We were promised a drought and we got a deluge. We indulged in festivals, races and monster concerts, but were as happy to sit back and watch others run around. And the recession hit, so we went shopping. This was summer living in Ireland in 2009
THE WEATHERMAN: ‘WE EXPECTED DROUGHT CONDITIONS’
Weather-wise there has been quite a lot of variation across the country, and also between different parts of the summer. We had some very nice weather in June, but July over most of the country was a real washout. August has been warm and dry, but with quite heavy rain and it has been very dull. Temperatures have been above normal, but that’s because of some very mild nights.
On the June bank-holiday weekend, we had lovely weather all over the country, particularly the western half, where the highest temperatures were recorded. They turned out to be the highest of the summer – 28.6 degrees, at University College, Galway on June 2nd, the highest June temperature since 1989 – and probably will remain so.
In July, the north and northwest tended to get the best of the weather. Malin Head only had normal rainfall for the month, whereas in Valentia, for example, it was the wettest July on record. Not only that, but it was the wettest summer on record. They’ve had 493mm of rain so far this year. The previous record was 455mm, that was in 1950. Mullingar has also just passed its summer rainfall record, with 366mm recorded there so far.
As to whether these records are connected to global warming, it’s very difficult to say. If anything, the models show that we would have expected drought conditions over the summer – or, at least, drier than we’re used to – in the southeastern half of the country, with wetter weather in the northwest. Which is exactly the opposite of what happened. I think it’s really just a feature of how variable the weather is in Ireland at any time. Thanks to the fact of our geographic location, we’re always going to get that variability in our weather.
Peter Lennon, Met Éireann
THE TOURIST: ‘YOU SEE ALL KINDS ON A BIKE’
This summer we spent a month around Derrynane in west Kerry. The weather was so bad, you couldn’t go to the beach, so we decided to go cycling every day. Some days we went over to Sneem, which is a good 22km cycle. We’d have a good lunch, then head back. Another day we drove to Portmagee, parked the cars, and a gang of us drove around Valentia and had lunch in Knightstown. The countryside is gorgeous, but there are also lots of hills, so you’d be damned glad of your lunch.
I’ve been going to Kerry all my life, but sitting on a bike opens up a whole new world. You see things so differently. You’ll be going along and you’ll see a sign – look, there’s a turn to the old cemetery, or a stake fort, or whatever. If you were driving you’d see those turn-offs and say, ‘I wouldn’t be bothered going down there.’ But on a bike you will be bothered.
Charlotte Eglington, press officer with the Irish Chamber Orchestra
THE SPORTS FAN: ‘A LOT OF PEOPLE CAN BELIEVE AGAIN’
It has been a strange summer, sports-wise. There haven’t been many major international things going on. No World Cup; no Olympics. But it depends when you consider the summer started. If you take in May, then you’ve got Leinster winning the Heineken Cup, which would have been a highlight for a lot of people. I’m from Kerry, and I’d be a Munster rugby fan, but I was delighted for Leinster. They battled through and refused to be beaten, even when people didn’t expect them to win.
From a GAA point of view, there’s been ups and downs for every county. But what Cork has managed to do, getting to an all-Ireland final, is really impressive. The other team that impressed me was the Wicklow football team. It’s great to see a non-traditional GAA county such as Wicklow doing so well.
There have also been a couple of unlikely golf superstars: Shane Lowry winning the Irish Open, and then YE Yang, the South Korean golfer who beat Tiger Woods to win the US PGA championship. Another thing you’d have to say about the summer in sport is how well Irish athletes did in the World Athletics Championships in Berlin. But even that has been overshadowed by the brilliance of Usain Bolt. Athletics has been through such a bad time, and people have become reluctant to believe any amazing performance is the real thing. But thanks to him, a lot of people can believe in this sport again – or, at least, believe in him, that he’s genuinely clean. It’s the way he does it that’s inspirational. Watching greatness in motion – that has to be one of the highlights of the summer, for me anyway.
