Madam, – I graduated from University College Cork on December 8th and had to good fortune to hear Theo Dorgan speak the words you printed in your paper (Opinion, December 9th).
Mr Dorgan’s words encapsulate the dilemma faced by many of my generation. Leave this island in search of a more certain future or stay behind and work towards a better republic. Opportunities abroad may be more promising, but that does not make walking away any easier. I do not want to abandon a sinking ship, but it is hard to stomach staying the course when the very people who are sinking the ship remain at the helm. I have completely lost faith in the institutions of state, but I’m not ready to give up on the nation. In short, I do not want to leave this country.
The question is, if I stay, in whose country will I remain? I believe Brian Cowen when he says, “I love my country”. But he doesn’t love my country.
My country is the one in which real people live, the country that his Government has failed and that thousands of young Irish people will have to leave behind. His country on the other hand is a much smaller place. It is a country that wants him as Taoiseach, a country that believes in what he says and what he does. It is a place of twisted morals and impenetrable language.
It is the country that brought us here and the only one that Brian Cowen seems interested in saving. He says we are where we are, but I don’t think he knows where that is any more. I know where I am; a bleak and uncertain future awaits me. But it should not be me who leaves my country behind. And it should not be Fianna Fáil’s Ireland that remains. – Yours, etc,