Too Much Prosperity?

In the comments on my overlong paragraph of missed items, Dan quotes some illuminating statistics from Eoin Kennedy of Tourism Ireland from the Irish Fest Promoters Conference in Pittsburgh last weekend.

Tourism, GDP, immigration, software exporting, hotel figures, all prompt Dan to ask the pertinent question, Is there such a thing as too much prosperity? You risk the wrath of the romance police if you answer that question yes, but I'm tempted, and have been for ten years despite the wonderful progress and improvements in so much of Irish society. Perhaps the issue has been the speed of the arrival of wealth rather than the prosperity itself.

In my long-winded response I failed to acknowledge that Dan is very right in that much of I what I grew up with in Ireland has indeed vanished or changed drastically, and much of that, though certainly not all, is due to prosperity.

But my nostalgic list of walking and talking among heavy traffic, petty criminals and bustling tourists, pertains to the Ireland of what is there now. Go check out Dan's stats.