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LAST UPDATE | 19 Nov 2024
COULD WE COPE with a nation of teenagers? It’s what Ireland might be facing, given that our lack of affordable housing is forcing young people to stay in their childhood homes long after their teenage years should have ended.
The raging hormonal adolescent has become such a notorious stereotype that we might expect it has always been an accepted stage of development, but the concept was only introduced in Western countries at the beginning of the 20th century. Since then, researchers believe that the length of adolescence has been increasing due to societal changes. The housing crisis could be a critical factor contributing to prolonged adolescence in young Irish people, creating a generation who are forced to remain stuck in their childhood environment and cannot fully transition into adulthood.
We’re all watching the pre-election promises of political parties ahead of the General Election at the end of this month. The polling tells us that it’s a fait accompli, that the same parties will be back in, and that we can expect very little to change. Regardless of what outcome we may expect, it doesn’t change the frustration that young people feel witnessing political inaction when it comes to the housing crisis.
For the thousands of homeless in this country and the many of us trapped in the reality of never affording our own homes, it feels like housing hasn’t been discussed enough yet in this election. This housing crisis disempowers so many of us across society. It is a crisis, but we’ve perhaps heard the word for so long that it means nothing anymore.
We feel like this for many reasons; we fear the prospect of endless renting, fighting roommates for milk well into our 30s and using our wages to pay someone else’s mortgage. It may seem like those who have the option to live with their parents are in a superior position – they can save on rent and don’t have to worry about living at the mercy of a stranger’s whims. But what are the effects of staying in one’s childhood bedroom, or returning to the scene of adolescence after you’ve supposedly grown up?
I was lucky to return to the sanctuary of my family home during the first Covid-19 lockdown; I had a roof over my head, food in the fridge, and a room of my own. However, being back in this environment – one I curated for myself first as a child, and then as a teenager – made me feel like I was turning back the clock.
An incoherent collection of items from my life live in my room, from stuffed animals with worn-down ears, to tap dancing shoes that would only fit a nine-year-old. Makeup that I wouldn’t dare wear now sits untouched in a drawer, and my Transition Year hoodie haunts the wardrobe. Nothing about the room feels adult and, living in it, neither did I.
Returning to this familiar environment made me revert to old behaviours and routines I had long forgotten.
Despite being vegetarian for years, the only lunch option I could think of was a plain chicken sandwich on O’Hara’s sliced pan. Even though I didn’t have a pair in my Dublin home, I reached for black leggings daily like my hand was guided by teenage insecurity.
It’s well documented that our environment can influence our behaviour, and that returning to a familiar space can reignite old habits and mental states. For this reason, you may find yourself acting like a teenager again just by inhabiting the environment where you grew up. This regression is something I’ve discussed with friends, who say they must fight to get back into their adult headspace when returning to their childhood home. They related to feeling restrained by the choices they used to make as a teenager, and said they even fell into old argumentative patterns with parents and siblings, which never happened in their adult life.
If we feel this regression when we return home for Christmas or visit for the weekend, what must it do to those forced to live in their childhood homes because it’s the only option they have?
Staying in this environment could possibly create a prolonged adolescence. And what, really, is the difference between being a teenager and feeling as though you have no choice but to act like one? While we might consider adolescence to be a defined period from about 12 to 18, research defines adolescence as a period of developmental maturation which starts with biological changes and ends with social maturity.
This idea of adolescence is relatively modern, only entering the Western zeitgeist at the turn of the 20th century, with G. Stanley Hall characterising this “new” developmental stage as the period before full maturity. The Industrial Revolution and the advent of compulsory education allowed children to avoid labour, thereby prolonging their dependence on their families and offering them a slower transition into full adulthood.
Adolescence does not take place during a strict set of years but, rather, is an expanding period impacted by one’s environment. Children seem to reach biological maturation significantly quicker nowadays, and the age of social maturation is being pushed further into one’s 20s. Researchers believe that adolescence may be stretched out due to social factors such as labour and lifestyle, and it’s possible that the housing crisis could play a role in extending it even further.
Due to rising housing costs and stagnant wages, many young adults cannot afford to move out and live independently. While affordable housing is incredibly difficult to find for those who move to Irish cities to work or study, people who live within a commutable distance of their occupation are not necessarily better off in the long run. Students who live at home while attending college, for instance, relinquish the opportunity to step fully into adulthood after their teenage years. If they stay in the same city for work, sky-high rent prices will have them hard-pressed to find an excuse to give up the affordability of life at home.
