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Emigration ripping Ireland apart says leading cleric - SEE POLL

‘Serious implications’ of 100,000 a year leaving

CATHAL DERVAN,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Monday, February 7, 2011, 6:59 AM

Updated Monday, February 7, 2011, 9:55 AM

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Union of Students in Ireland demonstration next to the famine memorial in Dublin - it is now estimated that 70 percent of young Irish people will leave in the next 12 months

IrishCentral.com Poll

A leading expert on rural Ireland has warned that the plight of emigration will rip the country apart in the wake of the Celtic Tiger’s demise.

Community activist and well known Clare GAA personality Fr Harry Bohan has warned that the very fabric of Irish society is threatened by the growing emigration problem.

Fr Bohan made his remarks to the Sunday Independent newspaper after a National Youth Council of Ireland survey indicated that 70 percent of unemployed young Irish people believe they will emigrate in the next 12 months.

The Economic and Social Research Institute has also claimed that 1,000 people a week are now quitting Ireland in the search for work with the USA, Canada, Australia and Britain their most likely destinations.

The Government body also predicts that net outward migration will 100,000 by April 2012, a figure far higher than the peak of 44,000 people who emigrated at the height of the last recession in 1989.

The GAA has also voiced concern as its member clubs lose an average of 250 players a month to emigration.

Fr Bohan said: “The mass emigration of the Fifties was about 50,000 people a year leaving in Ireland.

“That was regarded then as a total disaster, so much so that people wondered whether Irish independence was worth it at all.

“Now we are losing that number and more, which means we could be getting closer and closer to a lost generation. I heard a young fella on the radio say that out of 100 in his class who had graduated in 2008, he is one of the last men standing here in Ireland. That is serious stuff.

“If we lose that generation, it is going to have serious implications for the economy in the years to come. And it is also going to have serious implications socially.”

Nster.com

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Aleeyne | Jun 08, 2011, 01:17 PM EDT

This is the loss of the Irish bloodstock and the next generations too. Tragic.

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Collette2 | Mar 10, 2011, 02:49 AM EST

Fr Bohen, with all respect, the very fabric of the Irish has been torn apart with no warning, with betrayal of trust of mothers by goverments and in particular, the church, with the abuse of yesterday's innocent children; the adults of today.

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Travellingman | Mar 01, 2011, 12:08 PM EST

Yes I agree with Citizenwhys comment…Everyone can blame the Irish Government or the Bankers for the collapse. However I am English and live here in London and my partner who is Irish, came here in 1987 and we met in 1990. In 1991 we had a son together and ran a small reasonably successful Decorating Business up to 1999, just as the Housing Market Bubble was beginning to inflate BIGTIME there….However little did I know this. In March of 1999 she finically fleeced me. destroyed our Business, cleared out our home, making me homeless and floated off into Celtic Tiger Housing Bubble…So conclusively, Destroy a Painter and Decorator, Destroy a Country….Can you see this! Economics is simple, all you have to say to yourself is “I wont do that”.

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jacersagain | Feb 17, 2011, 02:26 PM EST

I couldn't but add the following letter in the Irish Independent 17/02/11 "Text received at 07.23: "Thanks for everything, Mom and Dad. Just on plane, will text when we land x x x" Tears. Aertel page 572. FR7016, departed 08.09. More tears. Unreal feeling in the pit of my stomach -- loss, failure. Thank you, Brian Cowen and Fianna Fail. Thank you, Anglo Irish Bank. It's because of you that our daughter and her fiancé, like thousands more, have left brokenhearted parents to grieve the loss of their beloved children. Yes, our hearts are broken and yes, we are angry. It's tough to come to terms with this. Will they be okay? Will they ever come back? Where can I get the money to go and visit them? I lost my job and didn't get a golden handshake. You might have taken our children and our happiness away from us but you left us one thing -- our votes."

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Joxbuk1979 | Feb 08, 2011, 04:08 PM EST

It is sad but along with the sadness there is hope. Many of us in the Diaspora left for the chance of a better life and many of us found it.

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CitizenWhy | Feb 08, 2011, 02:04 PM EST

marsman ... Interesting comment on betrayal. My mother's family, deeply involved in the Independence Movement, used to say "It's not our English neighbors we distrust - they would never betray us. It's some of the irish. They tall big in the pub about rebellion and treason to the Crown and then they inform." Their English neighbors in fact gave refuge to the family during Black and Tan raids and burnings. They were fully for independence but everyone understood why they would not want to directly fight their own country and that independence was a task for the Irish to accomplish "on their own."

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CitizenWhy | Feb 08, 2011, 01:59 PM EST

The GAA and the Church have been doing a great job in holding rural Ireland together. If this priest/GAA spokesperson is concerned, there is a big problem. GAA youth and young adults are an important asset to Ireland, and their loss will be great. The loss of any one of them is a loss of a future, well functioning family, not just an individual. ... But there is no need to be worried about whether independence is worth it. Independence is gone. And everyone knows where.

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marsman | Feb 08, 2011, 06:28 AM EST

Some commenters rightlz ask what's this clerics problems. The big problem of Ireland was and still is that the patron saint of Ireland in reality is not St. Patrick but Judas, the traitor. It is a story of betrayal and deceit all along, including all and everything, from politics to the media. And certainly the Church. The Judas-phenomenon in this country with it's devastating effects should be THE topic for a cleric to muse and meditate about, wouldn't it?

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WoundedKnee | Feb 08, 2011, 02:42 AM EST

"A different perspective: Ireland is tiny...yes, folks, very small, and doesn't need overpopulation which it can't sustain."---So tell us, haikued2: If what you say is true--and it is--Why is Ireland importing 70.000 foreign workers (double that if you count their families) every year?

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peterson | Feb 07, 2011, 07:53 PM EST

What makes these young people think they will fare better by leaving? They should remain in Ireland and be part of the rebuilding process by getting involved in voting for proactive candidates for public office and assisting each other during these troubled times.

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cillowen | Feb 07, 2011, 07:07 PM EST

the queen is coming - how is it gonna help - tragic

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Spiddal | Feb 07, 2011, 05:25 PM EST

Very sad expectation.

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BARNEYKX | Feb 07, 2011, 03:37 PM EST

In CO CLARE AN ENTIRE GAA team has emigrated

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GeorgeDillon | Feb 07, 2011, 03:26 PM EST

The column calls this guy "a leading expert on rural Ireland". How do you get to be an "expert on rural Ireland"? Cut peat? Steal diesel? Keep a few hogs? I say Bohan is an expert on nothing except empty worthless talk. Did he ever do an honest day's work in his life? He should go and do penance for the crimes of his peers. Silence, penance and contemplation, that's what we Catholics need from priests, not this empty rigmarole of social activism.

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GeorgeDillon | Feb 07, 2011, 03:21 PM EST

What's this cleric's problem? Sure and for every Pat or Bridget who leaves Ireland isn't there an Ali or Pavel coming in. What matter then? I'm thinkin' that the bould priest thinks the Irish are better men than Poles or Nigerians. Shame on him, faith. That's not what the priests were saying a few years ago, when they were falling over themselves backwards in Dublin City and them puttin' on masses and grand celebrations in Polish for all dem Polack immigrants. Of course this was at the same time as you might cross the entire city of Dublin on a Sunday mornin' and not find one mass in Irish. And why would you? Sure and the Irish Gaels only kept the faith for centuries "In spite of dungeon, fire and sword". Why would the up-to-date Irish priests encourage that old culture and speech, anyway. It's far better that the young have the English so that they can bring the faith to Australia and Timbuctoo. Savin' your presence Father Bohan, and the top of the morning to ya.

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