Dublin: setting the example for its European neighbors

On “The Irish city that won Facebook”, published on May 1^st 2016 [access QR code]

1.      Expats

2.      Housing shortage

3.      Impromptu

Even though the article that I chose to write about is not particularly a news article, I still think that it is relevant to mention as a kind of current event. Dublin is now considered the European Silicon Valley. In fact, Dublin is the protagonist of the article, because eight years after the 2008 economic crisis it has become an important European business center, almost as a reborn phoenix.

Apparently, this article may be categorized, in journalistic terms, as a fait-divers, i.e. a piece about trivial facts, made to entertain or mostly without much importance to the readers. However, it is much more than that: this article includes relevant information about Irish geography, economy and lifestyle. I find it useful and enriching, a source of organized, legit data and a complete, though brief, insight on the capital city of Ireland, now renowned because of the new companies establishing there - consequently bringing new people and revitalizing the national economy. In few words, Dublin is portrayed as an attractive city for expats, even those who cannot speak English (yet), but simultaneously a cozy, calm place where some traditions are still preserved.

Being an article published on BBC website, there are some specialized words that the common reader is not used to, namely expats, housing shortage and impromptu.

Expats/expatriates [EN] or expatriados [PT] are words with different connotations. On the one hand, in Portuguese, expatriados are normally people who have to abandon their country due to political reasons, therefore having to live in exile. On the other, the expats, in English, are emigrants, people who live abroad, but who still have the possibility to go back to their home country.

Next, housing shortage, an economical concept, consists on the lack of houses, considering the increase of population living in Dublin, which contributes to higher rents than usual.

Lastly, impromptu is a word adapted from the Latin, which nowadays is used as a synonym for in site, without much previous planning – in this case, impromptu concerts are concerts happening spontaneously in the street.

When it comes to comparing Dublin to Silicon Valley, for those who are not aware of it, Silicon Valley is a growing area in San Francisco Bay, Northern California, in the United States, where many successful companies and corporations, such as Facebook, Google, eBay and Apple, have been located, particularly high-tech and start-up businesses. As one is bound to imagine, this “valley” is named after the electrical semiconductors’ material, silicon.

Concentrating a lot of financial investments, Silicon Valley is a magnet for the great minds and entrepreneurs of the century. Comparing Dublin to Silicon Valley is, therefore, the best compliment ever in terms of economical regeneration for Europe. Indeed, it is stated in the article that “[…] more than 600 American companies alone – including Facebook and Pfizer – have moved part of their business to the Emerald Isle [Ireland] in the last few years […]”.

In conclusion, Dublin is still an affordable city to live in, but its cost of living is becoming higher every year. There is a cycle going on: Dublin is a great place, then more people and enterprises are moving there; if more people and enterprises move there, prices rise; if prices rise… Well, should we expect the cycle to be interrupted or will the inflation turn into deflation sometime in the future and affect Ireland and Europe negatively? What is the cost of becoming a cosmopolitan city?

Well… at this moment, let’s celebrate Dublin as the European city setting the example against the tendency to dramatize and not overcoming economic crisis.