Kings of the wild frontier
In a different era, red-neck cowboys, hardy pioneers and oil prospectors mingled, banked and boozed here before stocking up on provisions and heading back to the wilderness.
Today a multi-cultural hub of urban sophistication, the makings of a good night out are drawing a group towards a handsome old frontier era building. There’s no mistaking the Kerry accent as a well dressed young man tells his companions, “Here’s where you’ll get the best pint of Guinness in this city”, entering The James Joyce on 8th Ave.
Earlier, a leisurely stroll around a vast network of enclosed shopping malls in skyscrapers all connected by glass corridors above street level, so that nobody has to brave Calgary’s snowy sub-zero winters, has brought me to a beautiful exotic rooftop glass-enclosed garden.
More Irish accents can be heard here high above this bustling oil and gas boom city, pointing to turtles among the lush display of plants. Calgary’s newest ‘pioneers’ are arriving in ever greater numbers from Ireland. They made use of free downtown public transport, they say. A few are off to meet other Irish friends at the Unicorn, a favourite weekend meeting spot and unofficial HQ of the city’s GAA club, the Calgary Chieftains.
The captain of the Chieftains football team is Michael O’Donnell from Co Tipperary, while hurler Brian Deasy from Blarney, Co Cork, is also among those discovering a new 21st century window of opportunity in Alberta, Canada.
Deirdre Halferty, president of Calgary’s Irish Cultural Society (www.calgaryics.org) reports: “A lot of young Irish are coming west. We offer them contacts and help them settle in. Calgary is such a free-wheeling place, they soon adapt.”
Halferty, from Maghera, Co Derry, is an estate agent with current business that would be the envy of her colleagues back in Ireland.
“Calgary is clean, it’s safe, it’s very integrated. It’s a great city for families, with lots of cultural and outdoorsy activities. The world famous rodeo, the Calgary stampede, in July is just amazing.” she says. The Irish make their presence felt with food stalls and barbecues, cowboy hats and “Yee-haws” as the stampede fever drives the city wild.
“Today’s wave of emigrants are very different to what came over in the past,” observes Catholine Butler, whose daughter publishes a well-known monthly, the Celtic Connection. “Ireland’s loss is Canada’s gain. They are well educated, technically savvy and Canada needs their expertise. But the brain drain is still tragic — many of these young people are emigrating because there is no choice but to leave Ireland.”
Brian Deasy can hardly tear himself away from the Saturday night action on the big screen in the Unicorn. But Deasy, 24, a member of the Blarney team that won the All-Ireland intermediate championship in 2009, is not watching a re-run from Croke Park.
These days he is shouting for the Rough Riders, guys with big blades on their feet and big sticks in their hands, who appear to be slaughtering their opponents. “I love watching the ice hockey, it’s like a religion here,” explains Deasy. “Canadians stop being calm and polite — they go wild, they take sides, they show passion.”
A joiner-carpenter, he fell on his feet after stopping his travels around Canada over a year ago to look for work in the city flanked by the majestic Rockies.
“I had to re-work my CV and turn it into a resumé – that’s what they expect here — but I got fixed up quickly and there’s plenty of work for trades like mine. The money is fairly good but you work hard. I do 10 hour shifts, six days a week and we have a tight deadline, extending the city’s light rail system.”
“Alberta is awesome with amazing scenery,” adds Deasy. A keen hiker, and fanatic novice snowboarder since discovering the Calgary Olympic Park, he plans to spend the summer weekends exploring world famous Banff National Park and other trails in the Rockies.
“I fell in with a nice crowd here and never feel homesick, the construction sector was well and truly dead at home — there was no work, no prospects at all, I am so glad I came out. It is so good here but I don’t say that to lads at home, they are having such a bad time, no jobs, all the doom and gloom.”
Having worked on prestigious projects in the city of Calgary, including a prize-winning football grounds complex and more recently a war memorial honouring Canada’s soldiers who died in all the wars overseas, Michael O’Donnell is one of the lucky ones.