By making staying at home the best option for young people, the housing crisis is preventing them from transitioning into fully autonomous adulthood, keeping them in a psychological adolescence.
Forcing young people to delay their adulthood also affects Irish society on a larger scale. Data from the Central Statistics Office shows that birth rates have declined in the past decade, while the age of first-time mothers has increased, suggesting that Irish young people are delaying starting families or opting not to. After all, how can you be expected to raise a child when your environment prompts you to still behave like one?
The housing crisis is keeping a generation of Irish young adults in a state of prolonged adolescence, physically stuck in their childhood homes and psychologically trapped in teenage mindsets. While there are countless reasons the government should be motivated to improve the accessibility of affordable housing, perhaps facing a generation of moody, teenage adults will be the push they need to take critical action.
But it’s clear on Friday, 29 November those of us over 18 can do one thing that younger adolescents cannot, we can vote. All parties, whether government or not, will make tantalising promises around housing. The housing crisis cannot be turned around overnight, but policy does make a difference. So do the research, speak to the candidates at the door and tell them your story. Then listen to the debates, weed through the waffle, and exercise your democratic right to vote. It’s all we have left.
Sarah Moran is a writer, editor and researcher. She graduated from English literature and psychology at Trinity College in 2022 and has since worked as a news verification journalist and communications associate.
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Most of this ‘lost business’ is overcharging – how did all these places survive the last 6 years without 5 garths a summer
Forget about the hotels. What about me 80,000 cowboy hats
This country has bailed out enough cowboys already!
Sick of all this crap that these businesses are losing money! What have they done for all the years there was no Garth Brook$?
On that map of Dublin there are 2 understaffed underfunded children’s hospitals if Garth wants to play so badly and he loves the people of Ireland so much let him give half a million to each of these hospitals???
Not a chance sick of Aiken saying Brook$ is in it for millions… We’ll let him show the colour of his money then play away then FCUK off back to the US and don’t darken our shores again!!!
Garth already gave a hospital $500,000 then he sued the hospital and got $1 million in damages.Great guy.
He has a “History” of donating to Hospitals and then sueing for his money back….he donated 500k to one and because they didnt name a ward after his Mother he sued to get it back..nice guy not Money driven st all…Google it ..
The “history” is one hospital and the lawsuit was over them not using the money for it’s intended, agreed purpose – building a women’s health centre in his mother’s name. Emphasis on women’s health centre. They used it for other projects.
http://www.newser.com/story/138199/garth-brooks-sues-hospital-to-get-500k-donation-back.html
Seriously enough!! Please!!!!
Will we ever recover from this ? I can’t leave the house for the shame of it.
I heard that we will need a second troika bailout to get over this. That bailout will be 10 times bigger than Cowans one
Well Garth Brooks was willing to take 26 million Euro out of Dublin when he left…..
That’s the total ticket sales do you honestly think he takes every penny home , sure aiken just put on these concerts for fun and give all the money away to the artists
We really need a change of perspective in this country. Journal, you’re just taking the piss now…..
I often wonder if The Journal staff when asked of their occupation actually answer “Journalist”!
Where in God’s name did Enda Kenny get a figure of €250 million from. This figure was then quoted by various news agencies around the world then, someone needs to query Kenny on where he got such a ridiculous figure from.
Joan Burton his accountannt
Same place he gets the rest of his ridiculous figures I expect!
I am actually happy that the people that were due to travel will no longer need to do so. It would have been a shame that their lasting impression would have been them gouged within an inch of their lives with the increased drink, hotel and restaurant prices. There was a hotel that was 80 a night and upped the price to 400 was this the message we wanted to send around the world- go to ireland and get ripped off ?
They wouldn’t use restaurants, sangwiches in tin foil and buttered biscuits all the way, animals
Brennan’s and rich tea will do well then
Milking this story dry… I’m off to watch the match enough for one day!
Ah Christ. Who cares anymore? Seriously. There’s actual news happening elsewhere.
Garth-hog day
If tomorrow never comes.
CONGTATULATIONS!!!!!
YOU ARE THE 1, 000,000.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
YOU ARE THE 1, 000,000 PERSON TO USE THE TERM “IF TOMORROW NEVER COMES”.
