Out of the 9,000 workers on the site, 10% are Irish, according to an RTE report. The president said:

‘This very exciting project is proving very beneficial to Ireland on many levels, first of all, as you know, the construction industry in Ireland has come to a bit of a stand still and there are a lot of people looking for opportunities outside Ireland. Many of them have found those opportunities here, builders, surveyors, project managers, architects and anybody involved in the construction business hoping to get work here.

‘Evidence of the Irish contribution here is all around, the names on many of the hoardings are very very familiar, all associated with the Irish construction sector, I am very proud that 10% of the work force here is Irish. They are involved in everything from lifting the blocks to major architectural projects. That’s very good news. That’s at the construction phase, and then there is the fit out phase.

‘That’s a very important element for us in terms of supplying goods and services. I was talking to one contractor this morning who bringing in cladding from north of Dublin. A good example of work being generated and opportunities being generated back in Ireland thanks to the Oympic site.’

During her visit, Ms McAleese also visited the Irish Centre in Reading. In London, she met the Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas and the Irish Chaplaincy in Britain, as well as the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith.

Related websites:

• RTE.ie: McAleese visits London 2012 site
• Remarks by President McAleese at a Reception at the Embassy of Ireland, London, 1st March 2010
• Remarks by President McAleese to Hammersmith Irish Cultural Centre, 1st March 2010
• Remarks by President McAleese to Reading and District Irish Association, Reading, England, 28th February 2010

Organisers say:

In 2007 we started a conversation with the Irish Diaspora with an event in New York.  1000 people came along and participated in a lively, informative and entertaining debate.  Last year we brought the discussion to Dublin and this year we would like to continue that spirit of lively interaction with the Irish in Britain.  This special event takes as its premise that lasting transformations within Ireland and of Irish Society, whether political, cultural, social or economic have been shaped and informed by the Irish abroad.  This event is about exploring that proposition by looking at three significant issues in our relatively recent past and drawing on the strands arising from that exploration to inform and frame an open floor discussion on the Irish in Britain today and tomorrow.

One curious thing about the programme as it has been initially released is that there seems to be a lack of involvement of the Irish in Britain as speakers, but perhaps that will be rectified by the time the final lineup is announced.

Outline Programme
08:30 a.m. Registration

09:00 a.m. Welcome: Hugh Brady, President of UCD

09:15 a.m.
Session One: Towards 2016

This session takes as its theme the notion of the Irish abroad as the significant engine of political change. Contributions will look at the influence of the “Irish” cities of Britain and America on the formation of key figures involved in 1916 and the years that followed, the role of the Irish abroad in the formation and sustaining of a republican movement, the relationships between the new state and the Irish abroad and the consequences of the legacies of historic events and their commemoration for the present and future generations.

Participants will include Mary Daly, Diarmaid Ferriter, Michael Kennedy and Bob Schmuhl

10:30 a.m. Coffee

11:00 a.m.
Session Two: Joyc(e)ity

The theme of this session will be the Diaspora as creative impulse. In particular contributions will explore aspects of the Aesthetic of Exile, Joyce and the contribution of the Irish to “Modernism” and the phenomenon of a diaspora of cultural artefacts.

Participants will include Luca Crispi, Anne Fogarty, Declan Kiberd, and Frank McGuinness

12:30 a.m. Lunch

2:00 p.m.
Session Three: Ties That Bind

The session will explore cultural branding, identity and social cohesion in Britain and Ireland.  It will take as a starting point two iconic identifiers of “Irishness”, the GAA and Guinness, both of whom celebrate milestone anniversaries in 2009

Participants will include Cormac O’Grada and Paul Rouse

3:00 p.m. Coffee

3:30 p.m.
Session Four: What does the future hold for Ireland and its Diaspora?

An open floor discussion will be led by a special guest panel.

5.00 p.m. Closing remarks: Hugh Brady

7:30 for 8:00 The Forum will be followed by a dinner and the presentation of The John Hume Medal

Related webpages:

• The Irish in Britain on UCD John Hume Institute website
• Irish Diaspora Forum on Global Irish Institute website
• Ean: US-Ireland Forum focuses on relations

For James Mooney, 23, and his generation, the crash is particularly galling.

While Mr Mooney was studying to be a surveyor, his lecturer told them they would all be millionaires by the time they were 35, such was the construction and property boom at the time.

