In Hindsight

Hindsight, it is said, is twenty-twenty vision, meaning that situations become clearer when you look back upon them. So, looking back, how do the Irish in Leeds feel about their decision to leave Ireland and about their lives in Britain? It is perhaps natural to nostalgically recall your childhood, and remember clearly the stresses involved in moving out of the family home. This is magnified when you are not only leaving your home, but are leaving behind your community AND country.

An old Irish saying wisely states is glas iad na cnoic i bhfad uainn (literally "green are the hills far from us") meaning roughly the same as "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence". This it true of Irish emigration! Families were often split by migration with some members staying (or having to stay) in Ireland, and other going (or having to go) to Britain. Those who left Ireland were transformed by the experience, as were those who stayed at home. It is often the case that siblings left behind felt that they missed out on the adventure and excitement of moving to urban Britain, and that those who left were better socially and financially. It is also true that those who left Ireland often felt that those who remained had it better, getting to live their lives where they could only holiday, and often inheriting the family homestead.

The reality of the Irish experience in Britain is that the majority soon settled in and found work, made friends and met partners, married and started families. Many Irish emigrants, having left Ireland with the intention of returning eventually, adapted to life in Britain and gradually, especially as their British-born children grew up, lost the ambition to return, except perhaps for holidays or retirement. Others came to the conclusion that life had been good to them in Britain!

First Impressions

As this Untold Stories project is being launched (2011), Ireland is reeling from a three-year recession and a debt crisis, which has led to mass unemployment, resurgent emigration and an international bailout. Young people are again leaving Ireland in their droves, some following the well-trodden path to Britain, but the majority going further afield to Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Although there is the same sense of sadness at seeing family members leave home, it is a different emigration to that of the 1950s or 1980s. Close contact with home is greatly facilitated by the internet, social networking sites and mobile phones. Those currently leaving Irish shores tend to be highly skilled and well-educated and optimism prevails - the old concept of a ’brain drain’ caused by emigration being replaced with a more modern concept called ’brain circulation’ whereby people move countries acquire experience and skills before returning home. Go n-éirí an bóthar libh go léir!

RECOMMENDED READING:

IRISH IN BRITAIN: ORAL HISTORIES

C. Dunne, An Unconsidered People: The Irish in London, Dublin, 2003.
J. B. Keane, Self–portrait, Cork, 1964.
M. Lennon, et al (eds), Across the Water: Irish Women’s Lives in Britain, London, 1988.
A. Lynch (ed.), The Irish in Exile: Stories of Emigration, London, 1988.
D. MacAmhlaigh, An Irish Navvy: The Diary of an Exile, Cork, 2003.
B. McGowan, Taking the Boat: the Irish in Leeds, 1931 – 18. An Oral History, Killala, 2009.
S. Ó’Ciaráin, Farewell to Mayo: An Emigrant’s Memoirs of Ireland & Scotland, Dublin, 1991.
J. O’Donoghue, In a Strange Land, London, 1958.
R. Wall, Leading Lives: Irish Women in Britain, Dublin, 1991.

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