Michael Noonan’s quip in 2012 about emigration being a “free choice of lifestyle” for young people must be one of the most defining quotes of the recession. He was slammed from all sides for the remark, which outraged so many people who felt they had no choice but to leave to find work abroad to service debts and save their sanity as the downturn deepened.
Over the past decade, 356,600 Irish-born people have emigrated. Looking at the migration figures (see graph), it is glaringly obvious what impact the recession had on the flow of people in and out of Ireland.
In the 12 months to April 2008, just 13,100 Irish-born people emigrated. The following year, as the numbers out of work began to rise, the numbers leaving jumped to 19,200, and continued to escalate until reaching a peak of 49,700 in 2012, when unemployment was also at its highest at 15.2 per cent in January that year.
Since then, the graph has been on a downward trend, with 30,800 leaving in the year to April 2017. It is still a very high number – higher than in 2010 – considering the economy has largely recovered and the proportion of people out of work has fallen back to 6.1 per cent. The numbers returning have risen significantly too, with 27,400 coming back last year, but the country still has a deficit of 125,300 Irish-born people as a result of emigration over the past decade.
Although emigration in itself requires money that many people most squeezed by the recession didn’t have, a large proportion of those who left did so directly because of the downturn. They have been watching the Irish economy from afar and while many have moved home, many others are now happily rooted in their second homes overseas.
Irish Times Abroad asked readers who emigrated in the past 10 years to tell us how the recession affected them. Here's what they had to say. For more stories see irishtimes.com/abroad.
Jonathan Drennan: ‘The recession touched me lightly but still changed my life’
I started a Master's in journalism at Dublin City University in September 2008. A guest lecturer came in to speak about his career in Irish media. "You all remind me of the marines in Iwo Jima going over the top," he told the class of 30 would-be journalists. "You have absolutely no hope whatsoever in this recession."
That speech set the tone for an exceptionally grim year. I woke to Morning Ireland on my clock radio telling stories of families struggling to survive. The segments often ended with an emigrant leaving at Dublin Airport.
I was lucky to get some shift work at the Irish News in Belfast, but belts were tightening, and I knew I had to make a pragmatic decision. I had dreamed my whole life of being a journalist, but I couldn't see how it could support me financially, so I switched career to advertising, starting as a trainee at an agency in London in 2010.
Facilitating ads for chocolate cereal and washing powder was definitely not my dream, but I was grateful for the regular pay cheque. Years passed, I gained more experience, and eventually made the switch to corporate communications in Sydney.
Compared to families financially crippled by mortgages, the recession touched me lightly, but it still affected me. Maybe I should have had more gumption, or maybe I made the right decision to choose economic pragmatism. I will never know the answer, but the recession 10 years ago definitely changed the course of my life forever.
Noel Scanlon: ‘My sons have grown into young men’
In July 2011 I flew from Shannon to Afghanistan after winding up my architectural services business. Like so many others, I had no choice but to look abroad for work in order to deal with both mortgage and business arrears.
I spent a year working on military bases in Kandahar, Uruzgan and Helmand, in extremely challenging environments. This was followed by three years' managing data centre construction in Saudi Arabia. Next stop was Ghana, followed by Tanzania.
I returned to Europe in 2016, working on another data centre project in the Netherlands, commuting to Cork at weekends. My time there was cut short at the end of 2016, leading to an uncertain few months which saw me spending time in Bahrain, London and also unemployed for a period.
Since August I have been back working in Dublin, on data centre projects again. It’s great to be back, working full-time with a sense of security which I haven’t felt for many years.
Even better is to be back with my partner and sons after the challenging few years I spent being away for weeks and months on end. I know it was tough on them also. My sons have grown into young men, a constant reminder of the time I spent away.
The Irish economy is clearly improving, but we have major challenges in housing and healthcare, and it’s still an expensive country to live in. But it is home and where my heart is.
Trish Ward, Glasgow: ‘I found myself living back with my parents and on the dole’
I graduated in veterinary medicine in 2009. Six months and 40 job applications later, I found myself living back with my parents and on the dole. Like a lot of my classmates I started looking for work in the UK and soon got a job in a small town I had never heard of. I was so homesick. I was home every two weeks. I used to cry silently on the flight back to the UK.
I was so conflicted; I wanted to be a vet my whole life, I had worked hard to get my degree and I enjoyed my job, but I hated living in another country away from family and friends. I told myself it would be for one year only, but nine years later I’m still here.
The UK opened up so many opportunities for jobs and further training, that I stayed for another year, and then another. I have now settled in Glasgow with great friends and a partner. I am very happy. I get asked if I will move back to Ireland and my answer is maybe . . . but not right now.
Mervin Magner, Ontario: ‘For now, Canada is my home’
When I qualified as a plumber in Limerick in 2003 there was a lot of work in my trade. I knew at the back of my mind that it was unsustainable, but it was a reality check when it came to a halt so fast. I went to visit my brother in Maryland in the US in the summer of 2009, and when I got back it was like a light had been switched off. There was no work at all.
