Money (Sireacht: Longings for Another Ireland)

Money is power. It shapes our world in ways that can leave the mind reeling. Indeed, the bank crisis and subsequent recession made clear the influence that it has over our lives. Yet this despite this, money remains and opaque and abstract space, with its own language and gatekeepers to knowledge. As citizens we are required to support the profit-seeking strategies of banks and other financial institutions, but we are not supposed to question those strategies, the logic that underpins them, nor the unequal power relations that envelop its world. This book seeks to do precisely that. It explains and questions the world of money, and does so in an Irish context. It then puts forward ways for progressives to come together and work for a better and more inclusive Ireland – one where the money system works for public cohesion over private accumulation. It will argue that money is a social technology, one that underpins a complex system of social relations, and the ownership and control of that technology gives those who hold it enormous social, economic and political power. It will show that there is a class in Ireland that has carved out a niche for itself within that system at a national and international level, and that class is deeply embedded in the institutions of the State. It will put forward alternatives that involve facing up to both the deep economic class divisions within Irish society and the gendered nature of economic inequality, as well as working collectively to transform the institutions and ideas which sustain and reproduce those divisions.