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BEING ON THE dole is not a funny thing.
But one Irish man has used his experience – which was frustrating and unexpected – to inform a dark comedic book called The Dole Diaries.
Tobias Kirkner spent 10 years working abroad before returning to Ireland. When he arrived back here, he tried to access social welfare. It was his experiences with this that led to him writing the book.
He describes the self-published book as documenting “days in the life of one of the most vulnerable members of society”.
A new generation of unemployed people
In the prologue, he says:
What follows is an honest tale told as truly as I can tell one, and though it is no easy thing to speak on behalf of a generation, especially when you never got on with them particularly well, especially when you haven’t lived in the same country as them for a decade, nonetheless that is exactly what I propose to do – to speak on behalf of my generation, whether they like it or not.
He notes that every new Irish generation “must define for itself what it means to be unemployed”.
The book is peppered with salty language, and takes a particularly dark satirical tone.
He admits that he doesn’t know if people will get the jokes inside his dark humour, but said that “people are sick of the misery”. But Kirkner said he has injected “a little bit of gallows humour” into the book.
Returning home from abroad
Kirkner spent the last decade working in Japan, Sri Lanka, the Sultanate of Oman, South Korea and Syria, and was the last Westerner out of Homs prior to the siege of that city by government forces in 2011.
“Three years later that hitherto unknown locale has become the Stalingrad of our times, and I listened to the massacre that started it,” he said.
He came back to Ireland with “half-assed notions of doing a doctorate” and the idea for writing columns about his experiences “snowballed and became a lot more fun than the doctorate”.
He doesn’t want to spoil the book, as there is a twist in the latter stages. But he does posit his narrator as a sort of “everyman character”.
In the book itself I don’t really say how old I am. It’s easier to identify with this character rather than limiting him by facts or figures.
There are hints throughout the book that point to the book’s ‘suckerpunch’.
A fascination with welfare
He has always had a “fascination” with welfare.
Through the nine years of what would turn out to be my brief career, it always held a fascination for me, the side of welfare – the liberty and freedom it gives you. That’s one thing this life gives you is the time.
“It’s not as easy as it is made out to be,” said Kirkner of going on the dole. “I thought it would be over in three to four weeks, but it’s a bit of a struggle.”
This was particularly because he had been abroad for so long, he had to prove that he was living in Ireland and intended on staying.
“If you’re walking in there to seek their services you are kind of at their mercy in a way,” said Kirkner.
He wrote the book because he believed “there is no narrative out there of how it is to enter the machine. I thought that needed to be marked and written”.
After the boom
He left Ireland “when the whole boom nonsense was just beginning” and said that every year when he came back, Ireland was progressively more awful”.
“It was just appalling how bad the country had become,” he said, suggesting that in post-recession Ireland “things are a whole lot nicer”.
Who did he write the book for? “I guess people in the same position as myself,” he said. “It’s nice to see the journey that you’ve walked dramatised and put up there and recounted. Like a little souvenir of the bad old days.”
But he also wants to impress on people “that things aren’t as bad as they’re made out to be, we only arrived at this brief period of comfort”.
“We built the sandcastle one grain of sand at a time. It’s so easy to knock it down.”
Dubray’s is carrying the book exclusively in cities wherever it has a presence. It is also available in independent retailers such as O’Mahoney’s, Vibes & Scribes in Cork and Just Books in Mullingar.
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The longer it takes the more interest AIB will have to pay won’t they?
The bailout is bigger than 21 Billion, the low interest rates and DIRT @ 41% are not taken into account.
True Martin but the more interest they have to pay , the longer it will take for them to get back to profitability.
Future tax on profits written off against taxpayer covered debts.
Profits earned for a large part by charging crazy customers fees to those that bailed them out.
Investment ?!! More like theft !!
Woohoo we’ll all be rich again. I’ve an option on some apartments in Bulgaria if anyone’s interested?
Bulgaria is old news Kim, Cape Verde is where its at, the new Canaries!… Ryan Air will be flying there soon. Yer man from Cork that knows about the money is selling them!
Brendan oil own fake is it ?
I like your style Ronan, just for that I’ll throw in a hot tub.
Brendan Investments …come on now people keep up ….
The Irish taxpayer paid out €21 Billion to bail out the Bank, then the senior bailed the pension fund with over €1.5 Billion, they retired on huge Pensions. Then they closed the pension to new members. The tax payer is paying 1000 staff salaries of over €100,000. Tax payers are taken to the cleaners by the AIB. You would want to be a gxxxxxxe to Bank with them.
In 1984, AIB was bailed out, at a cost of £400 million to the Irish taxpayer, when its subsidiary (ICI) collapsed. The following year AIB paid out a dividend to its shareholders, while still in-hoc to the taxpayer.
Less than 25 years later AIB was back, cap in hand, for another draw down.
As from the last budget, it would appear, the government will, now, be incentivising even greater incompetence and negligence through its revised taxation policy.
I despise that bloody bank, really actively despise it, I have more respect for a junkie thief than I have for anyone working for it.
Saw that in the paper today, Martin. I nearly choked on me sandwich. 1000 AIB staff on over €100,000. Nothing has changed, these people live in a different world, on our money and nobody seems to care.
All the sheeple red arrowing me- the type that doff their cap to their “betters”
A bankrupt state in tatters because of AIB- generations enslaved to paying for this God awful mess and these sad sacks red arrow someone pointing out how despicable this bank is- third time being bailed out by the tax payers and it’s these clowns attitude will see them bankrupt us again.
Anybody that owes the AIB money shouldn’t pay it until they give all that money back to the taxpayers
jaysus!
yep – this is a brilliant idea and will definitely help the borrower, the lender and the State finances all in one go.
I look forward to the next economic marvel from you Denise.
Well we’ll keep it so until you do – all of it ! not 75% ……” there’s a big bonus for ye lads and a few share options Isn’t the Irish public really stupid”,
ALL OF IT !
A fraction of this €21b would fix our water system and therefore no need for any Irish Water charges
That’s like €4.5k for each citizen. That would give the local economy some boost. Can I expect a cheque in the post?
Too f***ing late AIB the people have already had to suffer from your mess
Well they could start by returning the €18 they stole from my account, which f***ed up a direct debit payment.
If we get double digits billions back from the bank we will be doing well. AIB isn’t worth 21 billion.
The big swing is the taking back the provisions for bad loans which were the worse worse case. That’s why they made big losses as they had to put huge money aside and now they don’t need it so they can take some and call it a profit.
But that’s a short term thing as the economy improves and losses reduce. They still haven’t shown they can make money long term.
IF I was a sausage I’d dance at the crossroads with a pink tutu on, while reciting the government ignored out of copyright amhran na bfhiann backwards on a bicycle !
What about some decking Kim, a hot tub and some decking and im in!! I already have one in Kusadasi.
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It’s about time we took our fingers out of our holes and marched on the banks think about what they done to this country and how easy they got away with it . FFs Ireland’s paying 42% of the over all debt of the eu, so how dose the smallest end up paying the most
Bing!
So how much will my bank shares be worth by then…??
As Paul said they will be worth “Bing”
I have got to be the worlds lousiest fairy.
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