Emigration day ,RTE,did you see it?

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thedaras

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If so ,what did you think of it?
The man who came back from Australia who has three kids for example,he was running a family business which was over 100 years old and had to close it.

What I thought was sad was how many young people were leaving, but it does seem they are doing the right thing as they seemed to be happy enough.
I wonder how many will return, I wonder how many would like to go,but cant.
 
Hugely moving to watch others struggle like that.
To see families split again - I never though I would.

You see I've seen it all before - I've lived here through the eighties.
But back then it was only 120,000 every two years - apparently now its 130,000.

But I am still optimistic for the future - we have so many intelligent, gifted people still living here.
Many of them with fantastic business acumen, drive, get-up-and-go - they are infectious and wonderful.

My hope is that we start lifting ourselves up from the floor and getting on with the job of restoring Ireland Incorporated
We need to expand our horizons beyond Britain, beyond Europe and ensure that this fiasco turns around in the next three to five.

ONQ.
 
Very sad watching the three toddlers running toward the boarding gate while the tearful grandparents watched on. What a loss.
 
Forced emigration is never nice or to be welcomed but people now are extremely fortunate compared to past generations. Certainly better now than in the 60's, 70's and 80's. They are better educated, travel has become much more affordable and easier and most people now are not leaving to become illegals in other Countries.
 
I thought it was heartbreaking, particularly the man emigrating for the second time, this time leaving behind elderly parents who fear they might be dead the next time he gets home, and taking their 3 grandchildren to the other side of the world because the family business of long long standing collapsed during this recession.

I think Bertie, the Brians and the Marys along with the Sean Fitzpatricks etc should be tied to a chair and forced to watch this (although they're so hard and brazen they probably wouldn't care).
 
Certainly the case of the man with three children was very bad and I would really like to know if had explored all options. Was Australia his only option ? The split in families, particularly grandkids from grandparents is the worst with Australia such a long journey away.

However there is a bit of the old gra mo chroi going on with younger people. Emigration will open their eyes and will see how small and incestous Ireland is. It will also highlight how our complete failure to have a proper continental language learning programme from early primary school is removing our ability to benefit from employment opportunities in the European Union
 
It wasn't a program about emigration though was it? To a man, all the single people were going to Australia for a working holiday.

The Electrician went to Sydney and found a job within a couple of days. If he went to London, or indeed any big city, it would have been the same.

The Lecturers daughter had been working in an ice cream shop and was now doing something that paid more than she spent. You could get a job like that here. And you certainly don't need to go to the other side of the world to do it. The EU maybe?

The 2 lads from Cahir. You was going to get a loan of 3.5K from a friend to get the visa and was then going to live the high life falooting around Oz - they'd get a plane back to Sydney to watch the All Ireland but couldn't afford a taxi to Mullingar (or somewhere like that)

A lot of people still living in a bubble.

I found it hard to empathize with many of the cases
 
Howitzer said:
The Electrician went to Sydney and found a job within a couple of days. If he went to London, or indeed any big city, it would have been the same.
Click to expand...

Was that a different electrician that went to Canada for a week on a job seeking mission? He actually admitted he still had work but it was not paying as much as previously.
The other strange one was the guy whose parents owed the pub. He said he only got €160 from the social and a couple of nights in the pubs with tips brought it up to around €300. He gave the impression he was getting paid cash-in-hand on top of his social welfare.

I thought the chap that had to close down the family business was a sad situation.
 
Yorrick said:
Certainly the case of the man with three children was very bad and I would really like to know if had explored all options. Was Australia his only option ? The split in families, particularly grandkids from grandparents is the worst with Australia such a long journey away.

However there is a bit of the old gra mo chroi going on with younger people. Emigration will open their eyes and will see how small and incestous Ireland is. It will also highlight how our complete failure to have a proper continental language learning programme from early primary school is removing our ability to benefit from employment opportunities in the European Union
Click to expand...

Would agree with this. I think the days of expecting to get a job within a five mile radius are gone and that people will have to be even more flexible, in terms of both their willingness to acquire new skills and their geographical limits, if they are to maintain reasonable propspects of work.

From the few cases last night, a few of the lads, to be honest, need a bit of a kick in the jacksee and the travel might do them good. The electrician who went to Canada was going becasue he wanted to maintain his family's lifestyle. He still had work just but wasn't being paid as much as previously.

If the experience of the 80s is repeated, many of today's emmigrants will return to a better place although for many families who put down roots, this is a lot less likely. Australia isn't exactly a hop away and the decision for the Limerick family to go there must have been very difficult.

Anyway, the background music was very solemn so things must be really grim.
 
The electrician's wife was on radio yesterday afternoon and she said they were emigrating because they couldn't support their two children in Ireland. I don't think it was because they wanted a certain lifestyle, she seemed genuinely very down about it.

I agree that a couple of the young fellows, hanging around the bookies in their midland towns with their old schoolfriends, really needed to broaden their horizons. I also agree that emigration isn't as harsh nowadays as the 50s where you knew you wouldn't see your family again for years and years or even the 80s when we didn't have emails, texting or skype.

I still feel sorry for the shop owner though and his parents. No amount of texting and skyping is the same as being able to bring your grandchildren to the shops or read them a story.
 
Yorrick said:
It will also highlight how our complete failure to have a proper continental language learning programme from early primary school is removing our ability to benefit from employment opportunities in the European Union
Click to expand...

Well said, if we weren't still wallpapering our primary school curriculum with Irish there would be ample time to teach a language from childhood that actually mattered, like French, German or even Mandarin.

M
 
Just to clarify ,the programme was actually called "Departure day ",and not "Emigration day" apologies for that.:eek:
 
I thought it was a pity it didn't cover some aspects of the emigrants assimilation into their new country. Maybe I was hoping for a happy ending.:(
 
I was hoping we would see how they were getting on in their new homes/jobs/country..
That would have been very interesting..maybe they will do a follow up.
 
And how many people can actually speak irsih fluently at the end of secondary school? If we actually taught Irish in a manner that would lead to usage of the language then maybe kids would be more susceptible to learning new languages in 2nd level when they can choose which language(s) they want to learn.
If you simply substitute Irish with German and we won't have any benefits.
 
As a company director or a professional working at any decent level of responsibility, you are obliged to know the laws you're working within.
This is a distinct disadvantage in a tongue not your own. All our family can speak French to a degree, but its holiday French, not business French if you take my point.

ONQ.
 
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