Emigration from Ireland - Education is the key to all doors

IRELAND and Irishness, whatever that has become, were celebrated around the world yesterday. Often wistfully, sometimes with an indulgence that might make today’s challenges seem more difficult than they are.

All of the St Patrick’s Day events, ironically irreligious for the celebration of a national saint’s feast day, held outside of Ireland have a common lineage. They are rooted in the dreams and lives of emigrants. Some from our time, others remembered, if they are at all, through sepia-tinted photographs or maybe through a musty longshoreman’s union card.

Like every small country with scant natural resources denied political or economic independence for longperiods, emigration is a constant theme in Irish life. The numbers vary, the emotional wrench is constant.

Though the process can be very difficult today, it must have been crushing when most Irish emigrants had little to offer other than a strong back and an acquired tolerance of rain and cold. Departure, distance and separation were very real then. We have email, skype and incredible mobility. For so many of these families Ireland really did become a virtual reality.

Today we look at what emigration is like for recent graduates (pages 14 and 15) and the experience has been, by and large, positive.

There are common themes. Emigration was planned even if unavoidable; it was not a desperate rush from hunger or destitution. It was a determined effort to take a place in the world. And, most importantly, these Irish people had realistic ambitions based on the twin rocks of confidence and education.

As John Ryan, who graduated from UCC just six years ago, put it: “The educational opportunities provided to everyone in Ireland surpass those in the US ... I have been hired because there were Irish people here before me who did a very good job. Therefore, the assumption was that I would also do a good job.”

Aine Brazil, a civil engineer and a University College Galway graduate, echoed that optimism: “What matters most is what you know and what you can achieve.”

So they, and probably a high percentage of this summer’s graduates, might have been denied opportunity at home but they were educated to avail of opportunity abroad. They had characteristics that stood them well and educational qualifications that were respected.

If nothing else this means that the allegations of grade inflation must be confronted. If we cannot offer our children work surely the qualifications we give them must be good enough to get them work elsewhere. It also raises again the question of college fees. A society that prepares an individual well for a career abroad is surely entitled to expect more than just their departure?

There remains, sadly, the prospect of many people emigrating without the education that smoothed the paths of the graduates we report on today. Time and technology have not improved the lot of these individuals and they are not to be envied. Nevertheless, today’s overriding message for educated emigrants is cheering; if you make use of the opportunities this country readily provides then emigration should hold no fears for anyone.