RTE screened a remarkable and moving documentary on Monday night entitled Departure Day, in which it chronicled the plight of our young (and old) being forced to emigrate to find work.
To Canada and Australia and other corners of the globe they went in search of a brighter future for themselves and their families.
However, it was interesting to see how people tried to put their own political spin on the heartbreaking - and avoidable - subject of emigration.
Most, naturally enough, blamed the Government for the mess, saying that they had done absolutely nothing to stop the brain drain from the country.
Many of those critics were from the ranks of Fine Gael and Labour.
However, the last big emigration wave that Ireland witnessed was back in the 80s when, guess who, was in power? Fine Gael and Labour.
When challenged on this, their response was that they inherited the mess.
Well, they are about to inherit another mess now - are they up to the challenge of solving it? Time will tell.
1 comment:
Actually, you're wrong on the peak period of 80s emigration. It is something of an urban myth that it peaked under FG/Lab but in fact 1988 and 1989 were the peak years which were under under FF. Have a look at the immigrants/emigrants tab on the link below
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-irlandsecon06.html
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