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Clare village close to extinction as young people emigrate

Emigration sucking life out of small Irish villages as new survey proves

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Thursday, January 26, 2012, 7:30 AM
Updated Thursday, January 26, 2012, 1:03 PM

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Suitcase in hand at Dublin Airport - Ireland's small towns are being crippled by emigration
Suitcase in hand at Dublin Airport - Ireland's small towns are being crippled by emigration
Photo by Google Images


A County Clare village is close to extinction as the reality of emigration hits home in rural Ireland.

A new report says that 87 people have emigrated from the parish of Kilmihil in the last two years alone.

A survey of all homes in the area has found that the majority of the emigrants are aged between 20 and 30.

Over half of them have emigrated to America, with the Australia and Britain named as, other popular destinations.

Community leader Gerry Johnston conducted the survey after observing the dwindling number of players in Kilmihil GAA club.

The senior Kilmihil team has lost eight of its senior championship footballers from the 2010 and 2011 seasons to emigration.

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Michael Noonan slammed after branding emigration a lifestyle choice

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Johnston told the Irish Times: “Kilmihil is missing a generation. The life has gone out of the village.
 
“The life has been sucked out of the place. These were the people with disposable income, and shops and pubs will tell you what impact the young people leaving has had.

“There are so many people from Kilmihil in Australia that they are going to form a Kilmihil GAA club out there.

“They are going to form a sub-committee of Kilmihil GAA and help with things financially back here, because medical expenses, lights for the field have to be paid for.

“They love to hear stories from home. They all want to be here, but unfortunately they will only be coming home for holidays, weddings and funerals.”

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41 Comments

15 - 41 | See all comments

ciaradexy | Jan 29, 2012, 09:55 AM EST
But youre 'Irish'? Surely this little town would take someone like you in?
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Curitiba | Jan 28, 2012, 05:46 PM EST
Can't. There aren't any left in the Western world. As for the rest of the planet, well, they're not going to be monocultural any more if I turn up, are they?
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ciaradexy | Jan 28, 2012, 02:15 PM EST
I dont know any irish person who wants to live in a monocultural society. Even my granny who is in a nursing home in Drogheda thinks the sun shines out of the Filipino nurses arses! If you want to live in a monocultural one horse town then why dont you move to one yourself?
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ciaradexy | Jan 28, 2012, 02:14 PM EST
Ireland takes migrants from everywhere! we dont have a colour or passport preference system! Everyone is welcome here Curitiba. I have no qualms with someone coming to Ireland! If someone breaks the law then they should be deported but other than that, failte! Just because there is no historical link doesnt mean there cant be.
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Curitiba | Jan 28, 2012, 03:12 AM EST
Could you tell me what is so bad about monocultural one horse towns, Ciara? You are displaying this misplaced post-colonial guilt about all the crimes Ireland committed against these people. I'm sorry, but Ireland did not take part in any colonial experiment (except to be at the receiving end of it), and therefore did not commit and crimes against anyone, so what does Ireland have to guilty about? If you want to take it to extremes and say that Ireland sent millions of migrants to the USA, UK, Australia, Argentina, etc, therefore they invaded these countries, then why not accept migrants from these places and not countries that have no historical link at all?
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sirpeter | Jan 27, 2012, 10:09 PM EST
@palmeiras.You know that's a woman so take it easy.Ciaradexy makes a few good points at times.That's rare enough on IC.Also you are not doing yourself any good agreeing with Georgie Boy the IC idiot.Just read the comments for a while until you know the posters.
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sirpeter | Jan 27, 2012, 09:52 PM EST
ciaradexy.Knobess is a good make up word.You have to give credit where credit is due.That is been very Irish and you know it is.Fight away but don't criticise the wit.
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ciaradexy | Jan 27, 2012, 08:46 PM EST
Curitiba, that happened yesterday too. My name went onto a comment by sean. its a bot odd alright.Palm, stop making up words like knobess. It just makes you out to be a bit 'special. As I have said, most young Irish people want to spend time teavelling the world and living in cities. We have moved on from wanting to live in monocultural one horse towns which sound like the kinda places youre happy to live in. My classmates wanted to live in Dublin, we had this conversation. Cork and Galway are just as equipped as Dublin, they just fancied living in Dublin which they are entitled to do.
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Curitiba | Jan 27, 2012, 05:10 PM EST
That's not my comment at 01.45. I noticed it went up without a name first before mine got inserted. Anyone want to claim this orphan comment? Otherwise it looks like I'm arguing with myself!
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palmeiras | Jan 27, 2012, 04:50 PM EST
ciaradexy, you are the idiot; you miss my point, so I'll have to repeat it for you, you knobess. If the govt invested more outside the Pale, a lot less people would have to emigrate and/or move to dublin; and this applies to university education too; if universities around Ireland had the same facilities (as in proper libraries, sport facilities etc) as their "dubb linn" counterparts, a lot of the students that were in your class would have opted to attend those universities; that I am sure of. Are u too dumb to understand this or is it your jackeen arrogance? And by the way it was one of yours, i.e. bertie ahern, who helped, along with his banking cronies, to bring Ireland to its knees. Now you p... off and study proper english.
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newnation | Jan 27, 2012, 02:21 PM EST
HA! the most childish response yet from George"dumbracist"Dillion, if your going to attempt to slag me it would help if you avoided the kindergarten response of just repeating what i said to you.. yawn!
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irishcoffeekid | Jan 27, 2012, 01:35 PM EST
I hope the ones that came to the USA have legal status and arent here illegally or they'll end up being banned from the USA and will end up with even less options. I'm sure that area isnt the only one feeling it.
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ciaradexy | Jan 27, 2012, 12:00 PM EST
My uncle still lives on the family farm but the land is leased out as hes not farming anymore himself. His 3 kids arent going into it either and were never going to so if people dont want to go into farming, these rural areas are going to lose people to emigration and the cities anyway! My friends from rural parts of the country dont want to live in these places. Maybe when they have families they may want to go back but theres a big world out there that people want to see and experience.
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jetsnoone | Jan 27, 2012, 10:39 AM EST
Illegal immigration causes wages to go down.
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ciaradexy | Jan 27, 2012, 10:17 AM EST
Gobdaw, no I didnt study English, Im a medical scientist. Look it up, idiot.
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