we’re all hip and cool and Rocha

in ireland when you mention the word design, for the most part people think of john rocha or paul costello, fashion/styling. more and more in the world today, the fashion ogre is swallowing up all of design, you only have to look at the results from the last two milan furniture fairs. for fashion designers its all about brand extention (in my view inversley proportional to the quality of the design).
thats all well and good (kind of) in countries like italy, england or sweden, countries with a good solid base in design. but here in ireland style seams to be all we know (just look at any of the irish “design” publications). irish based designers and producers aimlessly follow bland internationalism. market driven you may say but how can you educate a market if you don’t try and show what it can be.
real design bearly even gets alook in. eilean gray left this country for amoung other reasons due to a lack of a market and appriciation for her work, now we have welcomed her back with open arms, but are we not doing exactly what was done to her at the beginning of the last century (her work being considereed too modern, noncraft). fashion and art, design and style can the irish tell the difference?

just in case you think i am on some mad rant this is actually a suject i am looking into for my thesis. all helpfull comments will be much appreciated.
thank you