New Facebook group angers Irish emigrants, says victims of “brain drain” are not welcome home – POLL
Page tells ex-pats to take down their tricolors and stop wearing their GAA county colors
Published Sunday, January 13, 2013, 7:56 AM
Updated Monday, January 14, 2013, 8:30 AM
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The Ireland Abandoners Facebook cover photo - supporters of the Donegal GAA All-Ireland team in front of Sydney Habour Bridge..."Not Welcome Home"
Photo by Ireland Abandoners
IrishCentral.com Poll
A new Facebook page, entitled “Ireland Abandoners” has slammed those Irish who have emigrated since the banking and property collapse crippled the economy. Both at home, in Ireland, and abroad, among said emigrants, the site has been met with criticism.
Recent figures show that emigration from Ireland is now at a high, greater than the numbers seen during the Great Hunger. The Irish Independent reports that during the twelve months leading up to April 2012, 87,000 people left Ireland.
As Joe.ie, a magazine website based in Ireland, pointed out, “The stream of Irish people from this country having to leave in search of employment in recent years, emigration is a hot topic at present and something that has directly or indirectly affected almost every family in the country.
"As a result, it is no surprise that a Facebook page set up seemingly with the sole purpose of criticizing those who have had to leave these shores has raised the ire of many who have come across it on the social networking site in recent days.”
They also question whether the Ireland Abandoners are simply trolls trying to create a reaction online from the Irish people. If this is the case they’ve achieved their goals.
Read more: Year ends with emigration from Ireland highest since Famine times
Their page says “for all those that left the Country when she needed you most you will not be welcomed back to reap the rewards of the crops we are sowing.”
It’s no wonder that some of their posts have been greeted with over 1,500 comments, most of them angry.
The group’s cover photo seen above shows a gathering of Donegal people, pre the GAA All-Ireland Final, at Sydney Habour Bridge, in Australia. The Ireland Abandoners page has tagged the photo with “Not Welcome Home.”
In their “About” section they state “take down your tri colors that you fly so proudly in the foreign lands, remove your county color jerseys that you wear to show your "support" for your country, because you abandoned her when she needed you most!!”
Read more: Irish emigrant’s ‘Just Saying’ video filmed in Dublin goes viral - VIDEO
Since the controversial page was established another group has formed on Facebook called “Ireland Abandoners MY ARSE.” Evidentially established by Irish in Australia, their cover photo is of a beautiful white sand beach.
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cuculin | Jan 16, 2013, 10:54 AM EST
Seanmor don't waste the skin on your fingers typing another word. Woundedknee your a Woundedsoul and your last post speaks volumes about your attitude towards "The Irish". Because you have no sense of humor I will bet that you just didn't get that students joke, although sounds like a bit of story to me. Anyway your last point proved to me without doubt that you do in fact have a grudge against us and explains all your previous posts and one-sided views towards everything Irish. Your a sad , sad man and I truly pity you. By the way after living here in Canada now for 12 years or so I have met many many young people from many countries and as I said to you earlier all of them act the same way as the Irish who come to NA no matter what country they come from. I would rather a cheeky Irish lad who works his ass off than a lad or lads from another country who beats or rapes his wife or claims benefits or worse murders somebody for their cell phone! For the record I didn’t ask for any help from anybody as I didn’t need it and I don’t hang out with any specific group as I am a citizen of the world.
By the way what were you teaching (Ya right I have never met a teacher as bitter as you! Not in a Uni anyway, your full of it) at Uni? How to hate the Irish based on a few casual meeting class? You must be really good at that class!
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Seanmor | Jan 15, 2013, 11:57 PM EST
WoundK: I had very little contact with recent arrivals from Ireland in the '80s, except for a few from the North of that country who faithfully attened Gaelic League classes at the Presbyterian Church hall in Woodlawn, Bronx.
