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Emigration destroying rural Irish GAA teams say experts

By
DARA KELLY,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Sunday, January 29, 2012, 11:11 AM
Updated Sunday, January 29, 2012, 11:11 AM

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John Curran, from Valentia, and Kevin Moran, from Reenard, Co Kerry, at the airport about to depart for London to look for work. John is the 14th member of his football team, The Young Islanders, to emigrate.


The number of players forced to leave Ireland to find opportunity abroad has decimated one Gaelic football team in Valentia Island in County Kerry.

The Young Islanders senior football team there has now lost 14 members of its squad as they leave their homes and families to emigrate.

"It was like a wake at home this morning, but saying goodbye to your family is never nice," said John Curran, the latest man to leave club and family, according to the Irish Independent.

Curran left Valentia Island in search of construction work in London, but he went on to tell the Independent that if the situation improved in Ireland he would return.

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The South Kerry GAA Board had an ad hoc meeting to discuses the unprecedented levels of emigration that have depleted the organization in the Kingdom.

Young Islanders chairman John O’Sullivan has witnessed the exodus that has left his club in tatters.

"We've lost so many of our senior players that last year we were only barely fielding 15," he told the Independent.

The lack of work means that players have no choice but to go elsewhere to earn a living.

"It seems that every obstacle is put in the way of businesses that are trying to create employment," added O’Sullivan.

The problem is widespread across rural GAA clubs and Liam O'Neill, who will shortly take over the reins as GAA president, is hoping to make this a priority during his term in office.

"We're facing a player crisis that we've never faced before," he said. "Nobody ever envisaged we'd be in a situation like we are where places like south Kerry are short of players and I'm not sure if the organization understands the gravity of the situation."

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11 Comments

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GeorgeDillon | Feb 04, 2012, 08:18 AM EST
"you dont believe they are irish or that their kids are Irish". More utter nonsense from curdexter. She thinks that anyone who arrives in Ireland is Irish. What a moron. I was in Spain last week--that means I'm Spanish, curdexter? Really, there's no point in arguing with halfwits like curdexter. Anyone who thinks you get citizenship of a country by landing in one of its airports is moronic beyond belief.

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ciaradexy | Feb 03, 2012, 12:12 PM EST
George, why dont you leave the US and campaign for all non Native Americans to leave and give the country back to the native population?

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ciaradexy | Feb 03, 2012, 12:11 PM EST
Curitiba, you slating migrants who come to Ireland. Youre like george, in that, you dont believe they are irish or that their kids are Irish. You have belittled them several times on this site. Maybe we should make them leave and maybe the English should make you and your family leave England? How would that suit you?

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Curitiba | Jan 30, 2012, 04:58 PM EST
Why would we be kicked out of the UK, Ciara? According to yourself, once you're born in England, you magically transform into an Anglo-Saxon, no matter where your ancestors are from, so applying your logic, that would never happen. As for Valencia Island, well, I prefer my little Nagorno-Karabakh, that island of Irish culture here in London, to relocating to somewhere that is probably less Irish, ha!

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Curitiba | Jan 30, 2012, 04:52 PM EST
We are very fond of the grey squirrel and the red squirrel metaphor here in the UK!

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GeorgeDillon | Jan 30, 2012, 02:37 PM EST
merefalow: There are lots of similar examples. For instance, the red deer is on the back foot in Ireland, forced out by non-native species and by poaching by Eastern Europeans. The Irish hare is now restricted to tiny areas of Ireland. And the one you mention for England, the red squirrel, is also under big pressure in Ireland. We only need look at history to see that this iron rule also holds for humanity. Go thru Minnesota or the Dakotas now--how many Sioux will you see, once the lords of the Western Plains. How many Comanche in Texas, or Huron and Mohawk in northern New York? That's the inevitable fate of the Irish if they don't step back from the brink of ethnosucide. In a hundred years--maybe much less--an Irish person on the banks of the Liffey in Dublin will be as rare as an Allegheny on the banks of the river of that same name in Pittsburgh, or a Cherokee roaming the hills of North Carolina.

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merefalow | Jan 30, 2012, 11:43 AM EST
if you want to know about the effects of MASS UNCONTROLLED IMMIGRATION,ASK AN EXPERT,the red squirrel,now extinct in England,a small colony left on brown sea island,ex inhabitant and resident of uk for thousands of years.before the grey took over.

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ciaradexy | Jan 30, 2012, 05:33 AM EST
And parts of London are the new Valencia Island eh Curitiba? You never answered my question. If youre 'Irish' why dont you move to these little towns and save us all from the immigrants? Wouldnt it be gas if your family were kicked out of the UK!

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Curitiba | Jan 29, 2012, 06:34 PM EST
Ireland will become the new Kaliningrad.

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ciaradexy | Jan 29, 2012, 04:42 PM EST
Ban Irish from reproducing with non Irish! That will sort it all out eh george?

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ciaradexy | Jan 29, 2012, 04:04 PM EST
Yeah great idea Georgina! We should ban all those non white non 'ethnic' irish kids here from playing Irish sports and let them sit on the side lines because they just arent irish enough to play the sacred game!

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