Conference on Irish emigration ‘very timely’

EMIGRATION, which is now facing many Irish workers, was top of the agenda yesterday at a conference at the University of Limerick (UL).

The UL conference titled Neither Here Nor There: Writing the Irish Diaspora, brought together some of the best-known names in the field of Irish diaspora studies, with speakers from Canada, the US, South America, Britain and Ireland.

Conference delegate Piaras Mac Einrí said: “This is a very timely gathering. With the rise of the Celtic Tiger in the late 1990s, an entire generation of younger Irish people grew up without the expectation of leaving Ireland. The annual pictures of tearful departures from ports and airports seemed a distant memory.”