Tara protest group to mobilise Irish abroad
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009The group campaigning against the building of a road close to the Hill of Tara is planning to mobilise 50,000 supporters abroad to make protests as government ministers attend St Patrick’s Day functions around the world.
TaraWatch says that demonstrators will appear in places such as San Francisco, New York, Toronto and Paris, where ministers will be representing the goverment. Minister for Energy and Communications Noel Dempsey and Green Party members are the primary targets, a spokesperson told the Irish Times, but “every minister in almost every city will be hearing about Tara again”.
He also said told the paper that the Irish abroad are “especially furious and this is becoming an annual ritual, in cities around the world.” He added, “If the Government wants to engage the diaspora, they [should] seek help in finding a solution to the M3”.
Related links:
Tara group plans St Patrick’s Day protests (Irish Times, 10/3/09)
Dublin man in Dubai only misses the rain
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009The Irish of Dubai are featured in an article on the Time Out Dubai website – and one of them reports the only thing he misses is the rain.
Cormac Lynch, a 26-year-old architect who has been in Dubai for eight months, says he came for economic opportunity, and knows many people in architecture and design who came over for the opportunity to create something new.
He tells Time Out:
I’m from Dublin and, although Dublin’s also a city, when I first came out here, I still found it daunting. But I really like it now – the sun, the beach and all the people you meet. I like that there are so many international people here that you wouldn’t necessarily meet back home in Ireland.
I do miss the rain, I have to say, and the greenness of everything, but other than that, I don’t miss much. I never go anywhere that’s strictly Irish, like the Irish Village. Like I said, I’m here to meet new people, though I have met some Irish people at Gaelic matches, which take place in Safa Park.
Read more about Cormac and some fellow Dubai-based expats on the TimeOutDubai.com website.
Related websites:
- Dubai Irish Society
- Dubai Celts GAA
- Irish presence in Dubai continues to grow (Sunday Business Post, 21/5/06)
Irish-born in US among oldest, least poor
Monday, March 9th, 2009Irish-born residents of the US are among the oldest immigrant groups, and least likely to be poor, according to a survey released by the US Census Bureau. The study examined demographic profiles of the 38.1 million foreign-born population in the US. In 2000, 269,831 of those were Irish.
The report found that the oldest foreign born populations tend to be from Europe, with those born in Hungary (64 years) and Italy (63.1 years) having the oldest median ages. Those from Greece, Germany and Ireland have median ages of about 60. The median age for the US population as a whole is 36.7, while the total foreign-born population has a median age of 40.2.
Immigrants from Ireland have a poverty rate of only 5%; those from Ireland and the Netherlands were the least likely to be poor. In contrast, 51% of Somali residents live in poverty, along with about a quarter of those born in Iraq, the Dominican Republic, Jordan and Mexicio.
In a separate study, the bureau has found that 12% of all Americans report Irish ancestry, or a total of 36 million in 2007.
In researching this information, I was surprised to find that the Irish don’t even make it into a list of the top 25 countries of birth for immigrants in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, as evidenced by this graphic on the New York Times website.
Related web pages:
- US Census Press Release: Census Bureau Data Show Characteristics of the US Foreign-Born Population
- Fact sheet on the Irish population group using 2000 Census Demographic information
US news report highlights disillusionment of returned emigrants
Monday, March 9th, 2009The disillusionment of Irish emigrants who moved back home to take part in Ireland’s booming economy has been featured in on the CBS Evening News in the US.
The three emigrants profiled include Brendan Landers, who wrote of his disappointment after returning from Canada in the Irish Times last month. He said that his website got over 7,000 hits after the article appeared. Of his fellow returned emigrants, he said, “what they’d been feeling is basically a disappointment with our country”.
Ed Neale returned from Holland, where he was studying architecture, but returned to find the jobs had dried up. “It was really a blip in the nation’s history,” he said. “You know, we are traditionally a very poor country. We’re a nation of emigrants and those times are coming back.”
Marina Giblin gave up her job in banking in San Francisco to raise her four-year-old daughter near family in Dublin. “The reality of it is we partied very hard and we forgot there would be a hangover.” When asked if she’d leave again, Giblin replied, “If I have to go, I’ll go. Yeah, I will.”
Watch the video:
See more on the CBS news website.
Will Irish-language fashions appeal to emigrants?
Monday, March 9th, 2009Will an upturn in emigration change Irish fashion? Two English-born, Galway-based sisters believe that it may, according to an article in the Sunday Business Post.
Theresa and Mary McGovern have launched a website featuring t-shirts with slogans in Irish. The pair moved to Ireland as children when their Cavan-born parents made the move home. Mary had worked in London for eight years before moving to Galway, where she and her sister opened a boutique called Pagan. They began designing t-shirts and hoodies with Irish language slogans, and have now decided to take their business global through a website at Pagan.ie, which launches on Tuesday.
The pair believe that the clothing line’s celebration of a uniquely Irish style may give them an edge in today’s economic climate. “We hope to grow through the recession with our online business. We think emigration will make people more aware and proud of their cultural identity,” Theresa told the newspaper.
She added, “Our customers have found it a conversation-starter as far away as Tokyo, New York and Sydney.”
Related websites:
- Sunday Business Post: Sister act gets shirty with new web trade.
- Visit the website at www. Pagan.ie.
Exhibition on Irish men’s experience in Britain to tour Spain and US
Monday, March 9th, 2009An art exhibition exploring the experience of male Irish immigrants to Britain in the 20th Century is premiering at PM Gallery in West London this month before it goes on an international tour.
The Quiet Men is the work of five artists drawing on their own lives to depict the London-Irish experience: Bernard Canavan, Daniel Carmody, John Duffin, Dermot Holland and Brian Whelan.
From the gallery’s press release:
Each featured artist is an immigrant, or child of immigrants, from Ireland. This immigrant status informs the work, which observes the margins of society and is full of stories, humour and tragedy. The church and pub appear, as do the launderette, bus and train. The theme of the journey is often present in the songs, toasts, poems and prayers of the immigrant and the artists do not stray far from the vehicles that brought them to the city and might take them away again.
Exhibition curator and featured artist Brian Whelan says,
‘Irish music, literature, poetry and dance are celebrated all over the world. However, when asked to bring to mind Irish paintings, sculpture or architecture or to name an artist, many will have difficulty as very few have been celebrated outside Ireland. One reason for this may be that a people that experienced famine, war, economic hardship and mass immigration, carried only their portable culture with them in their heads, hearts and suitcases. Poems and songs have few requirements short of a good memory or the ability to carry a tune, whereas painting, sculpture and architecture are less portable and need peace, prosperity and time in order to flourish.’
The exhibition will run from 11 March to 18 April at the PM Gallery, before it goes to Spain, Philadelphia and Chicago.
Complementing the exhibition is a photographic exhibition, “Irish Londoners 1950-1975”, which chronicles the lives of the London Irish after the Second World War. The photographs are from the Paddy Fahey Collection at Bernt Archive.
See more information at the PM Gallery’s website.