Instead he is one of the new breed of Irish emigrants, living in a house in London with five other Irish people in their twenties, in a position none of them ever dreamed they would face.

“Getting dropped back to Dublin airport, that’s when it hits home, that you’re leaving again,” says Mr Mooney.

“Sunday nights, flying back to London. I dread it.

“You see the same faces at the airport now. I never thought I’d have to leave.”

Read Olivia O’Leary’s article on the BBC website – “Ireland: boom to bust”

The DVD is a production of the Irish Elders Now project, which is aimed at building a substantial video and oral record of a generation of Irish migrants to Britain whose stories and experiences have been underrepresented in other official records.

For more information and to order the DVD, visit the Irish Studies Centre website.

The book, which was launched in Dublin on Wednesday by Senator Ivana Bacik,  is an oral history record of the Irish Women’s Abortion Support Group and the Irish Abortion Solidarity Campaign. Author Anne Rossiter is a Limerick-born campaigner who has lived in London for 25 years.

Related web pages:

Irish Times: The kindness of strangers who helped Irish women abandoned by the State

Federation of Irish Societies: Book Launch: Ireland’s Hidden Diaspora

Director Gary Wilkinson and playwright Tom Kelly created “Little Ireland” using archive material, photographs and interviews with descendants of Irish immigrants.

The 40-minute film has been an instant success at home, selling out two screenings in South Shields earlier this month.

The pair are now trying to interest Irish film festivals, and have sent out copies to film festivals in Dublin, Belfast, Waterford and Cork.
The film is available from the South Shields Central Library for £10.

See related web pages:

• Shields Gazette: Little Ireland set for screening
• The Irish in Jarrow

The figure is the highest since 1990, when 56,300 people left the country, but there are a couple of factors making a difference between then and now.

First, it is likely that there are number of immigrants who had been temporarily in the country who are now returning home or moving on to a third country. The CSO statistics do not reveal nationality of those leaving, but 9,000 are moving on to the accession countries of the EU, while 7,400 are moving on to other parts of continental Europe.

Second, immigration continues to outpace emigration, as it has been doing consistently since 1996. There were 83,300 people who came into Ireland last year; while this is a four-year low and a fairly dramatic decrease from the 109,500 who came in the year ending April 2007, net migration is still significantly inward.

The figure for net migration now stands at 38.5 – although this is nearly half its peak of 71,800 in 2006, it’s still a far cry from the situation twenty years ago. 1988 was one of the peak years for emigration – at that time, net migration stood at -41.9.

The trends, however, are toward increasing emigration and decreasing immigration. The figures also date to April, and as such wouldn’t show any acceleration in emigration that may or may not have occurred this summer.

Where are the outward migrants going?

• 7,000 went to the UK, down from 10,100 in the year ending 2007.
• 7,400 went to the pre-accession countries of continental Europe, up from 3,200 the year before.
• 9,000 went to the 12 countries of the EU accession states, up from 7,000 last year.
• 2,200 are reported to have gone to the US, down from 2,900.
• 19,800 went to the “Rest of the World”, with 11,300 of those going to Australia and Oceania.

The CSO also released statistics today showing that the unemployment rate has risen to 5.1%. There are now 115,000 people unemployed.

The report says that there are now 16,000 Irish undergraduates and postgraduates in Britain; this is an increase of 3,000 over five years.  Half of those students are on postgraduate courses.  There are 1,180 students in doctoral programmes, while fewer than 5,000 studying for doctorates in Ireland.

The newspaper reports there have been substantial rises in the numbers leaving Ireland to study medicine, teacher training, psychology, civil engineering and sports science.

The Higher Education Authority said it was monitoring the figures.  There are 140,000 students in the Irish third-level system.

Read more on the Irish Independent website:

• Points race sparks top students brain drain
• Alarm bells ring at fears of UK brain drain

One of those interviewed is Ean board member Sr Attracta Heneghan, who worked with the Irish in Huddersfield. Also featured is Fr Michael Leonard, who works in Chicago.

See the information at the bottom to watch the programmes online.

