[4]

New Year's Day, 2010: Given the dire economic situation, the shocking revelations of clerical child abuse, the greed of so many bankers, the flooding that caused such heartbreak, the current - by our standards - 'Big Freeze', most Irish people seem glad to see the back of 2009. Optimists do claim to see 'green shoots' of recovery; others are not so sure....[13] In the midst of all this doom and gloom, there have been some very positive developments in the town. The new Leisure Centre on the Ridge Road has been a great success since it opened in December 2006 and, on the educational front, we now have two new schools: Portlaoise College (September 2006) on the Mountrath Road, and the huge campus on the Borris Road shared by Portlaoise C.B.S. Secondary School and Scoil Chríost Rí, the Presentation Convent Secondary School. This state-of-the-art campus, which opened in September 2010, was then the most modern educational facility in the country. Also opened in September, and located in the old 'Tech' building in Railway Street, Educate Together is the town's first non-denominational national school. In a country where more than 90 per cent of primary schools are controlled by the Catholic Church [14], this is an historic and most welcome development. October 2010: Two years after the official declaration of recession, you'd need a microscope to find any 'green shoots'. In fact, given the scale of national debt, high unemployment figures, and general antipathy towards an inept government and bankers who appear to be getting away with the proverbial murder, we are in a worse state than ever. For all the evidence you need, you only have to walk around our town: empty business premises, huge queues outside the dole office, streets deserted on weekday nights (one local publican remarked that even the tumbleweed wasn't out) and so-called 'ghost estates', of which there are currently 2,800 across the country; in even starker terms, that is 23,000 new houses completed but unoccupied and 20,000 left unfinished.[15] To put the general situation in colloquial terms: recovery me arse! December 2010: The year began with icy cold, and now it is ending with some of the heaviest snow and lowest temperatures in living memory. For weeks, the town and surrounding countryside looked beautiful but dangerous for drivers and pedestrians alike. We felt particularly sorry for emigrants whose journeys home for Christmas were thrown into protracted chaos. We were all dreaming of a green Christmas when temperatures rose suddenly, ice thawed and throughout the town frozen pipes began to burst. Most of us were without running water for days (the sight of townspeople queuing at water tankers conjured up Third World images we thought we'd never witness) and, in the month's extremely difficult weather, many saw the perfect symbol for the state our country now finds itself in. After years of incompetence and stubborness, deference to bankers and developers, and apparent indifference to the rest of us, on Wednesday, December 15th, our hopeless Taoiseach and his craven colleagues were forced to accept an 85 billion euro bailout (in effect, new capital to shore up our reckless, greedy banks) from the European Union, European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. This so-called 'Troika' - the latest addition to our Vocabulary of Gloom - generously concocted a deal that the people of Ireland, through cutbacks and tax increases, will be paying for for many years to come. It is indeed a great relief to be saying good riddance to an annus horribilis that The Irish Times described as "one of the lowest points in our 92-year-old democracy".[16] June 2011: According to preliminary figures from the Census conducted in April, Laois has the highest population growth in the country- 20 per cent over the last five years. There are now 40,500 men and 39,958 women living in our county.[17] In effect, Portlaoise and Portarlington in particular, have become commuter towns for Dublin with trainloads of people going to work in the city each morning. There are large numbers of people from Dublin and also sizable Eastern European and African communities in the town, and the overall population increase is putting great pressure on local schools and services. And despite a glimmer of optimisim following the election of a new coalition government in February, unemployment in the town remains rampant, and everywhere you look there are signs of the continuing recession. There was great surprise, for instance, when, after twenty nine years, one of the town's most popular restaurants closed its doors for good on Saturday May 7th. Jim Tynan's Kitchen and Foodhall may have been the most high-profile closure, but a walk down the main street confirms that it was far from being the only victim of these merciless times. And to end on an even more sombre note: In 2011, for the first time ever - as far as records are available - the number of deaths in Portlaoise exceeded 100.[18] January 2012: Any glimmer of optimism ignited by the new government last February has been well and truly smothered by the pall of gloom that hangs over the entire country. According to a survey of more than 1000 people conducted on behalf of the Samaritans,[19] more than two-thirds are worried they will not have enough money to live comfortably in 2012. Almost half of those surveyed were worried about losing their jobs or having problems finding work next year, while a fifth were concerned they would lose their home. House prices in Portlaoise have dropped dramatically since the height of the Celtic Tiger madness (the average price of a second-hand 3-bed semi, for instance, was €245,000: today they can be bought for as little as €100,000.[20] The problem is, of course, that the absence of lending by the bailed-out banks and job insecurity mean that it is investors/speculators with cash in their pockets and, not young, first-time buyers that are snapping them up. That's the reality we're living with today. According to the 2011 Census (results published in March 2012), Laois was the fastest-growing county in Ireland. At 80,559, (40,587 men, 39,972 women) the population was up by 20% since 2006, a growth rate more than twice that of the country as a whole.[21] We also had the highest ratio of men to women - a statistic that prompted the headline "Line up, ladies - it's raining men in Laois" [22] - but, tógaigí go bog é, a chailíní, closer inspection reveals that this applied to lads over the age of 75. In a further breakdown of statistics released on April 26th, [23] the population of Portlaoise town was 20,145, an increase of 37.9% since the 2006 Census. [13] "It looks as if 2010 will be only a little less challenging than 2009." The Irish Times Business Review. December 31, 2009. [14] The Irish Times. November 17, 2010. [15] The Irish Times. October 24, 2010. [16] Monday, December 27, 2010 [17] The Irish Times. Friday, July 1, 2011. [18] The Leinster Express.. Friday, February 15, 2012. [19] The Irish Times. Thursday, January 5, 2012. [20] The Sunday Times. Analysis of Irish property values. January 15, 2012. [21] The Irish Times. Friday, March 30, 2012. [22] The Irish Independent. Friday, March 30, 2012. [23] The Irish Times. Friday, April 27, 2012. HOMEPAGE