Ireland’s youth on a wave of emigration

There was much about the bubble years of illusory excess that grated on the eye and ear... But at least no more were our people forced to take the boat, exported across the water like cattle.

At least, for a few years, we could pretend that Ireland was a grown-up country, capable of providing for all its citizens.

FOR a few years there, it was looking like the oldest scourge had been tackled, beaten and ultimately banished from these shores. Through the years of the Celtic bubble, and even for up to a decade prior to that, emigration was no longer a major feature of Irish life. For anybody over 40, this was an achievement of serious magnitude.

There was much about the bubble years of illusory excess that grated on the eye and ear. The bling was at times unbearable. Fools were elevated to the status of oracles because they knew how to negotiate the pyramid scheme that was the economy. The route to success was no longer paved with hard work, but gambling. A false sense of entitlement permeated much of society.

But at least our people were no longer forced to take the boat, exported across the water like cattle. At least, for a few years, we could pretend that Ireland was a grown-up country capable of providing for all its citizens.

That illusion has been smashed to smithereens as the economy has come crashing down. Emigration is now back on the agenda, particularly for those negotiating the early straits of adulthood. At the moment, this is no country for young men, or women.

A recent study by the National Youth Council of Ireland illustrated what faces school and college-leavers today. The country has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in Europe, at 24.2%, compared to 19.9% across the 27 countries in the EU. The problem is actually much worse as the figures don’t include the large cohort re-entering or continuing education because there is no work.

The report noted that the number of people under 25 emigrating increased from 15,600 in 2004 to 30,000 in 2009.

The trend continues unabated, with the ESRI predicting earlier this year that net emigration between now and 2013 will be 100,000.

We are, according to these figures, gone back to the future when it comes to the flight of the young.

The RTÉ documentary Departure Day showed the human side of this blight.

The programme tracked a number of people who were leaving, and those left behind. A pall of sadness hung over all the individual stories.

The most disturbing narrative featured Declan Murphy, a father of three from Newcastle West in Co Limerick.

Murphy had emigrated to Australia as a young man, met a partner out there, and returned in 2008 with his wife and children to take over the family drapery business. Murphy & Sons had been in business for 121 years.

Then last autumn, he was forced to shut the doors on the shop. A business that had survived the harshest conditions in an impoverished backward economy through the 20th century, simply couldn’t hold on in the current crisis.

When the shutter comes down on any retail outlet, a little piece of a community dies. The deeper the roots of an establishment, the keener the feeling of bereavement that follows its closure. In economic terms, the plight of Murphy & Sons gave a historic perspective to where we are now at.

In human terms, it showed how 47-year-old Murphy had to bid goodbye once more to his own country, this time, in all likelihood, for good. He has returned to Australia, where he knows his energy and talent will be appreciated.

Unlike most forced to leave, he is in the fullness of middle age, a time when consolidation rather than new prairies are uppermost in most minds. His efforts to rear his children in his native land had been thwarted. It would be entirely forgivable if, among his luggage, he harboured bitterness, but if so, he didn’t make those feelings known.

Most of the others featured in the documentary were in their early to mid-20s.

What their stories conveyed was the bleak future they were staring into if they remained at home. Many of them had trades, a career path that was much encouraged when the building bubble was being blown.

Now, they are qualified, have tools, but no work to go to.

It’s not all bleak for those who are leaving. Anybody who came of age in the 1980s can identify with the mass exit of a generation. Quite often, the bulk of one’s friends are more likely to be found in London, New York or Sydney, rather than Dublin, Cork or the hometown. For those who arrive into the Irish milieu abroad, there is a sense of a nation on tour. Travel, even when embarked on through necessity rather than choice, does enrich a life. There is a sense of adventure in pitching up in a completely different country, where new mores and cultures are waiting to be absorbed.

The communication revolution of the last decade in particular has ensured that ties can be better maintained with the home place. Email, social media and Skype have made the world a more intimate environment. Today’s emigrants are much closer to home than those who’ve gone before them.

On the other hand, those bound for the plane, are carrying baggage that is new to them. The sense of entitlement that grew up through the bubble years was accompanied by a leap in expectations. Students understandably expected that the country of their birth would provide them with the chance to earn a living. This is the first generation to harbour that expectation, and when it is not met, the upheaval in having to leave is heightened.

Time heals that kind of wound. Time also will ensure that many who leave will plant new roots and garner brighter expectations. Even if the fortunes of their native country were to improve, many may well decide to stay put. What began as a wrench will, for those who prefer their new life, turn out to have been a boon.

The real tragedy about the wave of emigration washing through the country is what is left behind. No parent wants to see their offspring put oceans between them, particularly as the years mount up.

One of the saddest scenes in Departure Day was Declan Murphy’s parents waving him and his family off at the airport. There was finality about their acceptance that this time his departure to the far side of the world was for real.

On a national level, there will be a price to pay for this brain drain. Ireland has a higher birth rate than its European neighbours, but it is still falling. The vibrancy and energy that each new generation injects into a society is going to be greatly diluted once more. Some of the best and the brightest will not be around to bring the country on.

The result over the coming decades will be difficult to gauge. Evaluating lost opportunities and absent talent is not easy. But it will take a toll on the country.

Eventually, barring disaster, the country will raise itself from the rubble of smashed banks. There will be economic recovery. Maybe we might even get to see a country run along responsible lines.

Getting over this wave of emigration will take a lot longer.