Episode 104: Why Amn't I In Australia?

Rendezvous with Jamie McGlue

Ireland is beautiful! The grass is always greener and so Australia may seem like the wise move if you are a young Irish person looking around at the mess our government has got us into and the many pressures and limitations one must deal with on the Emerald Isle. However, this island and this nation are precious beyond imagining and in this episode I will offer you my perspective on why Éire is the place to be! Born and raised in Australia to Irish immigrant parents, then ‘reimmigrating’ to Ireland myself as an adult, I personally prefer to live in Ireland and hope to share among the disenchanted Irish an awareness of just how magical and special this country is. Australia is a lovely place and full of potential for a great life, and very likely some Irish people are just better suited to the sunny shores of Down-Under; but I believe the majority of us are instead naturally suited to and in love with our island home in the misty north, full of history, culture, craic, colour and humour. All we need is to nurture and devote ourselves to spiritual, intellectual and political revival and with even a fraction of the population all-in with this quest, Ireland will in a few short years look far more like Australia in the best of ways, but with that home-feeling that those who go to Australia suffer missing. And the truth is Ireland is in a sticky situation, attacked by powerful forces which – for whatever motivation – are seeking to utterly vanquish what made Ireland Ireland and what so many of us feel echoing sweetly in the halls of our souls. I ask any young Irishman or Irishwoman reading this: devote yourself to a life in Éire and in your own way help our soulful island heal and flourish like we haven’t in a millennium. This generation of the Irish have the opportunity to bring our ancestral story to a glorious triumphant crescendo, making all the sufferings and struggles of our forebears worth it. The most meaningful life is in pursuing the good not only of oneself but simultaneously a greater good beyond oneself; so we can have all we dream of and more, by shouldering the burdens of the imperfect Ireland of today and giving our powers to unleashing a spiritual and political revolution that will allow our natural wealth and well-being to flower, and so inspire the whole world. We can follow our mates over to the underside of the planet, or make Ireland so damn deadly that our mates move back with smiles the size of Australia.