Living on an Island - Pros and Cons

Martinique and Madagascar are in a state of revolt, partly sparked off by the very high prices of food and other necessities.

Islands generally seem to suffer from high prices - more so than could be justified by transport costs.

Its been mentioned here (by expatgirl, I think) that a fair number of islands are tax havens: it is one area of business in which remoteness is not seen as a disadvantage.

Are there any more pros and cons of living on an island? Should we, or should we not, be digging a tunnel to Liverpool ?

I think most pros are probably psychological in nature. Ideas of independence and autonomy which don't really exist when you factor in that islands are on the whole more dependent than continental land masses. It was easier to remain "neutral" (whatever that meant) during WW2 owing to our detachment from the continent but that is as much to do with remoteness as it is to do with being an island - Sweden being remote could do similar. I don't know what relevance that has to modern day Europe where our concerns are more about getting food onto the island more so than avoiding a Luftwaffe bombing.

A tunnel to Britain would always have been a good idea but it certainly wouldn't be from Dublin to Liverpool. Would have to be up in Northern Ireland over to Scotland or at best from Wexford but that is less likely because there is not an industrial or commercial corridor (beyond Bristol) in South West England and South Wales. It is simply too far to build anything like that from dublin. It is something like 110 km from Dublin to Holyhead, this is over twice the distance of the Channel Tunnel between Dover and Calais.

Pro - Weather is not very extreme in Ireland, we don't have snowfalls or droughts, this is determined by our position as an island in the gulfstream.

Pro - The sea is a wonderful natural resource. If we were landlocked in central Europe then our resources would end with our land borders.

Con - Isolation from the central hub of european trade. We are quite isolated obviously which make s things more expensive here. Also we are to the west of a large trading block - the UK which means we can be easily dominated by it. The British Prime Minister is now and always will be one of the most powerful peple in Ireland by default. Also means we are more at the mercy of transport costs.

Con - We suffer from a certain intellectual isolation - we are European but feel more comfortable being compared to the US in many ways. We straddle both with a certain uneasiness. We want a welfare state but the state provides in a ham fisted, half hearted way. e.g. instead of social housing we have rent allowance.

Pro - Isolation from Geopolitical centres of power. Means we can stay neutral in the event of large European war. We did in WW2 (I note that John has this in inverted commas. Any realtion between this ambivilance and your cricket avatar?) and Dublin avoided getting badly blitzed as a result. Means we don't have to 'invest' in an army to watch our borders. Napoleon marched all over neutral switzerland for example and Hitler invaded several neutral states.

Pro - Fixed boundaries to the state (apart from the north). I'm sure this is an advantage but can't think why off the top of myu head. I guess Ireland has had far less territorial adjustment thatn any European state I can think of. The Kingdom of Ireland was one geopolitical entity from the 17th to the early 20th century. There was the creation of the north in the early 20th century. Compare to France, northern Italy, Modern day Poland etc.

My ambivilance is not based on an opinion on whether Ireland should have been neutral but rather an opinion on whether Ireland was in fact neutral. If one is to term it neutrality it was a very peculiar form of neutrality. But then again, most of the "neutral" states during WW2 were up to funny business in one way or another. I think a more appropriate term would be non-combatant rather than neutral.

Even aside from the couple of hundred thousand Irish people who served during the WW2 the State policy was far from neutral whether that was the feeding of weather reports to the RAF, the informing of Britain when German planes passed Irish airspace, the opening of the Donegal Corridor to allow the Royal Navy to take a short cut through Irish territorial waters or many other policies which were certainly not "neutral" in nature.

My avatar is merely yours truly hitting a boundary.

Sorry I was only joking, no offence intended.

Why would I take offence...

Ireland certainly wasn't neutral during the war though. We just managed not to get involved in the fighting.

Never mind, I though I'd accidentally raised a heckle, which wasn't my intention.

Sure all the cool people play cricket .

johnfás wrote:

Sure all the cool people play cricket .

That's just because they're standing around doin' nuttin'.

Absolutely, it is a good way to pass a summer's afternoon and you get a proper lunch half way through. What more could you ask for. Rugby is the sport to actually keep you fit and then cricket in the summer to unwind .

johnfás wrote:

Absolutely, it is a good way to pass a summer's afternoon and you get a proper lunch half way through. What more could you ask for. Rugby is the sport to actually keep you fit and then cricket in the summer to unwind .

I've always thought a decent hurler would make a good batsman, right off the "bat" so to speak.
He’d want more than cucumber in his sangwiches mind.

You're right. I had a friend who plays hurling have a go at cricket last summer, he could really whack it. Hurlers just have to get used to making sure they block the stumps as well though - tendency to forget about them!! There are alot of transferable skills between most sports and it is good to get people to test out other ones. When I was in school we played a big GAA school who had just taken up rugby in a match. They possessed most of the skills you needed to have a good team, they just lacked the polish which by now I would say they probably have got.

'Its not a sport of you can play an entire game without disturbing a flock of seagulls resting on a part of the field of play' - A canny observation by an Irish mate of mine after going to watch India v's Australia last year.

shutuplaura wrote:

'Its not a sport of you can play an entire game without disturbing a flock of seagulls resting on a part of the field of play' - A canny observation by an Irish mate of mine after going to watch India v's Australia last year.

On the other hand the entire crowd can all join in on the singing of "come on you boys in white".

shutuplaura wrote:

'Its not a sport of you can play an entire game without disturbing a flock of seagulls resting on a part of the field of play' - A canny observation by an Irish mate of mine after going to watch India v's Australia last year.

Try having the ball come at you at over 100 km/h and then decide .