Social Issues in Ireland

A few days ago, I spent time to travel around Dublin. I really like the ancient buildings such as Irish Parliament, Bank of Irish, Churches, etc. I also like the weather here now because it is summer, not too hot, not too cold. I love Irish people because they are so friendly. They said hello to me whenever they saw me on the road. So nice of them.

On the other hand, I knew that there are many beggars/homeless on the road because of many reasons. They mostly can't find a job because they have no address. They have social welfare but it seems that it is not enough for them. Some of them are addicted to alcohol or drugs.

Moreover, I also found that they, probably Irish people, are not patient enough when waiting for the red light. They often cross the road when the red light is on. Certainly, they observe around before crossing. This is thing that I do not expect seeing in a such developed country.

Furthermore, participating in the X IASSCS, I knew two worrying issues in Ireland are that the prostitute and abortion. The X IASSCS conference entitled “Literacies and Sexualities in Cultural, Fictional, Real, and Virtual Worlds: Past, Present, Future Perfect?”, 17th-20th June, 2015 is on going in Dublin, Ireland, There are many speakers, delegates, presenters from 50 countries around the world. A huge number of presentations related to sexual literacy has been presented. They have shared experiences in terms of politics, laws, and social issues which relate to sexuality in Ireland.

I was impressed by a video about the prostitutions included human trafficking in Ireland. It seems that they are facing that problem. RUHAMA is an NGO working with women who are affected by prostitution and sex trafficking in Ireland. (www.ruhama.ie)

Another problem is abortion. It is a taboo because Ireland is a Catholic country. So abortion is illegal. Thus, women here have to travel to other countries such as United Kingdom, and USA to abort in need. The government are now launching some campaigns to change the law, to make it - abortion - legal.

To conclude, every country has faced their own social issues. Ireland is a developed country, but their problems are similar to other developing countries. Some issues in Ireland seem to be more serious than other countries. Particularly, abortion is a very challenging issue in this Catholic country.

An Nguyen Dublin, June 17th, 2015

P/S: Thank you, Nguyen Thanh Tung, for editing this article :)