Losing my identity
I have a passport [or two].
It’s tucked away at the back of a drawer just in case someone suddenly invites me to stay with them on the other side of the world. You never know? These things happen?
The only times I have used it in anger was when I travelled to France. Now one of the big deals they made about the EU was that there would be no more borders and no need for passports, but you still need a passport to travel, which sort of sums up the crazy bureaucracy of the institution.
They are brining out a new design for the Irish passport, and to put it mildly, I am really pissed off with the new look.
Why?
Because it is dominated by a fucking bedpan.
My objections are threefold.
Firstly it is a fucking sports stadium and I fail to see why that should represent any part of my cultural identity. If they showed Newgrange or the Book of Kells or somesuch I would have no problems but a place where they kick a fucking ball around?
Secondly, if it’s representative of anything, it is the perfect example of modern Ireland – where by flashing money around, international corporations can have their names permanently bleated every time a place is mentioned. I strongly object to the whole concept where a business can buy a landmark and insist that their name is used at every turn. What next? Am I going to wake up one morning to find myself living in Sony Wicklow? Will I have to travel on the Toyota M11? They can go fuck themselves. That stadium will always be Lansdowne Road as far as I am concerned and I steadfastly refuse to call it anything else.
Thirdly, it is a hideous edifice. To me it looks like some architectural freak that has melted in the sun and gone horribly wrong. It could be mistaken for some kind of extra terrestrial mothership that has developed a leak, crashed and is draped across the Dublin suburbs. To coin a word – fugly.
Worst of all, it just looks like a bedpan.
But then I suppose that is somewhat symbolic of modern Ireland?
What better way to represent a nation that is constantly being shat upon?
Your second point really should be points 1 to 99.
To associate the country with an insurance company for the duration of these passport designs is so so wrong. For one minute is wrong – let alone six or twelve years for a passport life.
I'd let them away with it if said insurance company sponsored all my travel expenses.
Apart from anything else it is a stupid meaningless fucking name for an insurance company, let alone a sports stadium.
Maybe I can just tear that page out of the passport? Or leave it in for use as emergency toilet paper while abroad?
Agree 110% – it will ALWAYS be Lansdowne Road. Not some fucking insurance company's stadium.
Amn't I of an age where I still refer to the Dublin stations as Westland Row, Pearse Street and Kingsbridge! 🙂
A passport with an image of a stadium that looks like a bedpan? Obviously pisses you off.
Sorry…couldn't resist. Also, not being Irish I'm really not able to say much else? I mean, I had to something.
say?
Er…yeah.
If you had been good little Europeans and made less fuss about silly outmoded ideas like privacy and freedom your government would have introduced a biometric citizens ID card. Then you wouldn't need a passport. It's all your own fault!
In any case it will be an EU passport. All official EU documents, coins and bank notes have unimportant non-specific symbols and designs, like buildings, bridges etc, they do that to reduce national identity.
Hideous isn't it!
Apparently it has the national anthem printed in it. Maybe it will play it whenever it's opened?
Dead on.
Fuck it.
Is that a signature or an expression of disgust?
Aviva tried to have the name of Lansdowne Road DART station changed to Aviva Stadium. That's the kind of thing PR companies do. Iarnroid Eireann told them fuck off with themselves.
Not often I'm in full agreement with Iarnród Éireann! Hah!
Whatever happened to the idea of having something to be proud of on the notes, etc. It reminds me of a Polish city I worked in for a while. They were forever going on about their small monstrosity of a bus station – because it was the only distinctive thing they had (apart from post-WW2 pogroms against local Jewish returnees). Is Ireland so bankrupt of ideas to feel the need to brag about a stadium?
You can be sure that Ireland had no say whatsoever in the design. It's all part of the process of "denationalising" EU states. We are not allowed a unique identity and have to make do with something that we can call our own but which is in fact common to most countries. It would be the equivalent to the English Bulldog or NI's H&W cranes?