Your Country, Your Call - It smacks of Irish inferiority

Before I read the details of the “Your Country, Your Call” campaign I really didn’t comprehend just how dire this country’s situation is. Sure, businesses are folding daily, the unemployment rate is rising ever higher and the answer to the recession seems more than elusive, like it may not actually exist at all.

But at least the country’s mindset remains strong. Despite its grave problems, Ireland still manages to retain some of the Celtic Tiger swagger. The inferiority complex of the 80s is gone. Ireland isn’t some third-world backwater anymore; it’s a modern European nation.

Reading Your Country, Your Call it seems that this confidence is completely gone. We’re back to the myopic, parochial thinking of old. The campaign invites you to submit “Your Ireland Moment”.

According to the website, “It could be a great memory of time spent here as a visitor, or a time when you felt really proud to be Irish, an occasion when you thought, ‘Wow, I didn’t think we could do that!’ or when we took the lead and surprised the world!”

Imagine the USA or France proposing something similar. The whole notion smacks of Irish inferiority. The idea that the government yelling, “Remember the time we won the Grand Slam!” is enough to incite pride in the country is an embarrassment. You can’t force feed pride – it’s a mindset. This campaign is evidence of how easily manipulated the government thinks the people are; how they really do view this country as just a little island off the coast of Britain.

The main thrust of the campaign however is about proposing an idea to get us out of the recession. If you do, you could win a cash prize. That’s how hard up the government is for ideas – it’s begging the public to have a go, enticing them with the prospect of winning €100,000.

The campaign aims to restore confidence in the country. By approaching that task in such a patronising manner it has achieved the opposite.