Growing up in Belfast, my wife was urged by teachers – with limited success, it must be said – to read CS Lewis for the essential Christian message in his writings. Lewis, the brilliant creator of The Chronicles of Narnia, is often described as an English writer. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. This is the man who wrote of his first visit to England that ‘‘the strange English accents with which I was surrounded seemed like the voices of demons.
But what was worst was the English landscape – I have made up the quarrel since; but at that moment I conceived a hatred for England which took many years to heal’’.
Like many Northern Irish Protestants, his relationship with England – and, by extension, Ireland ,was considerably more complex than the political posturing at Stormont this weekend would suggest. In later life, Lewis described an experience which many of us who have spent time in England will recognise.
‘‘Like all Irish people who meet in England, we ended by criticisms of the inevitable flippancy and dullness of the Anglo Saxon people. After all, there is no doubt that the Irish are the only people – I would not gladly live or die among another folk.”
Despite living in exile in Oxford for most of his adult life, he kept his connection to Ireland, even going on his honeymoon in 1958 to Crawfordsburn – a picturesque village in Co Down beside beautiful Helen’s Bay.
Lewis’s Irishness is the same type of multidimensional Irishness that was on display yesterday in Croke Park. Hundreds of politically British, Ulster Unionist and DUP voters were wearing Irish jerseys as if it was the most natural thing in the world. They sat happily in the Hogan Stand, oblivious to the fact that it was built to commemorate Michael Hogan, the Tipperary captain shot by the Black and Tans on Bloody Sunday – who themselves were under military orders to keep Ireland both British and unionist.
Maybe CS Lewis, the Belfast man who created the parallel universe of Narnia, would have smiled at the ambiguity of it all.
But the beauty of Narnia for children is that it is a fantasy world where they are the main players, far away from the drudge, rules and dreariness of the world of adults. It is a playful place of talking animals and adventure – just the type of place that children themselves would imagine if they could.
Narnia is a dream world, which doesn’t mean that everything is saccharine sweet. There are pitfalls, there are nasty witches and dangerous, duplicitous characters, but there is also hope. When the children walk through the wardrobe, and enter Narnia, they enter a different world.
Last Thursday, I walked into an economic Narnia – a world of possibilities, optimism and positive energy – which was so far away from the relentless reality of Ireland’s battered economy that it was inspiring just to be there. The only difference is that this Narnia is real. It is not a fantasy. It is a world where Irish entrepreneurs are doing their stuff, where young and very charming Americans have blazed a trail. It is the world captured by the Dublin Web Summit. The idea, conceived by a young man called Paddy Cosgrove, was to bring some of the world’s most successful young web entrepreneurs here to talk to Irish people who want to set up their own companies.
The summit was held in Trinity College and the packed house heard how a laidback, laconic Californian called Craig Newmark created the world’s biggest classified ad site.
The site serves over 20 billion page views per month, putting it in 37th place overall among websites worldwide and 11th place overall among websites in the United States. It has over 49.4 million unique monthly visitors in the United States with over 80 million new classified advertisements each month, Craigslist is the leading classifieds service in any medium. The site receives more than one million new job listings each month, making it one of the top job boards in the world.
The company has fewer than 50 employees and an estimated turnover of $200 million. Craig Newmark, who said he had no interest in selling the company or in money in general, is the man who, more than anyone else, is responsible for shaking the foundations and the income stream of the newspaper industry. For a journalist, this man represents a huge threat, but I was transfixed by the opportunities he evidenced.
Next up was the very charming Matt Mullenweg, the 27-year-old creator of WordPress. WordPress is the software programme that is favoured by bloggers and used on over 200 million websites worldwide.
One of the key developers of WordPress is an Irishman, Donncha O’Caoimh. The world of Mullenweg is one of limitless growth and, as pointed out by a question from the floor, he makes his money from the efforts of others. In what Marx would have called turbo capitalism, all these ‘web 2.0’ millionaires are making their cash explicitly from other people using their technology and increasing the value of their sites and products exponentially. For young Irish entrepreneurs, the opportunities on the web do seem enormous, and more important, as some of the ideas are so simple and cheap to set up, it has to be worth a go. At the conference, I also heard Irish entrepreneurs Dylan Collins of Jolt, Colm Lyon of Realex, Ciaran Bollard of Muzu and Fred Karlsson of donedeal.ie, explain how they created their companies.
