People and Politics


Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > People and Politics > Parting shots -- As young Irish leave photographer captures their bitter fate
People and Politics by Patrick Roberts

Parting shots -- As young Irish leave photographer captures their bitter fate

Posted on Saturday, January 22, 2011 at 09:26 PM
print this article Print
email this articleE-mail
comment on article 34 Comments
 

RSS


Recent Posts

Archives

submit to reddit



An Irish photographer has begun taking parting shots of young Irish emigrants leaving the shores for foreign lands.

Dublin-based David Monahan was featured on the CBS Evening News as he carefully documents the latest wave of emigrants leaving Ireland in the midst of the economic recession.

There is no shortage of subjects, By the end of this year an expected 120,000 people will have left in a two year period.

Monahan poses his subjects against familiar Dublin background scenes

"The idea is to make I suppose a heroic shot, to celebrate the person -- to say they are full of pride, full of dignity. They are going out to do something and they are going to do it well," Monahan told CBS News.

One of his subjects was Aoife O'Donnell a 27-year-old photographer ready to leave for New York and a new life in America.

"I tried applying for jobs, internships," O'Donnell told CBS . "Even unpaid internships. I couldn't get anything. And it's like hitting a brick wall. For two months I went on social welfare and it got really demoralizing."


"There's a huge new wave of immigration going on in my country at the moment, it's palpable, I can just see from my own group of friends that I am probably one of the last people to actually emigrate," said O'Donnell.

And so the inevitable cycle begins anew in Ireland with the old remaining and the young taking flight.

It seems it was ever so.



print this article Print
email this articleE-mail

34 comments

Next Page 1 of 3 pages
CEILIMAN | May 31, 2011, 04:06 AM EDT
It is very sad that our young people are forced to leave their country to find Work.Sadly the government has not done enough for them but look after "themselves alright,Plus the greedy bankers" who get away with it,There is always a welcome @ our sunday nights Ceili @irish centre camden town,Cant say I have seen many new Imigrants yet.Anton

Report abuse

tcenname | Feb 05, 2011, 08:44 PM EST
It would be very interesting if someone or some organization did a follow up study or research into what really happens to people when they immigrate from their homeland. Not the taking it for granted attitude that the "world is their oyster"as voiced in a letter by some yoyo a number of years ago in a letter to the " Irish Times" Sometimes more than you think it can be their disaster. I'm acquainted with some tragic tales of Irish immigration since the 1950's of course you never hear their tragic tales in the hype stories of Irish immigrant success from Irish clubs and organizations or newspapers. Lets investigate the other side of the coin for a change instead of the blitz proimmigration menu.

Report abuse

gregoryny | Feb 02, 2011, 05:35 PM EST
Laura wilson what makes you think these illegals are any different than the illegals in az. tx. ca.? or maybe only brown skin people are illegal is that it?

Report abuse

tcenname | Feb 01, 2011, 02:15 PM EST
For Ireland revolution would be better than continuous immigration wouldn't it. How many people bleeding of one small nation can be toleratedjohnymac60 before it dies off but you don"t have to worry about a revolution in bogland johnymac it won"t come. Nations are only benefited by those who stay and hunger and fight for it not by aholes who leave and pin their whole personal future and their descendants future on a job elsewhere .Anyway read the book and heres another good one to read"Marx Engels and Lenin on the Irish Revolution"published by the Cork Workers Club' Ralph Fox Editor.One last word before I leave JohnnyMac60 you can"t have a revolution until you have a population base that can sustain one. Immigration drains off ones native ethnic population base. Can you grasp it JohnnyMac or are you thinking thru a shitefilter

Report abuse

johnymac60 | Jan 31, 2011, 03:31 PM EST
OK, so...because it's tough times in Ireland, your conclusion is that we should have a Marxist Revolution? That ideology was soundly disgraced by it's practitioners in the 20th century. Ireland needs a change - not a murderous power-hungry revolution.

