A new poll has found that most Irish people believe that emigrants who have left in the recession will never return.

The poll in The Irish Times showed that 59 per cent of those surveyed believed that emigrants who left are gone for ever.

Over 40,000 Irish-born people emigrated between April 2010 and April 2011, a rise  from 27,000 in the previous 12 month period.

Those living in Munster were most pessimistic about those who had left while Sinn Fein and Labor supporters were also the most pessimistic.

One third of those surveyed stated that those leaving would return at some future point and most optimism was expressed in Connacht and Ulster.

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