Abstract:
The theme of ageing in rural areas has gained
increasing attention from policy makers and
researchers in the last few decades in a situation
where older people now often comprise a disproportionately
larger share of those living in rural
areas (see for example, Lowe and Speakman,
2006; Heenan, 2010.). This recognition is important
because many stereotypes have evolved
about rural ageing. Rural families, communities and
places are often idealised, contributing to a tendency
to romanticise age and ageing in rural settings.
This is exacerbated by the difficulty of
identifying social exclusion in rural environments
simply because deprivation is not easily
found in concentrated clusters of people, as is
often the case in urban neighbourhoods. Sometimes
older people in rural areas qualify their experience
of poverty and isolation by drawing attention
to the more positive aspects of rural life. The
result is that rural older people are sometimes
portrayed as being more resilient and self-sufficient
and which may, in turn, be used to justify
public policy inaction. This paper critically examines
the notion of a rural idyll as it relates to the
lived experiences of older people and presents
some of the key findings that have emerged from
a baseline research project conducted in 2010
across the island of Ireland.