Report abuse

yakimak | Jan 28, 2011, 12:18 PM EST
It was nearly 40 years ago that I read the book and now I can't find it in my storage. However through an old Books in print I have the correct title. It is"Ireland and the Irish question:a collection of writings" by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels published in New York 1972 by International Publishers. R. Dickson editor. The quote as I remember comes pretty near the end of the book and it is a statement taken from one of the early poliburo meetings in the 20's after the Bolsheviks seized power or one of the early party congresses where the need of some people to go ethnic and nationalist first and then after they got on their feet internationalist. Marx and Engels had both lived in England during the 1870's and 80's and were keenly aware the damage the great famine had done to the Irish language and people and the need for people to reconstitute themselves. As a matter of fact Ireland and what British Imperialism and Capitalism had done to it was a chief-case- in-point in their study of exploitation in human history

Report abuse

yakimak | Jan 25, 2011, 09:48 PM EST
yes wounded knee I can. Please check back to this comment section in two or three days I will give you the exact page and the circumstances it was formulated. Must go to storage locker Better yet after I give info asked for read the book.

Report abuse

WoundedKnee | Jan 25, 2011, 01:56 PM EST
yakimak: Interesting quote. Can you tell us where we can find the full quote and context? Thanks.

Report abuse

yakimak | Jan 25, 2011, 10:51 AM EST
Not immigration but revolution in Ireland. Karl Marx internationalist that he was said in the work "Marx and Engels on the Irish question "that Ireland because of centuries of British imperialism is one of the few cou ntries in the world that must go nationalist and reestablish itself as an ethnic nation with its own language etc.before it goes internationalist joining groups like E.U. etc

Report abuse

ancavker | Jan 25, 2011, 09:28 AM EST
George: I travel to London on business, and the economy is weak at best. There are many English people out of work, and any available jobs should be going to them in my opinion. I ahve to agree with you on England's towns and cities, so many of them look to be right out of a Dickens novel. I rememberr the first time I saw Liverpool, what a sad and dreary looking place.

Report abuse

GeorgeDillon | Jan 24, 2011, 02:18 PM EST
ancavker: London is a good place for a young "single" to spend a few years. And I think you're wrong to downplay the economy there--you'll always find a job in huge cities like London and New York. But England is full of horrifically ugly towns and cities, mostly in the North or Middle of the country. Places like Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Sheffield etc. Even the accent in those places is ugly. Any Irish person who would emigrate to such places is crazy.

Report abuse

ancavker | Jan 24, 2011, 01:27 PM EST
I cguess I can undestand leaving to some point but leaving for the U.S. what life is there living as an illegal? London?? I treavel there for business, and teh economy is incredibly weak, and inflation is rampant. Australia? Ok, but an awful long way form home. New Zealand? Ok, but the whole country is a huge sonnze fest.

Report abuse

ancavker | Jan 24, 2011, 01:24 PM EST
semper. Hold off there on Texas, they budget is a mess. Huge tax increases coming soon.

Report abuse

IrishCanuck | Jan 24, 2011, 12:37 PM EST
I've been to Ireland 4 times and have not wanted to leave. If I could talk my wife into moving there I would live there in a flash, but being so far from the kids and grand kids I can see her point. Having said that, I was over just this last September and found a huge difference but I agree with Skinnyryan I don't think that things are as bad as the media and people are making it out to be. We in Canada lose talented young people all the time but they usually find there way back home. So I say good luck to these youngsters no matter where they go or what they do. It is a sad time but I'm confident that it will turn around. The Irish are a resilient people.

Report abuse

GeorgeDillon | Jan 24, 2011, 12:29 PM EST
Another correction of Seagreen: S/he speaks of tenured professors teaching 18 hours a week. Nonsense. Most tenured professors would teach maybe six hours a week.

Report abuse

Next Page 1 of 3 pages



the Latest #IRISHTRAVEL


Log into IrishCentral with your Facebook account

or sign-in directly

E-Mail:
Password:
 Remember me Forgot my password
Not a member? Register Now!
print this article Print
email this articleE-mail