A brain drain for Ireland as economy buckles

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MOLLY MULDOON,

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Social welfare line in Dublin City

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Armed with a great Irish education and a willingness to work hard, Molly Muldoon found the job market at home to be virtually non-existent, so she applied for a U.S. visa to escape the doom and gloom. This is her story.

It’s the Monday morning of Memorial weekend and my alarm goes off at 6 a.m.  Through my bedroom window I can see the CITI building which dominates the Queens skyline.

I reach for my uniform and go into the kitchen to make some coffee before I walk the nine blocks to work. I’m a waitress in New York City.

A communications graduate, I moved here from Ireland last September in search of opportunity, experience and a piece of Willy Loman’s American dream. While I haven’t landed the perfect job just yet, how could I ever regret a move to a city like New York? Culture personified.

Growing up in Ireland amidst the success of the Celtic Tiger, the future seemed like a secure place filled with hope and opportunity. Business was thriving as our indigenous, highly educated workforce attracted large scale foreign investment.

Hotels, industrial estates, shopping centers, and housing estates sprung up in towns and villages overnight where supply far outreached demand. Immigration increased with an influx of our fellow Europeans eager to fill gaps in the labor market. 
Ostentatious mansions adorned the country, and families were no longer limited to mere one or two holidays a year. Excessiveness exploded.

Meanwhile, Ireland’s educational institutions continued to churn out highly motivated and professional young people. My classmates and I were satisfied that our hard work would pay dividends.

My five-year plan was firmly set in place. I would study, maintain good grades, achieve an education and eventually graduate into a yuppie’s existence doing a job that I was passionate about.

In November 2008, 23 of my classmates walked across the stage in the Helix, Dublin City University to receive our master’s degrees. At that point we were all employed, some had contracts and everyone had prospects.

I told my boss when he hired me that I didn’t want to be in the same position in a year’s time. I wanted to climb the corporate ladder.
The interview panel consisted of three members of senior management. Within three months each of us would be made redundant.

Three weeks after my graduation I got laid off from a job that I loved, a job that I was good at and had worked extremely hard to attain. And so I found myself standing in line at the social welfare office in Bishop Square in Dublin asking myself where it all went wrong.

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