I-merica!

I have always had the dream of making it big in America... and I think that this dream is true for many other people from Ireland. America has always represented opportunity, modernity, and the future for Irish people but these were opportunities were only available to those who took the Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to JFK. The lucky few who got the “Green Card”

In the 1980’s Dublin was low on all things American. I can vividly remember standing outside the HMV music store on Grafton Street in April 1987. This was the meeting place for all young people in Dublin, and all we were talking about was U2, The Joshua Tree, and the cover of Time magazine. Bono and U2 were on the cover and Ireland was on top of the world. It was a royal coronation for one of our own and we were wallowing in it. In 1986, just a year before we had experienced the unemployment “Self Aid” concert in the RDS so things were very bleak. Everything in Dublin was wet, and grey and Ireland felt forgotten. The U2 success in America was ours but we could not really touch or feel it. U2 and America were a blazing glory but all of this glory was really in America. Their world of colour made our black and white existence seem dull and tarnished.

Looking back now on that memory its feels like everything has changed. The wet grey Dublin that I can remember from my school days is a distant memory and where U2 showed the way larger and larger parts of Ireland have followed. The lights have been turned on, and we can all see the bright colours of life. We can all now make it big in America, and in reality, Ireland is now becoming part of America. We are America in Europe and that’s a very special place to be. No more phone calls to 10 Downing Street to talk about those funny speaking Europeans. The Americans can now do this from their very own outpost in Dublin.

Many people will not be comfortable with the idea of I-merica as I will now call this idea and place, but its a reality on our streets and in our businesses, and this is the locomotive that’s driving our whole economy. It's our future. Ireland’s economy through Covid19 is the best performing in the world because of I-merica, and our pharma plants will deliver the medicines and treatments to defeat the virus. We are finally part of the world, rather than an outpost simple observing.

We all know the stats about how much capital has been invested into Ireland, and the list of brand names from the USA continues to expand, but I see the change at a deeper level than simply money. It’s not only about American capital and businesses. I see a merging of our culture and values. We, the Irish are back influencing the White House, and the same exchange is taking place on this side of the pond. The interests of America are now the interests of Ireland and our defense of Apple against the EU sets the line in the sand - we will stand by our companies.. I see Americans choosing to live in Ireland alongside the Irish who choose to live in America.

As part of the US ecosystem, Ireland can build its own companies from the capital and talent pools that we now have access to. This is dynamic pooling of US and Irish talent and I think that many people are struggling to measure how high we can go with this. How high do we dare to fly and do we risk the moon? Yes I say!

Ireland still seems to split between our “glass is half full”, and “glass is half empty” personas so the transformation to I-merica is far from complete. We can still see the bad in great work, but that's changing as we are all changing. Now I have glimpsed the speck on the horizon as I-merica, I want to speed up. I want to get there faster to this new West. Where U2 showed us America in all its blazing glory, through massive light-filled stadiums, we can now all follow.