The most fascinating thing about these entrepreneurs was the sense that they all had created something out of nothing. They saw opportunities with small -or, in some cases, no – investment, and went for it. Now anyone involved in the tech world knows this is not how it works. There are too many bankrupt venture capitalists around for this to be easy.
In fact, in the tech game, the difference between success and failure is often wafer-thin. One of the most interesting aspects of many of the experiences was how many successes stem from competitors making elementary mistakes. These mistakes seem elementary now but, given that there is no blueprint to follow, how could anyone have known any different?
For a brief moment, listening to the chronicles of this financial Narnia, it is easy to forget the world of Nama, Anglo and developers’ loans. There was precious little about why things can’t be done, only talk of what can be achieved. But this isn’t Narnia. These companies are real, and the explosion of what is called ‘disruptive commerce’ (which refers to companies which are disrupting the ‘normal’ way of doing things by using new technology) is here to stay. Arguably, this is the future – or at least part of it.
CS Lewis created a new world simply by using his imagination. In fact, he created a parallel world. Imagine our own parallel world where, at one side of the wardrobe, we have the dross of the banks, the property hangover, Nama and the politicians who led us into this.
On the other side, we have the opportunities afforded to Irish entrepreneurs which will allow them to transcend the limitations of this country. Despite all the obstacles, like CS Lewis, we can do this.
[…] ascribing to New Labour of the practice of Chinese legalism. And finally, I’ve just seen this rather strange piece from the Cleverest Man In Ireland. Any suggestions as to what David actually means would be […]
Nice to see an encouraging article from David for a change..it must have been an inspirational conference. What he fails to address is to make this a reality we need an inspirational government.Who support entrepreneurs. A recent figure emerged for me this past week.. check out the entreprise boards budget and look at the ratio of money spent in administration vs entreprise support. But don’t tell anyone because this is a secret the plebs must not find out!! The land of Narnia is where Cowen & Co are living.. hang on till 2016 we will be alright by then. In… Read more »
David, you are right about this; I could not attend the Web Summit, as Educational authorities are too ignorant of ICTs to allow a geeky minion like me to leave the classroom for a day like that. I followed it by proxy, though, on twitter with the hash-tag #dws (if you want to check that yourself) and, indeed, it was very positive in outlook. We already know, from successive Young Scientist competitions, that we have talented, creative and intelligent youngsters in Irish schools who could blaze the ICT business and job-creation trail in the years ahead; indeed, we have already… Read more »
David.
The internet may free us all, from the central banking tyranny and its stranglehold on the free market system.
Let the free market be, let credit provision be what it is a utility and free the bash street kids from the jailor system run by the secondary school clowns who carry more clout in their punch.
Sorry to change the topic. But something is happening in Australia – which is just starting it’s working week. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/secret-summit-of-top-bankers/story-e6frez7r-1225827289543 I don’t know what brings this about. Possibly problems with the PIGS and with certain USA states (California, New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio, Florida). And it is possible that there might be something going on in the background that we know nothing about – like what happened when Lehmans and AIG went to the wall. You will find out more tomorrow morning. David – you are doing your best to inspire us. But I sometimes wonder if the damage done by… Read more »
The heroes in this new economic enviornment are fast innovative thinkers. With small units and novel ideas.
They are the exact opposite of the type of businesses represented by lobby groups like IBEC, and have a different worldview to the union bosses. Maybe the entire partnership process is overdone.
And another aspect is that they have a management philosophy that has absolutely nothing in common with the Michael Fingletons and Brian Goggins of this world.
I have to say that I think trying to make money from the internet is a waste of time. I remember Irelands biggest internet start up “First E Bank” managed to raise 400 million only to spend it all and go bust in just 2 years. It employed 650 people but only had 5000 customers, my local AIB has more than that. We have been used to free stuff on the internet not to mention the problem of entering credit card details on line. Booking airline tickets and hotel rooms are fine even advertising your car for sale, but it… Read more »
Sorry folks on the fly at the moment,heading up to Darwin in a couple of hours. Just a few thoughts on where I think David is at, and its that the Internet has the ability to foster a “classless society” as we can see on this forum ,where all comments and inputs are given a fair hearing. One other point is this whole issue of “asymmetric information” on which FF thrives and is in fact the basis for a lot of the croneyism, clientalism etc. that we have identified as causing so much inequality. It also raises certain TD’s up… Read more »
Hi Lads,
Thanks for the feedback so far on http://www.foolishpenny.com/featured/vietnama/ . I’ve removed the password protection from it, so it’s open to the public now. The page received hundreds of hits in the last two days, and dozens of comments. If you have any further comments, please let me know on the site’s comment box, and please pass on to your friends.
