Sometimes living in Ireland is a pain. We might think that we live in an age where everything is available to anyone whenever you want, but I still come up against American and (most annoyingly) UK online shops tantalisingly taking me on all the steps to ordering something only to find, at the final hurdle, “We do not deliver to The Republic of Ireland at this time”. Is there some embargo I don’t know about going on? Am I subject to special trading laws, similar to Iran or Cuba? Will I have to wait for Ireland’s oppressive regime of Fianna Fail/Greens to end before I can finally order from officetoys.co.uk? It’s like De Valera is still alive, waving his protectionist hand over the Free State, and keeping the Sasanachs at bay!

Of course, the upshot of all of this is an often smug Irish retail sector, who don’t stock anything, and if they do, expect big prices for small service. I heard a guy on the radio the other day (Newstalk) giving out because they are making hurleys and sliotars cheaper in China, and his hurley making business is suffering! What does he expect? A decree from the Pope declaring all non-Irish hurleys unholy?

But Irish companies can’t hide from the outside anymore. And that includes Apple Ireland, who are currently not doing the brand any favours. Euro prices for Apple products are currently crippling when compared with the dollar and the pound. The iPhone price in Ireland is surely a joke (though this may have more to do with O2 than Apple). The upshot of this is that people are paying for their holiday in New York with the saving they’ll make on the new MacBook Pro they buy while they are out there.

Of course, this is, quite literally, a false economy, as eventually, the effect of everyone retailing outside the country will result in lower sales here, meaning lost jobs, and feeding a recession which has all but hit us.

So what do we do? Be stubborn and buy Irish? Or take the easy road and shop abroad? I’ll leave that up to you…

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