by Terry Reilly
Bad news for the struggling Irish economy; our young people are voting with their feet and leaving the country in search of jobs elsewhere. And now the Irish Post, the major newspaper for expats in the UK, claims that less than half of all emigrants who have left Ireland during the recession began are unlikely to return home.
The paper says an accurate figure of the rate of emigration has still not been compiled, but less than half are likely to return unless Ireland’s economy dramatically improves. The problem in measuring migration from Ireland is that a majority head for Britain; with Ireland and Britain together forming a Common Travel Area, there is no official tracking of movement of people between the two countries. The only figures available currently are through ‘secondary registration,’ such as applying for National Insurance cards, signing on with the National Health, signing up for benefits etc.
However, preliminary results of the 2011 census will give the best indication yet of the true levels of emigration. Piaras Mac Éinrí, a lecturer in migration studies at University College Cork’s geography department, feels that the number of people leaving Ireland has been under-estimated.
In July 2010, the Economic and Social Research Institute in Ireland reported that 70,000 people had left in the previous year and another 50,000 were expected to leave up to April this year, figures higher than the most recent Central Statistics Office data from early last year. Mr. Mac Éinrí believes there will be a much lower level of return than that which followed the wave of emigration in the 1980’s. Research suggests more than 472,000 people left Ireland during that period and about half of them returned. Such a rate of homecoming would be likely only if the same economic conditions apply in the next ten to fifteen years as in the wake of the recession of the 1980’s.
Ella (4) for US Operation
A little girl’s dream of standing up and walking on her own has sparked the generosity of strangers who are helping turn her simple hope into a reality. Ella Gilbert, 4, whose grandparents are Irish, was born with spastic diplegia—a form of Cerebral palsy—which causes severe muscle tightening and makes walking and balancing unaided impossible.
Every day she has stretches at home and every few months has to have Botox injections in her hips, her thighs and her calves followed by intensive daily physiotherapy sessions. But Ella’s condition will get worse as the years pass unless she can have an operation only available in the United States.
Her parents, Caroline and Chris Gilbert, from London, started a campaign three months ago to raise money to help pay for their daughter’s life-changing operation on August 2. The surgery, which is performed at the St. Louis Hospital, Missouri, costs about €60,000. So far the family has raised about £11,000. Mum Caroline said they have been overwhelmed and stunned by the support they have received from people up and down the country and in Ireland. “It’s so nice to know that people are touched and affected by Ella’s story,” she told newspapers here.
The €60,000 will pay for Ella’s operation, transport to the US and the physiotherapy she will need afterwards to help strengthen her muscles. As the disease is rare in Britain, Ella was not able be able to have the operation there. Instead she was recommended to the specialist in the US. The American surgical team has performed the procedure on over 2,000 patients and has a 100% success rate.
“Without the surgery, there will be damage to Ella’s bones caused by the tightness of her muscles, and that would mean more surgery in the future to get rid of these problems,” Caroline said. There has been a lot of support from family and friends in Kerry, Carlow, Galway and Dublin. For those who would like to help, the Gilbert family has set up a website www.ellaswish.com which gives more details about spastic diplegia and the fundraising campaign.
Expat Seeks Irish Presidency Nomination
Irish-born and New York-based publisher and journalist Niall O’Dowd is an interesting contender for the presidency of Ireland. To stand in the election to succeed President Mary McAleese he hopes to secure the votes needed for his nomination from a mix of Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and independent candidates. Mr. O’Dowd, who edits The Irish Voice magazine, said should he be elected President, he would seek to improve investment in Ireland as part of “team Ireland.” He says the President of Ireland can be “a door opener” by talking to heads of corporations in America to create the conditions for what he terms “diaspora direct investment” in the country.
An American citizen, he has dismissed criticism that he is out of touch with what is going on in Ireland today because he lives in America. “I’m thirty-two years in America, but every day I wake up, and I work on behalf of Ireland in some form or fashion.” For many years he has been actively involved in seeking immigration reform for the Irish undocumented, and was very much involved in the Northern Ireland peace process from the American side, introducing president Bill Clinton to the issue.
Until next time, slan, Terry
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; www.terry-reilly.com.
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