Thanks again. Every little helps.
FP.
Hmm…. Very Interesting article David, I have to say the Narnia that you talk about will never happen until there is a complete change in mindset for the Irish Government etc. I will tell you something about my experiences, I have a Degrees and Masters Degree in Computer Science from one of Ireland smaller ITs from this I manage to gain 12 years professional experience working in the real world of Information technology. Now for the last 4 years in Ireland I tried my best to get some investment from Government bodies etc in Ireland. Unfortunately, I am looked upon… Read more »
Aquarius — transcending the limit of TIME It is apt that David should have chosen the power of the speed of Air at this moment as we enter the season of Aquarius in February 2010 . The Air element denotes the speed of Telecommunications and the complexities of Diplomacy & Secrecy and the new opportunities in Inventions. This includes the Internet .Since early 2000’s we have also entered the Age of Aquarius to be with us for two thousand years or so. We must either like or hate it .Otherwise there is nothing we can do about it .Or can… Read more »
furrylugs – someone has been watching our bloggs on this site recently .Today and all this week buy the irish independent and get your beanos etc …..free …..now thats a new narnia .
Beanos includes :
Biffo – Little Plum – Rodger the Dodger – Q-Karts – Billy Whizz Billy – The 3 Bears – The Bash Street Lids – Minnie the Minx – General Jumbo – Lord Snooty – Pup Parade – Dennis the Menace
I think we have spoken of all the above metaphorically in the lifetime of this Blog Space .
For most Irish people Narnia is British shopping chains, celebrities, Premiership soccer outfits (funded by kleptomaniacs in the third word) and soap operas. The virtual and superficial dominate. Reality is a bit much to handle – participate in the make believe world of endless credit, shopping experiences, the endless chase for self-significance, and the endless run away from your responsibilities. Heaven on earth as Dundrum Shopping Centre. At least until the bill for it all arrives in the letterbox.
@Fergal73 Hopefully its not all bad From http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/secret-summit-of-top-bankers/story-e6frez7r-1225827289543 “The gathering also comes at an important time for the BIS as it initiates an overhaul of the global banking system which will include new capital rules applying to banks and more stringent standards regulating executive pay. A key part of the two-day talkfest will be a special meeting of Asian central bankers chaired by the governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz.” Not a good sign Asian bankers having a separate meeting! New capital rules for banks would be good, clampdown on derivatives, bonuses and rogue banking… Read more »
deco – we need to tag all the beano characters with the real life culprits in government and banking – that should be todays task……hoping wills later enlighten us after his day job .
How about a change from the normal unrelentingly depressing commentary here? Are you guys are actually reading what DMcW is saying? This new type of enterprise first and foremost requires an entrepreneurial spirit. It does NOT first and foremost require government handouts, or indeed any particular government support. Forget the knee-jerk reaction that it must be the government’s fault before we even know what “it” is. Start-ups in the internet economy have to start with a good idea. Anyone who thinks it’s about “First E Bank” and its ilk is a dinosaur already. That was the dot com bubble. It… Read more »
PS20306 – what you are saying sounds like fishing in a shark infested waters .Wishful thinking is dead man walking. We want a proper place to meet to do research and we dont have any .
David wrote: ” The most fascinating thing about these entrepreneurs was the sense that they all had created something out of nothing.” Hang on David, nothing could be further from the truth. Entrepreneurs who make a success out of IT have spent years learning the subtleties of programming. As your correspondent Murray above will confirm, success in this hyper-competitive field requires an in=depth knowledge of programming languages such as Java, C++ and Perl; markup languages such as XML; internet technologies such as ASP, PHP and Flash; graphics languages such as OpenGL; etc etc. To design a good App requires a… Read more »
Morning,
I have to agree with the comment by ps200306. It might be fruitful to look at the possibilities that exist in Ireland. You know that I will highlight bad policy and downright lies when I can, but equally, the recovery, both personal and nationwide, will ultimately be in our hands.
Best David
As I type I am watching Kevin Rudd ( Australian PM ) taking questions from an audience of young people from the Old Parlament House .