However, 2 decades prior to that, I knew 8 or 9 of my former fellow parishioners in the the South of the homeland who served in the U.S. Army or National Guard while I was in the Marine Corps for 4 years. All of us serving in various branches of the military had entered the country with permanent visas and in full compliance with U.S immigration laws. However, I readly admit that none of us had one single strand of American DNA, which sone of my full-blooded American first cousins perceive as the reaon for their vast intellectual superiority over the likes of me and fellow inferior native Irish.
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WoundedKnee | Jan 15, 2013, 05:23 PM EST
ancavker: I agree. In my case, I first came in contact with large numbers of Irish immigrants when I lived in Manhattan in the late 1980s. I found many of them to be quite unpleasant. They gave the impression of thinking they knew it all, even tho their knowledge of the US had been gleaned from watching Dallas and Starsky and Hutch back on Irish TV. They rarely had any curiosity about life outside their little Irish ghetto of Woodside or the West Bronx. Rather than spend a weekend traveling, maybe out into Pennsylvania or down to DC, they preferred to hang out and get drunk in their depressing Irish bars. Another memory I have is how quickly they adopted prejudices and ugly language. I can remember guys who were barely here a week but who were already coming out with the nastiest hate language and stupid stereotypes about black folks, Hispanics etc. And they always gave the impression of thinking that Irish Americans--maybe even Americans generally--were fools. Actually it was they who were the fools. They saw us as meal tickets or job tickets who could be lubricated with some nonsense about the ould sod. I started off wanting to help the Irish illegals of the time, but I soon saw that they weren't worth helping. The last contact I had with an Irish immigrant was a few years back. I was teaching at a university, and a young Irishman who was enrolled there came by to speak to me. Pointing out that I was Irish American, he suggested that he would take one of my courses provided I promised to give him an A "because he was Irish". I told him to get the phuc out of my office. I no longer live near a population of Irish immigrants, but my impression from what I read of Australia is that they haven't changed.
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Smyrnian | Jan 15, 2013, 05:12 PM EST
Anyone who thinks the most highly educated people in Europe are "making way" to, and giving up jobs to, largely uneducated African and east Europeans simply has no clue. There is no educating someone with that mindset. They are simply leaving to find the job that matches their educational qualifications and or professional experience. They are not " giving up jobs" to the immigrants as they are not interested in low level jobs.
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ancavker | Jan 15, 2013, 04:52 PM EST
STEVEN: True, but I can tell
you there are a lot more young
Irish in NYC today than you
might think. And of course
they turn to the Irish-
Americans for help. They
only love us when they need us!!
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cuculin | Jan 15, 2013, 04:19 PM EST
Yawnnnnnnnn, keep your pittance as I dont kneed it and I an well aware of me lazeee typing and "lake" of gramer!
I did however fail to mention one semi valid point you did happen to make(probably by accident)and that was the fact that there is a generation of spoilt Celtic Tiger cubs out there and they do come with an "I deserve it" attitude which is somewhat foreign to what I left in 2000 but it is what it is and I don't think that they are any different than any kids over here their age. Good thing about that generation is the fact that most of them have probably traveled more than you have and are willing to up sticks to improve their life at the drop of a hat. That my moany friend is an admirable trait and one which will ensure many more generations of Irish Dispora to come!
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WoundedKnee | Jan 15, 2013, 03:36 PM EST
Cuculin--Will you help me with my "grammer"? I'l pay you-- at least a "pittens". Maybe I'll get to be as smart as your "furst" cousin!
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cuculin | Jan 15, 2013, 12:24 PM EST
WoundedKnee, you poor auld soul. I am far from inarticulate, I just couldn't be bothered spellchecking and responding to your web and wiki based nonsense. Also while Honors Eng wasn’t my strongest class I am more than equipped when needed in that department to handle your hatred and nonsense. Again the only reason I come on here is to point out your Bigotry and racism which is funny as you are now trying to use those words on me. I would also like to point out for people here that it normally takes you an hour or more to respond which I assume gives you plenty time to check the web and wiki for your nonsense as well as make sure your posts and grammatically correct ( And by the way you have gotten much better since you started posting years ago) I can only assume posting here has helped your grammer and spelling dramatically.
