This week I've been thinking about the responsibilities of citizenship.  I think most of you know that I'm a dual citizen of the U.S. and Ireland.  When I was 19 I worked at JFK for Aer Lingus and knew that I was considered a citizen of Ireland then, through my father's birth here.  But, if I were to apply for a passport then I would have had my U.S. passport seized and that was of of the question, of course.  Now the rules are relaxed and I have both passports.  The only requirement is that I enter and leave the US on my US passport, otherwise I'm free to travel throughout Europe with all of the benefits of an EU citizen.  I haven't exactly identified what those are yet, but the line at immigration is a lot shorter!

But, passport issues are the least of my concerns right now.  There's a pretty important vote coming up in Ireland and I've been trying to fully understand the issues. I think that participating in civic life is really important.  The vote coming up on May 31 is on whether or not to ratify the EU austerity treaty that's been negotiated.  The two sides seem clear, a 'yes' vote means that Ireland's economy will contract yet again, a prospect that doesn't seem in doubt by any side.  A 'no' vote puts the possibility of access to EU 'bail out' funds might be jeopardized because it would appear that Ireland was not willing to abide by the negotiated decisions of the stronger economies. 

On the 'no' side is a convincing argument that further contracting government spending might actually make things worse by making the population more alarmed and even less likely to spend thus limiting capital investment.  Companies and individuals might opt to save their money instead of hiring and spending.  On the 'yes' side is a sort of Sword of Damocles, if the treaty isn't passed, they say, the EU won't provide the funds to pay the Irish bonds that will come due in the coming months.  Of course, if the economy expands, Ireland should be able to pay on its own bonds; but if it doesn't then bankruptcy is a possibility. 

The thing that's troubling me right now is that the 'no' vote side uses the example of Barack Obama and David Cameron (the UK Prime Minister).  Obama opted for bail outs in key industries and Cameron didn't and now the UK is in the dreaded 'double dip' recession.  So, while those of you back in the USA might not feel it, the anemic 'recovery' is actually better than what they are experiencing in England where they have fallen back into recession.  They say this is an illustration of what can happen when government spending is curtailed too far. 

So, it's an interesting time here.  I'm grappling with my civic duty after just a month!  I learned yesterday after going over and over this in my mind, that my choice might be moot because I still have to register to vote and, unlike in the States, that seems to take a while, so maybe I will continue to watch on the sidelines.  I was reminded of the importance of voting during the walking tour we took of Dublin earlier this week, it used to be that only land owning Anglican males were allowed to vote in Ireland -- not even the Presbyterians were enfranchised. So I'm going to vote if I can.