UPDATED 1 OCT 10: SINGLE MOTHERS IN IRELAND will be attacked by the Minister for Finance until Ireland rises up from the sludge of bailing out the banks.
There deserves to be an Irish meme on "single mothers in Ireland" because it is a concept that cuts to the quick of Irish society. I have personal opinions on the length of the helping hand of the State and I object when benevolence in society warps society's values. Right now, it may appear to an outsider that it pays to adopt a lifestyle of the unemployed single mom instead of the employed single mom. I hear conversations about single moms behind cash tills and among friends. I personally know people who wear the "abandoned mother" badge with pride because it means a council house and a lifetime of welfare support. This is generations-old behaviour now. As an Irish taxpayer, I subsidise that support structure while new moms who work beside me cannot get State help for child support. I also know single moms going well out of their way to improve their skills by immersing in third level education. To an uneducated eye, it may appear that Irish social policy is skewed towards skewewing the hard-working mom in order to sustain another generation of welfare-absorbing moms. This is a social policy that needs debating outside the realm of polarised radio chat shows. I believe the process should start as a meme in the Irish blogosphere called "single mothers in Ireland".
Brenda Power started the broadsheet discussion then Kevin Myers kicked over the hornet's nest with a "Category Five Shitstorm" (rdelevan's coinage).
Richard Delevan -- "Kevin Myers vs the MOB"
Slugger O'Toole -- "Myers in trouble"
Anthony Sheridan -- "Myers causes a storm"
Fact: At the time of Kevin Myer's editorial comment, Google found 84 "single mothers in Ireland" which could be down to the fact that births to teenage mothers have remained remarkably static in Ireland for the past 30 years, at around 3,000 per annum. What has changed in the last quarter of the 20th century is that young Irish mothers now have the option to keep and raise their babies, as opposed to facing the traumas of either adoption or abortion.
Seen by Irisheyes -- "Single parenthood in Ireland"
