"I Heard a Siren from the Silicon Docks"

Happy St. Paddy's Day to all the Irish out there and to those non-Irish who just want a reason to drink Guinness.

The Irish may be the largest diaspora in the world. Some 80 million people worldwide claim Irish heritage; this, from a country whose peak population reached 8 million. Even those not so well-versed in history know that oppression sent millions to emigrate or to their deaths. Poverty was a major struggle up until the Celtic Tiger in the 1990s, after decades of European Union structural funds propelled the economy to the top tier. It was an opportune time, as a fledgling tech industry would soon grow into a major global force. Many of the biggest tech companies in the world now have headquarters in Dublin; they have rebuilt the docklands - a once dirty old town of warehouses and factories - into a glittering, glass and steel mini city known as the Silicon Docks. If you've ever been to Dublin, you'd marvel at the changes over the last twenty years. It's a whole new world.

One reason the tech companies flocked to Dublin was its weak privacy laws. Data drinking companies like Google and Facebook were able to build massive data empires in part because these laws made privacy virtually an afterthought. Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner has been repeatedly challenged in courts by the European Union, and a new EU privacy law may open the floodgates for more litigation.

The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will restrict how tech companies collect, store, and use personal data beginning 25 May 2018. Businesses and organizations that fail to comply with GDPR will be fined 20 million euro or 4% of their global annual revenue, whichever is higher. 

The Irish government is trying to make the state exempt from provisions of the GDPR. A massive 132 page bill is still under debate with some rather bizarre points, such as reducing the age of consent from 16 to 13! Irish data protection experts are universally opposed to the bill, which they say, "has the potential to kill data protection enforcement in Ireland and will take years of litigation to fix.”

So why is Ireland opposed to data protection? For one, most businesses in Ireland are not prepared for the GDPR changes. Then there is the government itself that feels it is not prepared and worries that any fines on its public bodies may drain the budget and prevent them from fixing the problems that led to the fines in the first place.

These issues will be discussed in April at the Dublin Data Sec 2018 conference. Let's hope Ireland can get the bill sorted out before the GDPR deadline. In the meantime, here's to all the Irish out there. 

Sláinte!

St. Patrick’s Day: Mythical Holiday vs. Modern Reality

[Source: Andreas F. Borchert]

Americans of all backgrounds eagerly anticipate March 17 each year as an opportunity to wear green, eat corned beef and cabbage, drink beer and bring out the ‘Irish’ in everyone. St. Patrick’s Day, once a holiday to celebrate the homeland for 19th century Irish immigrants, has grown so ubiquitously popular that even Ireland’s politicians head stateside to participate in American parade festivities.

So, what are the Irish in Ireland up to this St. Paddy’s day?

Some will be celebrating, of course, but others may simply be looking ahead to March 27, the centennial of Ireland’s 1916 uprising. 100 years prior, Irish nationalists revolted against their British government by seizing buildings throughout Dublin and declaring Ireland an independent republic; the fighting that followed left nearly 500 nationalists dead and destroyed much of Dublin. Although the rebellion was all but over in a matter of days, the iron fist used by the British to quell the revolt would eventually come to fuel the resentment necessary to create an independent Irish state in 1949.

Ireland today is certainly not the place it was a century ago, but that is not to say life is all 4-leaf clovers and pots of gold at the end of rainbows. Recently:

• There has been much criticism over a complete lack of adequate Internet access in much of rural Ireland:  “It is unacceptable for those in rural Ireland to be consigned to battle with poor connectivity. Over and over again we hear of the problems a lack of broadband is causing in rural areas. It is adding to the isolation many in rural Ireland feel—and is contributing to the demise of local communities,” argued Seamus Sherlock of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association. Fortunately, change is coming: telecoms operator Eir has promised to connect 100,000 residences by 2017 and the government itself has developed a National Broadband Plan to connect 750,000 residences by 2020.

• Ireland’s Censorship of Publications Board opted to ban a book for the first time in 18 years. “The collective view of the board was that it was a vile publication as it contained graphic descriptions of the rape of a minor,” reported board chairman Shane McCarthy. The initial ban will last for 12 years and prohibit the sale or distribution of the book.

• No longer a city in shambles, Dublin today is better known as the Silicon Docks, a global tech hub that boasts Facebook’s international operations. The accounts of 83% of all Facebook users (from everywhere but the United States) are managed in Ireland and, increasingly, subject to Irish law: two weeks ago, a German court overturned a decision to allow fake names on Facebook because, although such an act would be protected by German law, Facebook’s real name policy is not in violation of Irish law. The case stems from Facebook’s decision to block the account of a German woman for using a fake name and then unilaterally reinstating it under her actual name.  

• A banner hung in commemoration of the 1916 uprising found itself under (social media) attack. Tweets of protest over the decision to include portraits of historical figures not involved in the uprising include, “Tourists will be torturing the poor guides with ‘so, where did these guys fight?’” and “Sickened that the official centenary celebration has managed to be more absurd than our 1916 [spoof] documentary.”

Whether or not you choose to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day today, remember that behind this larger-than-life holiday is a people whose struggles—past and present—are very much alive, real and perhaps more similar to your own than you ever imagined.

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