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Monday, June 15th, 2009The Citizen’s Information Board has introduced a new website called “LosingYourJob.ie”, which includes emigration information alongside information on social welfare entitlements, education and training options, reduced hours, and more. The information is culled from the larger database of information on the CitizensInformation.ie website.
The emigration information is located in a section called “Leaving Ireland” and covers such topics as applying for a passport, documents to bring with you, working inside and outside the EU, transferring social security payments abroad, and diplomatic supports abroad.
It might be helpful if the site included information on groups like the Crosscare Migrant Project in Dublin and the many support centres abroad for Irish people.
Related websites:
A look at unemployment rates in destination countries
Monday, June 15th, 2009With the increasing number of news reports about unemployed people seeking to emigrate, it’s useful to look at unemployment rates in a number of destination countries. These are, of course, only guidelines – no doubt there are national differences in the methods of compiling these statistics that make it difficult to make accurate comparisons.
Ireland’s unemployment rate is 11.8%. Here are the rates in some of the countries most commonly considered by those seeking to emigrate:
- UK: 7.1% (March 2009 – Office for National Statistics)
- US: 9.4% (May 2009 – Bureau of Labour Statistics)
- Canada: 8.4% (May 2009 – Statistics Canada)
- Australia 5.7% (May 2009 – Australian Bureau of Statistics)
- New Zealand – 5% (April 2009 – Statistics New Zealand)
UCDscholarcast aimed at global audience
Monday, June 15th, 2009UCD has launched a new podcast service on Irish cultural topics. There are three series of UCDscholarcast available so far:
- The Art of Popular Culture
- Archaeologies of Art: Papers from the Sixth World Archaeological Congress
- Scholars Off the Page
The podcasts are recorded in a studio and aimed at academics and others; the series also includes PDF transcripts of the podcasts, to facilitate citation in written academic work. Director PJ Mathews notes the series may be of interest to the Irish abroad.
Just in time for Bloomsday, the latest podcast is Declan Kiberd, Professor of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama at UCD, reading the closing chapter of his book “Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Living”.
Related websites:
Silicon Valley entrepreneur urges diaspora to transform NI tech sector
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009Northern Ireland’s diaspora can play a pivotal role in rebranding Northern Ireland as a “software destination”, says David Kirk, a Belfast-born executive in Silicon Valley.
Writing a call to action in today’s Belfast Telegraph, Kirk says it’s time to make a bold transformation to capitalise on the great talent and passion among entrepreneurs, technologists and potential business leaders. He sees the talent; what’s lacking in the North is the know-how to progress the ideas, talent and drive into “something that will make the world drop its jaw”.
He envisions the diaspora playing a key role:
Aggressively reach out to the diaspora. Invite them in. Listen to them. If you are reading this anywhere on the planet and you have a connection (or even feel you have a connection) to Northern Ireland, you are invited. If you are in Northern Ireland and can provide time, resources or expertise then you are invited. It’s no good just cheering (or sneering) from the sidelines anymore.
Kirk notes, “The most successful Northern Ireland technology entrepreneurs no longer live there, but almost all want to give back.”
This compelling call-to-action is the latest in a series of initiatives aimed at focusing the talent of the diaspora to help back at home. This is exciting stuff – technology is facilitating so many new ways of rapidly channelling the diaspora’s good will into effective action back home.
Related sites:
- Belfast Telegraph: Surely it’s now time to raise the game for our technology industries
- twitter.com/AAligNI
- Linkedin: AaligNI
- Facebook group: AAligNI
Article traces transformation of Setanta from ethnic niche to global competitors
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009Broadcasting company Setanta’s rise from a niche broadcaster focused on providing Irish sports to an expat audience to a major competitor in the global sports broadcasting arena is outlined in a report on the BBC today. Setanta is attracting attention because it is floundering financially and may be forced into administration.
Business reporter Bill Wilson writes:
Two decades ago sports broadcaster Setanta started life in an Irish dance hall in west London, showing the Republic of Ireland’s 1990 World Cup game against Holland after the BBC and ITV declined to broadcast the game in the UK.
It cost just £10 admission to watch that game in Ealing’s Top Hat club and Setanta’s two Irish founders, Michael O’Rourke and Leonard Ryan, managed to break even after 1,000 Irish fans turned up to watch the game.
Read the entire article on the BBC website: Why Setanta Sports is in trouble.
“I never thought I’d have to leave”, says 23-year-old London-based emigrant
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009A quick, disturbing vignette excerpted from Olivia O’Leary’s “Viewpoint” article on the BBC website.
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”
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