What a difference a few decades can make.
We first visited Ireland back in the ‘80's. At that time, poverty, unemployment, frustration and the feeling of hopelessness was everywhere. Young people were leaving the country
in droves because there was no future if they stayed in the country of their birth.
We went through the factory at Waterford, home of the renowned crystal and glass works. We stopped to chat with a young man of about 30 years of age who was taking a cigarette break.
His job was to get a glob of molten glass on the end of a blowpipe from the oven, then transfer it to the blower who would systematically fashion it into a vase, bottle, goblet, or whatever. The blower
would blow a little, and as the glass cooled, he would give back the pipe and glass and this fellow would heat it a little more, then pass it back to the blower. Hour after hour. Day after day. Year after...
We asked him, “Do you aspire to doing anything other than passing the glass back and forth?”
“Of course”, he replied, “every one of us wants to be a glassblower, but there is a hierarchy here, and no one can move up until someone at the top dies.”
Since that time, Ireland has undergone a complete transformation in its character. There is booming industry everywhere; property values are exploding, times are flush and the living
is good.
When we were there in the ‘80's, I thought, “How fortunate we are to live in America, where anyone can advance beyond the station to which he or she was born. We all have
the opportunity to literally become the best we can be, and anyone with a dream or an idea can make it big in the US.”
And now, in the 21st Century, it is good to see that people with dreams- and a willingness to persevere, can still accomplish what they wish, wherever they are in the world.
GO, IRISH! |
