Ireland's young flee abroad as economic meltdown looms

[BigBearJohn]

A homeless Irish teenager begs on Merrion row, just around the
corner from government bulidings in Dublin, Ireland.
Photograph: Kim Haughton for the guardian


Last week was not a good week for Ireland. Speculation about a European Union-backed bailout pushed its borrowing costs to unprecedented heights.

At Buffini's college on Friday, the day began with a protest by construction workers who were supposed to have been working on a new wing. Their paymaster Michael McNamara – the country's premier construction firm – had been put into receivership under the weight of debts of €1.5bn (£1.27bn), leaving them jobless and out of pocket for work they had already completed.

So far the workers' demonstrations have remained largely peaceful. Indeed, many Tallaght students seemed shocked by the violence they witnessed in TV reports from London involving their British counterparts. But that may change.

Economists are sought-after celebrities in Ireland at the moment and none is more famous than Morgan Kelly. His doom-laden words are lapped up by a nation addicted to Celtic melancholy.

Kelly, of University College Dublin, was laughed at, scorned and even threatened when he correctly predicted, as long ago as 2007, that Ireland's property bubble was heading for a spectacular explosion.

SOURCE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/14/ireland-economic-crisis



This saddens me beyond belief.

[Hannah Bell]

1. ireland was being lauded for its great economy just a few short years ago.

the irish tiger economy.

it was bullshit.

[Lasher]

2. Where are they going?

I don't see a lot of opportunities out there.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

4. There is lots of opportunity out there for educated anglophones

Just not here...

[eShirl]

7. India, Hong Kong?

:shrug:

[ixion]

3. They laughed at him when he predicted the property bubble would explode...can you imagine

the level of ignorance required to summon a laugh at something that is simple common sense?

As a species, we are doomed because of our collective ignorance.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

5. I damn near got stabbed at a BBQ five years ago...

for merely expressing doubt that an 1100 square foot 1960's bungalow in Santa Ana would be worth $1.5 million dollars by 2010. This dude already had his Las Vegas McMansion and Mercedes Benz G Class he was going to buy with his windfall picked out.

[Systematic Chaos]

8. So, what was it worth during the bubble, and what's it worth now?

$450k then and maybe $175 now? Just my guess.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

15. Didn't really know the guy or the house,

He was just another guest at the BBQ, but he claimed the house would sell on the spot for $700,000 and mythical asian immigrants were going to gentrify the neighborhood and drive the price up further.

[Bluenorthwest]

12. I got yelled at and openly mocked for similar stuff, LA county

I was the stupidest man alive to think this house in a bad neighborhood was not going to fetch 2.3 million in a few year's time. "California real easate only goes up, man. Keep your parnoid fear talk to yourself."

[JournalistKev87]

6. So Much

for getting my dual citizenship in Ireland. Fuuuuck!

[WhiteTara]

22. if you have an outside income

it would be just fine. Oh, wait? No silver spoon? You're right. I guess I won't go either. Damn.

[KillCapitalism]

9. I'd love to flee America for the same reasons.

If you're not wealthy here, you have little hope for a decent life.

[TBF]

10. My husband is currently interviewing for a job on the west coast -

and I keep telling him coast is not far enough. Canada would surely be better ... at least we'd have health care.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JNelson6563]

13. Just curious

I know it's tough to get into Canada (as in immigrate to) but what if one has lots of family there? My people came from Ireland via Canada and many stayed there while others made the trek south to Michigan. I used to go up to Manitoulin Island every summer, seemed every year I was introduced to more cousins, second cousins, what-have-you. Damn Irish/Catholics, second to none on the pro-creating scale.

Julie

[marmar]

16. South? I live in Michigan, just north of the border.

:)

[JNelson6563]

30. lol I know, when I typed "south"

I had to pause for a moment! I don't believe I've ever referred to MI as "south" before!

Julie

[Barack_America]

18. I don't think cousins are going to get you far.

My grandfather was born in Canada, which might get my mother citizenship (as of 2009), but not me. Fortunately, I can be sponsored by my Canadian husband should we ever decide to relocate.

[Bluenorthwest]

19. One Irish born grandparent

can allow for 'right of return' to Ireland.

[JNelson6563]

31. That's good to know!

Thanks!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

21. You may be able to claim Canadian citizenship or your relatives could sponsor you

I won't live there due to the weather...I am a desert creature at heart at this point in my life

[WhiteTara]

23. California will have single payer soon.

and you'll be closer to Canada.

[CanonRay]

14. The Irish are wonderful people

and do not deserve this.

[AnnieBW]

17. I know someone that actually wants to move TO Ireland!

But she's an author, and the Irish government gives special tax breaks to artists who maintain a residence in Ireland. That's why all of these British musicians have mansions in Ireland - tax free. They even brought in the labor to build them, let alone staff them. But, as much as I keep telling this author of somewhat modest means, she won't listen.

[WhiteTara]

24. really? Tell me more!

My partner is an artist. Do you have to be well known, or just practicing?

[lostnfound]

20. globalism run amok..stability out the window in favor of extremes in growth and decay

We need to build things around real progress..sustainability, community self-sufficiency, moving production closer to consumption. I remember when they were lauding Ireland for the successful investment in computer programming capabilities. There may be room for a significant part of an economy to be devoted to national specialties, but moving production closer to consumption would at least ensure that each economy had some balance and diversity, and therefore some resilience.

[hatrack]

25. Shocking - the Global Economy Flavor Of The Week has lost its savor . . . .

Who could possibly have predicted this?!?

:eyes:

[defendandprotect]

26. This time they are making sure that they knock everyone down at the same time....

Destroy everything -- leave no one standing to save anyone else!

[Turborama]

27. Kelly is forecasting a hard-right transformation along the lines of the "Tea Party"

Now he is forecasting mass mortgage defaults and an ugly popular uprising. The first stirrings are already visible, he says, with "anxiety giving way to the first upwellings of an inchoate rage and despair that will transform Irish politics along the lines of the Tea Party in America", giving rise to a new "hard-right, anti-Europe, anti-traveller party".

The fact that Kelly got it right last time means that his dire warnings are now being given serious consideration this time around, but so far there is no evidence that the Irish are turning into racist extremists.

And the "brain drain" has begun...

Polish immigrants, whose arrival in Ireland less than a decade ago increased the workforce by an astonishing 20%, have left in orderly fashion and with no complaints about their treatment. More worrying is the trend for the young Irish to follow them abroad.

Mark Ward, president of Tallaght's student union, says that 1,250 students are leaving Ireland every month. One in five graduates is seeking work outside the country. The Union of Students in Ireland believes that 150,000 students will emigrate in the next five years.

[Starry Messenger]

28. Where can you escape from capitalism?

We're all going down on this ship together if we don't fight.

[Odin2005]

29. Gee, what happened to the "Irish Tiger" the Corporatists so applauded?