He does not have to worry, as do others whose working visas have run out, about the need to be sponsored by his employers. “I came out in 2007, before the current wave of people escaping joblessness in Ireland,” he explains. “I got my job in Calgary via GAA contacts in the city. My employers want me to stay on and will sponsor me, no problem.”
It has created a dilemma because he enjoys Calgary and “the great outdoors on our doorstep here” but he feels the pull of home also. Longterm he thinks he will return to Co Tipperary, taking over the family agricultural engineering business.
“It is great that there are opportunities here for those now who have no chance at home but it is sad also that they have no choice but go. The politicians and get rich quick developers ruined so many young people’s prospects.
“Everyone was out for the quick money and they destroyed many parts of rural Ireland with those ghost estates.”
Michael says he would recommend Canada for would-be immigrants, especially western provinces like Alberta and British Columbia.
The Gaelic football clubs in Calgary and Edmontonm (Alberta’s provincial capital) which have recently doubled in size, provide good networking systems for new arrivals.
But he also warns people to be prepared, and to do some research before heading off. “Have enough money to see you through job-hunting and put together a good resumé of your career history and abilities.”
Róisín Cahill sat her Leaving Certificate in 2010, obtaining six A’s. The brightest and best were taking their pick of college places “so as to get their ticket out of Ireland and as quickly as possible” with professions in demand abroad.
But Róisín had other plans. She decided to “escape all the doom and gloom for a while” and go anyway. “All I would have been doing at home was scraping through with poor student work prospects, going to matches and staying out late with friends.”
With money she saved doing waitressing jobs in the school holidays and help from her parents, Róisín signed on for a ski instructor’s nine week intensive course with an academy in Switzerland.
At the end she had a good CV, a diploma and pictures of her new skiing prowess. Despite being offered jobs in European ski resorts, she chose Canada and the iconic Rocky Mountain resort of Lake Louise inside Banff National Park.
“I have come to heaven, this is a true skier’s paradise,” she says. “Lake Louise is breathtaking, people are so friendly and the town of Banff is such a cheerful fun place.”
Róisín will tour around Canada after the season ends and return to Ireland and start university in autumn. “But I hate leaving here and going home. I know the country needs us to help dig it out but the jobs aren’t there now for students. The present and future is scary and depressing, but I don’t think about that out here.”
Mother of baby Rebekah, Pamela Kelly and her Kilkenny-born husband Michael arrived in Calgary in November 2010. Pamela, an electrical engineer, and her husband both worked for Intel in Leixlip, Co Kildare, but their jobs went with a paring down of operations last year.
They moved after Martin was recruited in Ireland by overseas construction recruitment firm Kentz to help manage a major construction project, together with a group of other Irish, recently unemployed.
He is based in Fort McMurray in Alberta’s northernmost corner, supervising a new processing plant extracting oil from sand. Canada has the second largest oil reserves in the world and over 90% are in the controversial tar sands. Pamela and Martin rent a comfortable spacious house in Calgary’s western suburbs.
Pamela has come up to Banff to show the sights to her friend Emma Butler, on holidays from Ireland. “We are absolutely a hundred per cent happy with our move to Canada and especially to Calgary. I don’t miss or regret anything about being away from Ireland,” she says.
Enjoying an Italian meal in downtown Banff, Pamela does admit it took a while to get used to the cold winter and the piles of snow outside.
Canadians, she has found, are polite and friendly, very laid back and everyone is treated equally.
“You have the best of Europe and the US, the nice European influence and American efficiency.”
CANADA is a increasingly attractive destination for young Irish people driven out through lack of jobs at home.
The holiday working visa quota is up (from 4,000 in 2010 to 5,000) this year and Irish people can apply for two, one year, visas instead of being restricted to just a single year visa. Further information on permits at www.workincanada.ie
Permanent residence requirements and applications information are all available at:www.cic.gc.ca
Occupations in demand include nurses, pharmacists, chefs, GPs, dentists, architects, electricians, carpenters-joiners, welders and plumbers and engineers.
Those who want to stay in Canada need to get themselves in a position where an employer will sponsor them. For more details see www.canada.ie
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