The filmmakers say:

As Chaplains they were there to provide pastoral care to the emigrants but more often found themselves much more deeply involved in the lives of the emigrants than they could possibly have imagined. For many emigrants the Chaplain was seen as a first port of call, to sort accommodation, and employment and to deal with the difficulties many young Irish found themselves in in a strange land. In recent years, we have become very aware of our ‘Diaspora’ and their role in the development of today’s Ireland. In this series, the Chaplains have the opportunity to tell their own side of the emigration story. We also hear from the emigrants themselves, those who have stayed abroad and those who returned.

The programme also looks at parallels with new immigrant communities in Ireland.

The programme airs on Sunday nights at 9:30 throughout May. Here are the outlines for the individual programmes:

Programme 1 An taithí I Londain Sunday May 4th
Fr Tom Looney is currently Parish Priest of the Gaeltacht community of Dingle. As a young priest he was sent to London to work as an Emigrant Chaplain. Through his experiences we introduce the work of the Emigrant Chaplains and the importance of their role. We also draw parallels between his work London with Irish emigrants and the contemporary situation in Dingle for the new immigrant communities.

Programme 2 An taithí i Huddersfield – Sunday May 11th
The second programme in our series looks at the particular experiences of those who emigrated to Huddersfield in the North of England. Huddersfield always had a particular draw for emigrants from Connemara, and in recent years, Sr Attracta Heneghan worked with the older Irish emigrants who have settled there. Now back in Ireland, Attracta meets with Sr Marilyn, a Nigerian Nun who has come to Ireland to provide pastoral support for African immigrants who are settling here.

Programme 3 An taithí i Sasana – Sunday May 18th
Fr Gearoid Ó Griofa reflects on his work as an emigrant chaplain with particular responsibility for emigrants in London from Gaeltacht areas in the 1980’s. We examine how today’s chaplains in London are working with the elderly and often lonely Irish emigrants, the same generation which the original chaplains were sent to help 50 years ago. In his current role as PP in the suburbs of Galway Ó Griofa also comments on challenge of multicultural Ireland with examples of cooperation with local NGOs and foreign chaplains.

Programme 4 An taithí i Chicago – Sunday May 25th
Our fourth programme follows Fr Michael Leonard on his rounds in Chicago – a particularly Irish city. His brief is to work with newly arrived and undocumented Irish, but the old established Irish community (and their children) still welcome the connection with the Irish priest. We feature contributions from the older Irish-American community who had to leave Ireland and the newer generation who are in USA by choice.

Watch the programmes online! They are subtitled, in case your Irish is rusty. Here is how to find them:

1. Go to www.tg4.tv.
2. On the left, click on “Cláir Eile – Cartlann”
3. Scroll down until you see each of the four episodes of “Séiplinigh na nImirceach”.

In his own words:

DID YOU EVER WORK IN BRITISH CONSTRUCTION?

In 2001 I wrote a history of the Irish in British construction, The Men who built Britain, and now I want to publish the stories of those who were there – in their own words.

In Britain almost half a million Irishmen worked in construction. On hydro dams, power stations, oil terminals and motorways. Many lived in camps, often in remote locations, working long hours for Wimpey, Tarmac, or MacAlpine, following the Big Money and sending what they hadn’t ‘subbed’ back home to families in Ireland.

In London, Birmingham, Manchester and elsewhere other Irishmen were working, often on ‘The Lump’, for Irish contractors renewing and expanding the utilities – telephones, water, gas and electricity.

The pub was their labour exchange. Although working in the public eye theirs was a hidden world: of gangers, agents, publicans and landladies whose whims and vagaries set out their everyday existence. They moved between the pubs, the digs, the dancehalls, ‘caffs’ and roadside ‘Stands’ where ‘Skins‘ were hired each day by gangermen who judged them by their boots.

Those who were there remember ‘Tunnel Tigers’, ‘Heavy Diggers’, and ‘McAlpine’s Fusiliers’; ‘Hen Houses’, ‘Cock Lodgers’, and ‘Landladies’ Breakfasts’; ‘Pincher Kiddies’, ‘Long Distance Men’, and ‘Shackling Up’; ‘Dead Men’, ‘Walking Pelters’, and ‘Murphy’s Volunteers’; ‘The Shamrock’, ‘The Galtymore’, ‘The Buffalo’ and ‘The Crown’; exile and isolation and loneliness and despair…

If you were there, and have a tale to tell, please contact Ultan Cowley at

The Potter’s Yard

Rathangan

Duncormick

Co. Wexford

Email: ultan.cowley@gmail.com