I have friends in no places .
Yes and probably more, if 450,000 people spent 150 euro each in Dublin it would exceed 50 million. Some people are more blasé of course and that would make up for the shoe string budget of some people.
Dublin losing Garth Brooks concerts is like Galway cancelling race week.
One security company alone had 450 people booked to work for the week of the concerts.
From an economic point of view it is a naff decision.
70,000 overseas visitors – got to be worth at least 100,000 bed nights -not to mention irish people staying over.
I Reckon Exchequer will lose €10m in vat from ticket sales, hospitality, drink sales.
Even the GAA will be impacted. Less money to go in to local clubs.
Dare I say it (and i never thought i would) but in bertie aherns time this fiasco would not have happened.
Kenny seems paralysed and incapable of solving a pretty straight forward problem. He runs the risk of having christy burke upstaging him.
The GAA and state wlcould have coughed up proper deal for the locals. And instead of waving good bye to €50M of an economic boost a couple of thousand people would be looking at making some money.
We need to wise up.
This p*ick should be banned from the country , he started playing 2 concerts , then 3 and then 5 and when he finds out he can only play three he refuses to play any of them , total w*nker
I agree ..
Please, are ye that naive to think the 5 weren’t planned from the start?! I suppose ye believe all the ads that say “sale must end Saturday” and then they add two more days of sale.
Trust me, shops know they’re going to do 2 extra sale days before they’re announced as “bonus” days.
Garth Brooks was always going to do 5 nights, the “extra” nights were announced to add hype.
It’s good promotion and it’s good business.
At this stage f##k off , he had a chance of three but cancelled them all when he did nt get his way , that shows what he thinks of his irish fans , politicians acted with outrage at the bank guarantee we would nt be in this mess
Almost right Enda…He cancelled all 5 when he only “might” have had the chance to do 3. Some people seem to forget that there was a request for an injunction in place from the residents to prevent ALL concerts going on. While the promoter and DCC should not have agreed to 5 concerts under the current law…even 3 concerts would still be in violation of the law and the residents planned to continue that fight. Why in the world should Brooks follow through when there’s only an off-chance that any concerts are approved?
Enough Already
Can’t everyone still spend that money? How is it “gone” or “lost to the economy”? In fact, won’t there be less of it leaving the country now that Garth isn’t taking any?
And of course this is the point.! .people have an annual income and will usually spend it somewhere – hopefully in Ireland, Brooks concert or not.
It’s very simple folks.
If you bought a ticket for Garth brooks and you would like a refund simply bring along your credit card and proof that you purchased the ticket between the first equinox of a leap year and a full solar eclipse while accompanied by the seventh great grand child of the grand arch duke of Prussia and/or the first granddaughter of a Druid but only during the month following Ramadan and not before the mating season of the Eastern European crested lark.
Thats Tuesday week isn’t it?
Rte say €250 million.
I heard a billion.
Wow, Really…they do exaggerate a lot in Athlone. Hersay.
No from reading the Journal Bobby.Btw I don’t live in Athlone, that’s just for @$$ holes who like to stalk commentators Facebook accounts.
Ohhh touchy. Should go for a jog around athlone release that anger :)
Lol good man Bobby !
Well done Bobby still stalking I see.
Flash no pearls of wisdom from you this evening, is your mummy not helping you spell big words anymore?
Don’t flatter yourself Norm. If I was into stalking it most definitely wouldn’t be you. Why are you so angry? Or are you bored in Athlone? Poor you. I wish you well.
Bobby what do you call using info off someone’s Facebook page?
You’re a little bit sad really.
Did you ever scroll down on your phone and you accidentally click on someone’s name or picture and it opens up the facebook page. Yeah happens all the time. You’re of no interest to me. Or your life in Athlone. You sound very bitter. To long in the village.
Bobby then you accidentally use their info to try and be funny.
Try and scroll on the reply key while your at it.
What have I said to try and be funny?
Bobby it’s just sad you can’t make a point without stalking someone’s page.
How sad you are.Anyway back to the match.
I’m done with you.
Stalker.
So you haven’t got an answer? Ok…. good game im watching too. Enjoy.
I don’t see where this 50M figure us coming from. Garth Brooks fans would probably bring a packed lunch.