He just mentioned the internet and sustainability . This is about 4 times I have seen him do this in about 2 years .
He is inspiring and I have this weird sense of pride mixed in with reassurance about the future .
For recovery and hope into the future we need inspiring leadership . Not eveyone can be Obama however they should at least be able to talk in public with some degree of competence and at least reassure people that the management of society and the economy has some kind of plan.
In Ireland a business gets off the ground inspite of the government . No true business mind wants government handouts ( although it helps ) they want government on the sidelines . In Ireland they are activily working against you !
Malcolm – I agree with you .The Book of Kells and others were languages skilled in high level of communications in their day and today too.Language is constantly evolving at different levels for different applications and herein lies the ‘Secret ‘ of Success .All ideas are good ideas but they all need to evolve to become the best idea. Europe has Sophia Antipolis near Cannes and employs over 20,000 directly .This is the Silicon Valley of Europe. Ireland has/had National Innovation Center – and their budget has been scailed back and some made unemployed .That does not say much for… Read more »
I hope that the land of innovation that David describes turns out to be more than just a fantasy. For that to happen, a whole generation will have to overcome the prevailing culture where business and economics still revolve around banking and property and where any technological innovation has to be imported. The amount of real indigenous research and development in Ireland is insignificant. The young generation is not going to get any help or inspiration from any of the political or business leaders who are nearly all stuck in the mid twentieth century. There are very few Irish role… Read more »
George Lee has resigned from Fine Gael and as a TD I believe
test
I am not able to post. Ronan can you help? Thanks,
George Lee – Thank You for trying .
Now george Lee resigns after 9 months to run back to RTE ? What did he expect ? To join a party and be made spokeman for finance overnight ?
Innovation ? We don’t even have an opposition party .
Observing Irelands meltdown from afar is like watching some kind of soap opera made by people on acid .
It lurches from disaster to embarressment and on to plain stupidity .
@Malcolm I echo your views above. With help from Adobe I started a group http://www.mmug-dublin.com some years ago, now grown to about 80 members, for those interested in skill sets similar to what you outline. For years we had no proper place to meet until we got help from New Horizons in town, who are a global company as well. In Ireland, business help is targeted only at established companies, not at individual entrepreneurs or web monkeys like me. Enterprise Ireland has some private mentoring supports but largely is only interested in being part of the success of already successful… Read more »
A good positive article from our host and a possible way for young entrepreneurs to shine.
As one who believes Java is in the Pacific and Perl comes from Oysters, I’ll have to stick to what I know and this does not fill me with confidence.
http://www.engineersweek.ie/events/discover-the-code-2/#more-649
Teaching kids Morse Code to attract them into Engineering leaves me heading for the pub.(Sorry Deco)
George Lee has resigned from Fine Gael – think that says a lot…………….
Folks, George Le is spilling the beans ALL OVER the Place!
Inda Kinney used him as a crowd-puller;
Baby Brute did not even ask for his input or advice on economic policy matters;
Measures in the Dáil are “put-through on the nod”;
He was not given anything but a “fake role”.
Wasting his time;
So, he quit.
George Lee is speaking truth – the boyos hate that!
Be careful not to fall into the trap of “Man with hammer sees world full of nails”. Hi Tech and knowledge economies are not just about computer science/ software engineering and neither is it about jazzing up the old with a high tech glow. It encompasses all walks of life and it is life changing. Governements are a waste of time. Grant aided activities are at best very mediocre. Even at a European level, grant aided S&T and ICT programmes have produced very mixed results. So, forget completely about blaming our gombeen culture. Bear in mind that has been the… Read more »
Remembering The Great George Lee – When George very bravely spoke in his maiden speech in the Dail everyone listened because everyone knew he was telling the truth .Included in what he said was that the Government had NO Mandate instead it ruled by agreement under house rules in the Dail .Therefore the people were not represented .He said that this ‘arrangement’ was a fake a fraud and irrelvant .He said that the Government are using a power without responsibility. If we on this site believe him too how can you have the confidence to build any business on trust… Read more »
David says “These companies are real, and the explosion of what is called ‘disruptive commerce’ (which refers to companies which are disrupting the ‘normal’ way of doing things by using new technology) is here to stay. Arguably, this is the future — or at least part of it.” Disruptive commerce is key to where we must be going if we are to be competitive in a world arena. How are we to compete (or more succinctly how is, say, our working population / homeowners to take a hit on wages; as one thread of the multi-faceted defence that is competitiveness)… Read more »
Philip
“I believe the next and imminent break throughs will be in mechatronics/ nanotech/ biotech and energy storage”
You’re on the button – however, there will be a bubble in the energy sector – every chancer is heading into it. The mechatronics sector will be massive, but the downside will be more unemployment in the medium term. I know a young engineer abroad, with a masters in mechatronics, who landed a 280 million dollar contract for an automated plant – not bad for a twenty something.
