Characteristics Of Social Institutions In Ireland

Identify and describe key features of the main social institutions in Ireland.

Introduction

In my essay I will be identifying social institution in Ireland and how they affect young people. When we talk about social institutions we think of religion, economic, governmental, education and family. We can look at these five main institutions in Ireland today compared to thirty or forty years ago and we see a huge difference in society and among young people.

Main Body

Religion

Republic of Ireland was once known as mainly catholic country that was controlled by the church, its priest and bishops. In the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and into the early 90’s, the catholic church ran everything for youth, from youth clubs, to dances, to even what sport you

Looking back to the 1970’s, 80’s, 90’s and into the 21st century we have seen change like we have never seen before. In the 70’s and 80’s things in Ireland were disastrous for people looking too work as the economy was in a bad state. This was due to industrial disputes and inflation from oil around the world. Emigration was at its highest in years. There was massive borrowing and high tax rates as well as abolition of car tax had an impact of the economy. In the 90’s things improved majorly and we had the “Celtic Tiger”. We introduced a low corporate tax rate which encouraged foreign companies to set up their businesses in Ireland. The EU contributed over €10 billion into our infrastructure. We were known as one of the richest nations. Unfortunately things went dramatically wrong in 2008. The bank scandal came to light that they had been given companies and investor’s huge loans that the companies could not be paid back. Companies went bankrupt and we went into a recession which was worse than the one seen in the 70’s and 80’s. Emigration and unemployment escalated like we had never seen before. It wasn’t just in Ireland all over the world recessions hit countries everywhere. Things got so bad the IMF (International Monetary Fund) had to come over from the UN (United Nations) had to get involved in Ireland’s financial affairs. Due to this a lot of unsold property were sold of to vulture funds which has lead to high

This changed when Ireland got its independence in 1922. Things are changing slowly with educate together schools with the first one been set up in 1978 but getting more popular in 20 years to include all cultures, ethnics and religions. There are also Gaelscoileanna (Irish speaking schools) which were set up to teach children all their subjects in the Irish native language. With so many different cultures and religions in Ireland these schools are appealing if you want to raise your children outside of the Catholic Church influence. There are also more young people going to college now than there ever was before. This was more evident during the “Celtic Tiger” as the abolishment of college’s fees was introduced in 1996.

University tuition fees for undergraduates were abolished in Ireland in 1996 in an attempt to encourage greater access to third level education for all students regardless of their socio or economic background. (www.irishexaminer.com) (19 Aug 2016) [accessed 3 April