to live in a proper functioning society.
Despite our affluence our need for others still remains. Money may give us the feeling of independence but no matter how big our car we’re all stuck in the same traffic jam.
Mark Waters marked time at 8:28 pm on January 25th, 2006 .
Mark,
While in general, I’m in agreement with the idea that we need community, I’m not altogether sure I agree with this, although it is very eloquently put.
I’m (rather cynically, I must confess) of the view that little, other than money, plays a part in the location of housing developments, and certainly, I have doubts that any long term planning in terms of urban economies of scale form any major consideration for many endless accommodation estates, be they housing or apartments. What has been done to parts of north county Dublin is soul destroying.
When you see what is condoned by planning process in this country, and the type of accommodation units being offered to the vast majority of people, it is difficult for me to condemn people for wanting to build their own houses, whether urban or rural. Unfortunately, this meitheal, these new apartment complexes/sprawling housing estates are being forced on people with little thought as to whether they are, in fact, suitable for the people who will end up living there.
The old meitheal, as you call it, developed as of itself, and as needed. Currently, little thought is being given to end user necessity in planning, and as such…I have doubts that we will sort things out in the short term.