Here is an article published in yesterday’s “Computers in Business” in the Post, that syncs perfectly with what David envisions. We can have a Narnia as he describes. We must have one. Or we’re dead. IT is not a bolt-on. Its everything. Its game-changing. Those that can’t see that must prepare to see whole industries wiped out inside months as life accelerates. And accelerate it will, in the Age of Aquarius. http://podcasting.ie/docs/patrickc_innovation.pdf Patrick Collison http://collison.ie/ is of course the smart yougn guy that EI turned down. Sure what would he know, the big ejit, and lads paid hundreds of thousands… Read more »
Watch Zeitgeist Addendum at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gKX9TWRyfs
Paper money is worthless.
@JohnAllen… John, what kind of an IDIOT, stands for election 9 short months ago, claiming to have the answers that we all need, then GETS ELECTED after a LANDSLIDE victory, then gets a snot on himself 9 months later and throws his rattle out of his pram like a 12 month old child??? There are people out there, who don’t have the 100K income plus the expenses that George Lee has had, they need access to seed capital to get businesses started, they need reform, there are people out there with nothing more than their own vision, trying to start… Read more »
George Lee just found out how corrupt Irish politic’s is.The whole political system in this country is corrupt to the core. There is no real alternative political party to vote for.
Sinn Fein — Commie B****stards.
Labour — Left wing Fanastists.
Fine Gael — Right wing Wa***kers.
Fina Fail — More of the same.
We need a Centerist Political party headed by people like George Lee.
Well it looks like an excellent day to sink some bad news….AIB…..statement….apologizing……overcharging customers. Funny enough, I find it hard to remember the last time AIB were undercharging customers.
But nowadays the general public is banjazed either way. If not as customers as taxpayers, the public ends up shortchanged. .
Irelands “mereith Whitney”
http://www.kathleenbarrington.blogspot.com/
DarraghD- George Lee is a Prince in Irish Politics and we are honoured to have had him elected .
I have met George on various occassions in Dublin in the middle 90’s and he has a very fine analytical logical mind that no one can sway him.He is resilient and strong and takes no prisoners .He is dogmatic in his beliefs and never strays away from those.He is the political version of Pope John Paul.
Posters. At this stage in the proceedings it s time for a NAMA update. IMF, today, made plain, the irish gov are misrepresenting NAMA and NAMA will not free up lending into the irish economy, albeit rigged. So, the main justification the gov used to institute NAMA, that one, NAMA will get credit flowing again, is now, according to the IMF, not true. So, the gov told porkies so what is the real reason for NAMA. NAMA will take the elites debts, move these debts into storage and quietly write the debts down. The banks will then be nationalized and… Read more »
wills – Eloquently spoken
Folks, Here is a fascinating (especially in hindsight) two-week old radio piece by Olivia O’Leary on George Lee:
http://www.rte.ie/ie/frontline/entry/change_of_plans
…and here is the change of plan for The Frontline tonight:
http://www.rte.ie/ie/frontline/entry/change_of_plans
John ALLEN.
George Lee maybe become FG’s ‘roger the dodger’..!!!
Maybe George Lee could write a book …a la “the bankers”.
HaHaHa muppets in the Dail !!!!
George Lee has just pulled of the journalistic scoup of the decade. He will know be able to explain how things go on in the Dail. The dozy deputies. The inside stories on allthe factions within the parties. Sam Smyth, Brian Duffy, Tom Humphries take a lesson in how it is done…
George gave up his 100k salary, took his snout out of the trough and left, after what he witnessed on the farm. The other members of animal farm are gobsmacked, they have never seen this before, you can sense the shock. He realised that Dail Eirann is a joke, a circus full of overpaid clowns. At the same time Cowen hijacks the 1916 rising, using the patriotism card to win support.