Cathal BarryFr MacGréil has called for a more balanced approach to assessing developers
A prominent priest-sociologist has said that builders and developers have been unfairly demonised and blamed for all of Ireland’s economic woes.
In his memoirs, due to be published this week, Jesuit Fr Micheál Mac Gréil writes that “when the good and the bad of the Celtic Tiger period for Ireland are put into the balance, the benefits greatly outweigh the deficiencies”.
He says that “developers and builders seem to have been demonised as a category and their lasting contribution to our infrastructure renewal is barely recognised”.
Fr Mac Gréil, who as a sociologist has spent decades researching and chronicling a changing Ireland, also points out that “most political parties supported the work of the Celtic Tiger and welcomed its benefits for workers and for the people”.
Nuanced
Calling for a more nuanced approach, Fr Mac Gréil writes: “Without such a balanced assessment we do those who developed and worked in renewing our infrastructure a great injustice and demoralise our young people by the obsession of some journalists and others who seem to be continuously emphasising and repeating the negativity without pointing out the positive.”
Fr Mac Gréil also insists that the rapid economic growth brought about by the Celtic Tiger had a direct influence on the peace process and the successful outcome of the 1998 talks process. “It provided a background, which was conducive to the positive negotiations which led up to the Good Friday Agreement. This in turn released the necessary energy for the people to develop post-Agreement Ireland (North and South).”