Jerry O’Sullivan, presenter of the Sunday Sports Show on Newstalk
THE FESTIVAL JUNKIE: ‘WORTH STAYING IN IRELAND FOR’
It’s hard to be cynical about our summer festivals, and is there a town in Ireland left without one? Whether it’s sailing, walking, eating, horses, lovely girls (aka the Rose of Tralee), literature, music, street theatre, or general all-purpose arts, no corner of the land is untouched, all the result of epic amounts of hard work by organisers, volunteers and performers. So how did the festivals of summer 2009 fare, battered both by the weather and the chill winds of economic misfortune?
While not everyone has their full figures in, many report that Irish visitor numbers were up. Kilkenny saw an extra 13 per cent coming from around Ireland, with Kinsale and Earagail suggesting similar figures. In Galway, boosted by the Volvo Ocean Race earlier in the year, as well as by the refurbished Druid Theatre playing host to Tom Murphy’s The Gigli Concert, director Paul Fahy reckons there were more American and UK visitors than in 2008. At Boyle, the number of international visitors was up too, thanks (among other things) to the Saw Doctors and the natural beauty of the area.
This year, sponsors became rare, so those who did hang in there with financial support, including the stalwart Arts Council, plus all the local businesses, should take a bow. One “benefit” of the recession, however, was the availability of vacant buildings to serve as temporary venues – at Kinsale, a café, a hairdresser’s and a butcher’s all became galleries for the week. Many festivals reported an increase in ticket sales, although there were more last-minute decisions, causing early panic for some box-office managers. What did sell out everywhere was what must be the most toured show of the summer: Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience, which offered patrons at Clonmel, Earagail in Donegal, Kinsale and Cairde in Sligo the chance to be entertained over dinner by actors posing as Basil, Sybil and Manuel from the TV show.
In Kerry, this year’s goat nearly didn’t get to Killorglin in time to be crowned king at Puck Fair. The goat (Billy) was caught in Antrim after a team of 12 spent nearly three weeks tracking him: “It was just a question of picking our moment and grabbing it,” said Seamus Blaney. But Billy made it, and so did the thousands of artists and performers to their respective festivals, plus hundreds of thousands of visitors from here, and around the world – revelling in the atmosphere, dodging the rain showers, and generally making summer 2009 something worth staying in Ireland for.
Gemma Tipton
THE GIG GOER: ‘OFFSTAGE ISSUES DOMINATED ANALYSIS’
As has become the norm with Irish summer gigging, the offstage issues dominated the post-game analysis again this season.
While Oasis, AC/DC and U2 played at Slane Castle, Punchestown and Croke Park respectively, most of the focus afterwards was not on what the bands did or did not play. Instead, it was all about transport problems, as Oasis and AC/DC fans fumed to anyone who’d listen about public transport and crowd control issues.Naturally, Liveline had a field day.
Meanwhile, there were also complaints and protests in the wake of the U2 shows from residents around Croke Park over the time it took production crews to dismantle and remove the elaborate stage-set.
Shifting tickets proved to be a tougher task in 2009 for concert promoters, as the recession took its toll on disposable incomes. While there were a number of very fast sell-outs (Take That, Oasis, AC/DC), it was a whole lot easier get your hands on tickets for blockbuster acts such as the Eagles than was the case in previous years.
Despite having to deal with atrocious weather conditions, Oxegen-goers did get to enjoy the musical line-up of the summer, with stellar performances from Blur, The Script, Lily Allen, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and many more.
Meanwhile, there was a growing appreciation for the smaller festivals, with good reports emitting from Castle Palooza, Indiependence, Knockanstockan and Glasgowbury.
And the summer isn’t over yet. Still to come: the Electric Picnic this weekend and Cois Fharraige in Kilkee the weekend after.