By the way, my young first cousin recently came 3 in Europe and 2 in Ireland in a super high level exam and is wanted by certain types of firms all over the world. He will no doubt (unlike you) contribute something worthwhile to humanity in some way shape or form and I was wondering should he and his buddy have stayed back in Ireland and compete for a job in our local pub for pittens??? just to satisfy apes like you and those trolls running that Facebook page???? Don’t bother answering as I don’t want to hear your answer and by the way I love Croatians and have many Croatian friends here in Canada I play Football( Soccer) with.
Fact is you’re an amadan plain and simple and its people like you who make this world the sad place it is today.
Ireland has always been a land of emigration and always will.
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WoundedKnee | Jan 15, 2013, 11:54 AM EST
One of the defects of this site (apart from the presence of racists and inarticulate bigots like cuculiln) is that many posters think they are debating when they are actually only refuting some piece of nonsense that they themselves invented. Specifically, below we have people "defending" the right of Irish people to travel wherever they like. But no one is questioning that, you dopes! Only Cuba and North Korea (that I know of) restrict citizens' overseas travel, and even Cuba is on the point of dismantling its laws in this respect. What is at issue is the demographic time bomb caused by the departure of young Irish from their homeland, an exodus unlike any in Irish history, since for the first time it is simultaneous with a vast movement of settlers into the country. The Irish are predicted to be an ethnic minority in their own homeland by as early as 2040--they are already outnumbered in vast tracts of West Dublin. In this regard the poster smyrian is quite wrong when he speaks of the Irish emigrants "making room" for the Irish left behind. Nonsense, smyrnian! They are making room for the foreign migrants who are flooding in every week, some five or six thousand per month. And more to follow, because the Irish "government" is going to make it even easier for non-EU to immigrate there, while the impending entry of Croatia and other countries in the EU means Ireland will be flooded by a tsunami of Croatians. Mighty neighborly of the Irish to make room for the "New Irish", isn't it?
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darragh S | Jan 15, 2013, 10:48 AM EST
Weird!
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cuculin | Jan 15, 2013, 09:06 AM EST
Woundedknee.....you amadawn. The reason I didn’t make any specific retort is because your a twit. I couldn’t be arsed responing to your pure and utter tripe other than to call you out for the being the idiot you are. You are so predictable, every time IC puts up an article your up in a flash and normally one of the fist two three posters spouting your racist crap and using any web stats or facts you can find to back up your garbage.
You use that one trip you made to Ireland as your reference point for everything and use Wiki for the rest. I don’t know if you were beat up by an Irish lad as a kid or if a big sturdy Irish male stole your wife or your blame the Irish slaves in the front lines for taking your ancestors land, but whatever it is you have a beef for sure and it is real old after 4 years of it. Give it a rest you tool and by the way I am in Oakville, On and you can visit me anytime you wish to discuss further over a nice pint of Guinness, although I can’t promise that the Guinness wont end up over your head!
Slan
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Smyrnian | Jan 15, 2013, 06:49 AM EST
Cillowen - we understand it all too well; far better than you could.
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cillowen | Jan 14, 2013, 10:41 PM EST
it is not too surprising that ireland continues being the source of livestock for momma's commonwealth. That's where they are directed as like the days of England's human trafficking - from Cromwell, on, to be repeated time and again - never figuring as to reason why. People don't know stuff. The first slaves to the Caribbean were Irish - before blacks were introduced there - people need to bone up on history to properly appreciate the 2013 gathering.
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cillowen | Jan 14, 2013, 10:26 PM EST
being mostly southies I'd imagine - they did'nt have the heart to confront the sharks who caused them pain as like when failing to have done when northern brothers were being mowed down on the streets while challenging the apartheid rule in that uker sliver - a sick that keeps on giving.
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