Richer Lives

The Irish ambassador to several countries including Indonesia is in Jakarta today.

Hopefully he can rake in some Rupiah on behalf of Ireland - I never thought I'd be saying that!

Recently, I have been thinking a about Ireland's economic predicament.

I have heard a lot about impending mass migration out of the country. It is a lamentable situation.

But, I always thought the Ireland I grew up in, the successful brash Celtic Tiger Ireland was too insular. That's not unusual - you learn from your mistakes not your successes.

For example, I remember when I was in college in Germany, how I thought that while many of my fellow students came from poorer countries across the world they had much richer educational experiences in Germany than my school classmates that mostly went to college at home.

I had chosen to study in Germany on a whim; most of my international classmates were forced to study in Germany because of the woeful level of education at home.

Perhaps that's a silver lining, however sad it is that a generation of Irish people will end up living in foreign lands, many of them will lead richer lives, experiencing and learning more of the world than they ever would have if they had stayed at home.