Jim Carroll
THE MOVIE BUFF: ‘€8 MILLION FOR A GOOD HANGOVER’
Don’t worry. We’re not going to drag out that old cliché about punters seeking song and laughter during times of recession. (Well, we just have, but we won’t mention it again.) The fact is that comedies have always done disproportionately well at the Irish box-office. So, we should not be altogether surprised that The Hangover – a genuinely hilarious romp about the aftermath of a stag night – comfortably cruised past such heavy hitters as Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen to become the most lucrative film of the Irish summer. Nearly three months after its release, the picture is still playing in 28 screens and has just become our 10th biggest film of all time. Want some more jaw-dropping statistics? Well, a full 22 per cent of The Hangover’s combined UK and Ireland takings were gathered in this country. Consider that Ireland’s population is about 8 per cent of the UK’s and you’ll get some sense of how much we adore The Hangover.
Looking at the rest of the box-office chart for films released after May 1st in the Republic of Ireland, we find our tastes fitting a little more snugly with the rest of the world’s. Harry Potter and Transformers, the Irish number two and four, were first and second worldwide. Brüno did better in Ireland than in most territories, but it is a comedy and it did get a kinder certificate (16) here than in many countries.
Star Trek, a film almost everybody seemed to love, might have been expected to chart a bit higher (it was eighth worldwide also), but some sort of Trekphobia still appears to affect floating voters. Just nudged out of the top 10 by two kids’ movies, Terminator Salvation – although not nearly as bad as many reviews suggested – must be regarded as a significant financial failure.
One of the big stories of the summer is, however, hidden elsewhere in the figures. Although only around 20 per cent of screens showing films available in 3-D were able to offer punters the process – the rest showed the old-fashioned flat versions – those screenings accounted for about 50 per cent of takings for the relevant pictures. Exhibitors often charge a tad more for 3-D movies, but that is still an impressive haul. Heaven alone knows how much a bumpy version of The Hangover might have taken in.
Donald Clarke
THE J1-ER: ‘ALCOHOL AND DRUGS ARE READILY AVAILABLE’
They say that your J1 summer away is supposed to be the experience of a lifetime, so I headed west to the Californian coast.
I stopped in LA for a couple of days, but found it unbearably like so many cities in the developed world, and quickly left to meet friends in Santa Barbara. This “city”, although barely a large town, impressed me with it’s stunning Spanish architecture, beautiful upmarket shops and restaurants, and relaxed attitude. The one thing that shocked me, however, was the number of Irish students in this quiet town. I had not realised that such an elegant and expensive town would attract so many college kids. The ratio of locals to Irish became rather unbalanced during the summer months, and it became apparent that the locals were none-too-fond of the boisterous Irish students.
I was forcibly reminded of the “Irish need not apply” signs of old as the majority of J1 travellers found themselves without steady employment in Santa Barbara this summer. I heard of a similar story in other cities, with many students leaving early due to lack of employment. The American recession could be just as unforgiving as its Celtic counterpart.
So with funds running low in our own group, we arranged ourselves a more stable residence in Isla Vista, a few kilometres away. Isla Vista was a little slice of heaven for me, a small beach town with a laid-back surfer attitude, inhabited almost exclusively by students; but students, Irish or American, left to their own devices in a beach paradise where alcohol and drugs are readily available is a recipe for trouble. The local police tackled the problem of underage drinking with fervour, but seemed to care little for the overwhelming prevalence of drugs in the area. In fact, the dichotomy of life in Santa Barbara struck me instantly. There were homeless people begging for quarters, while other locals drove their enormous gas-guzzling jeeps by them.
The students took care to eat a healthy diet and work out every day, but didn’t think twice about snorting massive amounts of cocaine at night, or engaging in frequent, unprotected sex. This shocked me at first, and I thought that perhaps I had lived too sheltered a life at home, but I came to realise that it was not I who was sheltered, but these students of Isla Vista, who lived in a bubble of youth and transience in which no one ever grew old, and their actions had no visible consequences.
While it was with great sadness that I left sunny Santa Barbara behind and came back to dreary Ireland in the midst of a recession, I knew that it was necessary to leave paradise in order to keep some perspective on the real world.
Surfing, shopping and partying, although thoroughly enjoyable, did not exactly stimulate me mentally, and I cannot imagine living in a place where such pleasures continued indefinitely.
I brought home several treasured souvenirs and memories from my J1 summer to keep the paradise alive, at least in my mind, and despite being several thousand euro poorer for my experience, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. It really was the summer of my life.
