Lately Around Ireland

March 3rd, 2009 · 4:24 am @ Alisha - No Comments

Irish people are turning increasingly to individual exercise, such as the gym, fitness classes and exercise machines, instead of playing team sports such as Gaelic games or soccer
Car dealers have begun to slash prices of new and used vehicles by up to a third (cars here, both new and used, had been unreasonably expensive); still, new car sales dove 62% in the first half of February
The electricity market has become deregulated in an effort to bring prices down through competition; as a Californian who’s already lived through one disastrous deregulation, I’m a bit scared
Ireland’s official language is considered endangered as it is not the primary language in most homes
Cocaine use is still disappointingly on the rise with Ireland as the EU’s fastest-growing user
120,000 people staged a mass protest in Dublin over the current economic crisis
Property rents fell 12% last year (which is a good thing for us!)
The traditional funeral wake in homes is being revived (no pun intended), but authorities are warning of the risk of exposing attendees to disease infection that the deceased may still carry
The predicted total of unemployed could rise to half a million by the end of 2009