My wife and three members of her coven were going up for the Monday gig. They booked a B&B and would have been eating out. They would have done some shopping too being strangers to the big city, there was talk of a giant shopping center that caters solely for the fairer sex in a place called Dundrum. Now that money will be spent on the internet importing bats wings and powdered lizard to put the hex on the residents that protested.
Come on Ron, you’re not foolin’ anyone. You have the rasberry jam sandwiches on ice already. The luas isn’t joined up yet so how’r ye gonna get to Dundrum from Heuston station without the tractor?
Broomsticks Jack.
Ah Journal will you please go back to your daily ‘house prices are rising’ articles. I want a refund on my tickets regardless of whether he plays or not. Fed up of him and all the drama.
So people leave a town down the country and spend the money in Dublin and Dublin benefits.
But then those people have less to spend in that town down the country when they go home.
So the money just moved around.
Or people come from England and move money from one place to another but still no one starts something new.
No new food is created to feed the hungry. No clever way to find shelter for the homeless discovered.
And Garth Brooks gets very rich singing stupid songs and a production company earns money.
We don’t need Garth.
Enough is enough report on real issues
There’s been more than 50 articles written about this idiot in a last week alone give it a rest will ya.
Just scroll past then. Nothing to see here.
enough
People with real problems must be bemused by this so called national outrage about a few cancelled concerts byvan overfed millionaire cowboy, a bit of perspective is needed here people……
I think the amount quoted is grossly over rated.
Anyone I know coming to Dublin for the gig were 1) either driving up and back that day 2) hired a bus to go up and back on the day 3)staying with friends/family. So for people driving, no drink and maybe a burger/chips at the stadium, on the bus a few cans and again burger/chips few drinks in the stadium. No one I know was willing to fork out for hotel or b&b at 5 times the normal price. As a boring working parent :p the rare times I get to a gig I wouldn’t be bothered about getting a dinner in a restaurant, or going to the pub, straight to gig and a few drinks there and the last bus home ;)
I heard they’re tight down the country, I was told Cork is top of that list. Most will bring a packed lunch and a flask.
Hopefully there will be a major Cabinet reshuffle tomorrow, with significant upsets, and it will take this off the front pages and give everyone something else to rabbit on about.
Hopefully no Rabbite to go on about!
This Brooks fella will have all of Leitrim’s cash going into Dublin. For that reason I’m out.
I must be the only one not sick of the GB articles. Looking forward to the next chapter.
How much would the Garth Brooks cut be from ticket sales and merchandise. As well as the multinationals who benefit from such gigs and just redistribute their earnings globally?
What about the hospitals stuck dealing with all of the drug addled grannies?
Who cares what his cut is? This is his job, this is what he does, this is how he gets paid. The international status he has an artist, he could easily charge double what he did per ticket. I remember seeing tickets for Barbara Streisand years back selling for €100+. His tickets were about €60-€80.
For jaysus sake journal get over Garth Brooks already
No notional costing for the added boost longterm for tourism from the DVDs and TV show and the positive depiction of Ireland (that was before we behaved like precious spoilt children over what are public roads).
Yeah,because Croke Park is such a hot tourist destination,get a grip
I’m talking about the exposure the country will get internationally – get a grip yourself
How will the country get international exposure exactly?
Not having to listen to Garth Brooks: priceless ☺
50 per person on drink. So that’s what we need. Loads and loads of cowboy fans tanked up on gargle going around town. People were saying that Garth Brooks fans were real quiet the other day tip toeing around croke park. I don’t think so.
It could even be less… Some people would be staying with friends or family and they would have their own mode of transport.
I think a lot of things have been over exaggerated regarding this fiasco. Sad really.
Right so if you make a bunch of unsupported assumptions, pretend you can’t see the double counting, and ignore all the outflows … you still can’t get to the number being touted, let alone the multiples being tossed around today. I see.
Cant miss what they never had..frupp off the lot of yiz
Don’t forget the vat on the sale of 400000 tickets
I am lost for words at how Enda Kenny’s attitude to the GB fiasco is we’ll get it right next time !!!
As a country and as a nation we have endured one austerity measure after another, looked on as families lose homes to mortgage debt, waved good bye to family & friends lost to mass emigration, watched in astonishment as bankers walk free from courts, listened while our Taoiseach addressed the nation on how we were all in this together as a nation as a people.
In this togetherness that he spoke of whilst they slipped their hands in our pockets, squeezing out every last cent in the name of Ireland and the economy ,Imagine if us, those voters said no “we’re not intervening” , where would we be now.