Laura Brady
THE BARGAIN HUNTER: ‘BRIGHT SPOT IN A GLOOMY SUMMER – IKEA’
The Kerry dolphins, wise old almanacs, water-filled wells and the British Met office joined forces to convince people there would be a glorious summer this year.
Sunny optimism, combined with wage cuts and tax hikes, meant staycations were all the rage but holidays at home turned into their by now traditional washout.
Tour operators struggled to stay open, hotels slashed prices to drum up new trade, and publicans said business was down at least 10 per cent.
But for many consumers there was one bright spot in an otherwise gloomy summer: Ikea. Years of talking, planning and road building culminated in the Swedish flatpack giant finally opening its doors in Dublin in July.
Downturn notwithstanding, more than 6,000 people have been piling through its doors daily ever since in search of cheap furniture, lamps and meatballs. Despite the crowds, few people had a bad word to say about their Ikea experience.
The same could not be said of people trying to hire a car at home or abroad. The credit crunch hit the car-rental sector hard and the costs on the Costa del Sol jumped by almost 300 per cent, as Spanish banks refused credit to the car-hire companies to replenish their stock. While prices did not climb so high in Ireland, shortages meant many tourists had to do without.
The supermarket price war intensified as the summer progressed. Tesco initially lowered the price of goods in its stores in the Border region by 22 per cent to stop the flow of shoppers from the Republic, and over the summer it rolled out price cuts across the State.
Not everyone was happy with the move. Irish suppliers complained that they were being squeezed out of the stores while consumers noticed that some popular Irish brands had a reduced presence on the Tesco shelves.
Marks Spencer rolled out a price-reduction campaign of its own across its clothes and furniture departments.
Despite the price moves, consumer complaints of high prices and discrepancies between euro and sterling prices in major multiples continued.
Tayto announced the return of its spring-onion-flavoured crisps but the big food story of the summer had to do with another Irish staple – spice burgers. Walsh Family Foods, the last company in the State to make them, announced it was going out of business and a receiver was duly appointed.
Following a public outcry, and a Facebook petition, the company recommenced production of its famous burgers.
It also went to the High Court to prevent its former owner and director, Patrick Walsh, from using the burger's secret recipe to sell his own version of the fast-food staple.
Conor Pope
THE DOCTOR: ‘THE SWINE-FLU SUMMER’
Aside from the bad weather, summer 2009 will be remembered as the swine-flu summer. The first inkling of a problem came in mid-April, when the World Health Organisation said it had identified a new influenza virus in Mexico. It wasn’t the expected H5N1 avian version but a different strain of influenza that emerged when viruses of pig, bird and human origin mixed to produce a novel H1N1 virus, which younger people and pregnant women are particularly susceptible to.
It was early May before the Republic confirmed its first case of swine flu. Initially, cases were slow to emerge here; those patients that were diagnosed had been to Mexico or parts of the US where the virus was spreading rapidly. Compared to the UK and Spain, Ireland and other European countries have got away relatively lightly so far. The first of two deaths here occurred on August 7th, when an 18-year-old woman with cystic fibrosis died from swine flu at Tallaght hospital.
By then, public-health authorities had moved from a policy of laboratory testing everyone suspected of having the disease to a policy of tracking the virus’s progress by means of a network of GP practices. In addition, Tamiflu, the main anti-viral drug used to combat influenza, would no longer be offered to everyone; only those with the illness who had underlying chronic conditions and those with a severe illness are now prescribed Tamiflu.
The latest figures show the rate of people consulting GPs with influenza-like illnesses decreased to 33.4 per 100,000 of the population, from a rate of 38.8/100,000 for the previous week. Rates have remained relatively stable for a month or so but can be expected to rise again, once students at schools and universities have settled in to term. The current situation for the now renamed virus – Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 – is that 713 cases have been confirmed in Ireland, the majority (80 per cent) affecting people younger than 35. At any given time, between four and six victims require intensive care in hospital but the vast majority of those infected experience a mild flu-like illness requiring some bed rest, fluids and paracetamol.
Dr Muiris Houston