Fine Gael’s plan for government was not to waste money,to learn from the mistakes of the past. I would love to know if they have done so ?
You say you will not intervene , What’s 50 million to Fine Gael ? Is it the same as 50 million to the publican , to the hotelier , to the B&B owner , to the street traders. Will we have this surplus 50million when we face in to another budget in 3 months.
This goes deeper then a concert , then a fan desperate to see their idol, this is about Ireland about a nation about 400,000 voters that maybe they will choose to ignore now but come polling day they will not ignore the voices of 400,000 and we will be heard.
There was only one lesson to be learned from the last government proactive ness not reactive ness , has that lesson been learned ?
Oh give us a break, Laura, do.
Just curious, why couldn’t they move it to the aviva stadium instead? Or have 3 nights in croker, which was agreed all round and 2 in the aviva?
Because they didn’t have the license for the 3 original nights in the first place. The 3 nights per year quota was used by One Direction. Pesky kids.
I’m so bored by this whole situation :/
Thanks becca, that clears that up so. garth brooks, you go f#ck youself. All he saw in ireland was €26 million.
Derp ?
As the aviva does not hold 80000 people . The seating tickets would not match in a different stadium and the stage has been made to fit the Croke park stage .
Also, MCD had the monopoly on the Aviva… not to mention the stage being specifically designed to rig up to and be supported by Croke Park. There were rigs designed for the Hogan Stand for example.
Enough already; let’s move on….!
Breaking news! Garth Brooks farts, injuring the nasal passages of a small dog!
Another way to look at it is that all of the people around Ireland that would have been spending all this money in Dublin now get a refund and will spend it will their local businesses? And I take it that Garth’s fee has been returned to the promoter? This is now no longer leaving the country in Garth’s pocket?
I have doubled up on the meds
What about the get youser colours brigade? They must be going mad after getting t-shirts with ripped off images printed up and buying cowboy hats…..
Would you please f##k off.
WON’T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN
iBEC have costed it and the loss would be 22 million coming from the 70k due to fly in
But they did not take into account that most if them might still fly in
Brook would take 10 million profit out of this small country and some of the cost of staging it
The GAA would take 3 million and we would never see that money again
Dublin is the big looser approx 62 million but 40 million of that will still be spent in Ireland
No – but reality doesn’t seem to figure in any of this appalling shite.
If DCC had any cop on they could put on events around the city the same weekend of the cancelled concerts and some people might still come and have a good time……but hey you’d have to think about that right…!!!
If every single ticket holder spent €125 on getting there, staying there, eating, drinking, shopping or whatever it is they plan to do then that would be a very believable €50 million.
Some may have spent less, but some definitely would have spent significantly more and balance it out.
hahahaha 50 euro on drink? In Dublin?? treble it.
Why why destroy our country?
Ahh.. you forgot about flights, petrol, tolls, parking…
Not to forget the ruined reputation
Its not a loss unless you actually earned the money before you run around claiming you lost it….
He’s a bit of a cowboy if you ask me lol
Its a €50m benefit to *Dublin*, which means a €50m loss to the rest of the country. And lets not forget about the €20m that Garth Brooks is going to trouser and take back to the US.
Taxi drivers “Industry”….
“53,225 Worlwide New Articles regarding Garth Brooks Concert Fiasco”
I’d say at least 50,000 of these were on The Journal
Fifty million spent in the local economy which then gets spent locally again by the people employed working or affiliated with the concerts .
The figure of 50 million is based on 400,000 people spending about €125 each which is not an unreasonable amount. Per person excluding tickets.
When you take in to account accommodation eating out a few drinks and memorabilia.
Lost revenue for business owners! I work In the hospitality industry and im not getting a bonus if the concert goes ahead and brings in more money
He would definitely bring 50 million in definitely .but he would bring 90 million out .
I assume Keegan will allow reduction in rates for business as he has shagged 5 sell out nights… Really need people with commercial awareness in public sector not sheltered pen pushers
What about Sinn Fein they couldn’t be kept off of the TV,newspapers or radio before the elections they had answers for everything now they seem to have gone underground again. I thought they might have the answer to the Gareth brooks debacle, come on Mary Lou, Jarry, where are ye or are ye just full of loudmouth bull/hit.
Next big news item will be a film of this crap.
have your say