So I applied to Usit for a work permit for Canada, and left in September 2010. It was four years before I returned for a visit, because I was so busy with work. I’m here more than seven years now, married, with an abundance of work and no plans to return to Ireland full-time in the future. Ireland will always be in my heart but, for now, Canada is my home.
Paddy Marshall, Christchurch: ‘We decided to make the best of it’
I left Ireland with my Spanish girlfriend in September 2010. After the third pay cut and a reduction in my hours at the engineering firm where I worked three days a week, we decided to leave and travel the world, hoping to be back in a year or two.
Before leaving I had a few interviews with a New Zealand engineering consultancy, and an offer quickly followed. We arrived in Christchurch a few days after the February 2011 earthquake and quickly got to work on the recovery efforts, from lifting manholes to chlorine dosing and testing the city's water supply system. A year flew by and the situation at home was not any better, so we decided to make the best of it. I grew into my role and became one of the technical leaders in the earthquake recovery effort.
Eight years later I am now working on the second earthquake recovery, for the rebuild of State Highway 1 north of Kaikoura. We have two children, and are unsure of where the future will bring us.
Róisín Flynn: ‘I’m still questioning our decision to move home’
After a year in Melbourne I returned to Ireland in 2008, completely unaware of how bad things had become. I was lucky to get two days' work per week. Single and in my 20s, I applied for a second working holiday visa and as soon as it was granted I headed back to Australia.
Life there was fantastic, but I always missed Ireland, although that got less and less as the years went by. I had a six-figure salary in a job I loved. After having a baby with my partner, we decided to give Ireland a go and in 2016 we moved home. I’m still questioning our decision.
Life in Ireland can be dull in comparison, but it is very nice being part of a community. The biggest struggle for us is job opportunity. I want to work full-time, but at the moment I can only get 15 hours a week. I’m on a panel with Tusla, and I’m hoping for a job offer in the new year. We’ll then be in a position to buy our own home, as we are, for the moment, living with my parents in an effort to save. When people ask me if I’m happy to be back, I honestly still don’t know how to reply.
Michael Bourke, London: ‘I am still too angry with Ireland to return’
The recession was a year old when I finished my MA. Luckily I had got a place on a graduate programme and was waiting to be placed abroad. I suspected the wait might be longer considering the state of the economy, so I signed on in a dole office in Limerick. The person behind the desk (knowing nothing of my plans) suggested there was no point in processing my application because “surely you will be abroad by the time your payment goes through”.
I've been in London now for almost five years and in two days I emigrate again, this time to Denmark. It will be my second time living there and I am planning on this being my last move as I turn 33.
I am still too angry with Ireland to return. Nothing has really changed and I’ve accepted that it won’t either. Brexit has been the new spectre on my horizon and I am glad to be able to escape it, but sad that Ireland wasn’t even on my list of options of places to go.
Roger Doyle, Dubai: ‘Without the recession we would have never emigrated’
My future wife Mariam and I, both architects, left Ireland in early 2010 after my job ended and our prospects looked bleak. We chose to go to Mauritius, to work with a French architect, working together for the first time. We married in 2011, and had our first child, Jack, in 2013.
After five great years in Mauritius, in 2015 we decided to move to Dubai for financial reasons and to advance our careers, and had our second child, Ryan, last year.
Without the recession we would have never emigrated, but, having left and been away for almost eight years, our lives have utterly changed and it’s hard to find any valid reasons to return to Ireland permanently, apart from family and friends. We have enjoyed a higher quality of life as expats, and are planning a third and permanent move in the next few years but are not considering Ireland. Although we enjoy visits back there every year, it’s no longer our home.
Sarah Stanford, Vancouver: ‘We would only return to a stable Ireland’
My then-boyfriend, now husband, moved to Vancouver in 2011. Before the downturn we had a settled life in Dublin with a mortgage and pets. He is an architect and I’m an interior designer, so we were very hard hit when the construction industry crashed.
Now, nearly five years married and seven years in Vancouver, we are about to welcome our second son. During our time away we’ve suffered family bereavement, illnesses, and missed out on countless special occasions with family and friends. We’ve struggled to regain financial stability in this expensive city, living in limbo while we watched the Irish economy from afar with scepticism. We have hope in our hearts of moving back some day, but not likely soon. We would only return to a stable Ireland for our children’s sake.
Edel Lougheed-Deane, Christchurch: ‘I don’t miss the country we left behind’
My partner and I left Ireland in November 2012, for our new adventure in New Zealand. It was the best decision that we’ve made for the sake of work-life balance and our sanity. I graduated from CIT as a graphic designer at the height of the recession, while my partner was working in the construction industry in the UK, 10 days on, four days off. I was lucky to have a full-time job in my local supermarket, but doing long, odd hours. We both knew we couldn’t keep working like this while sustaining a relationship and chasing better career opportunities.
I am now working in Christchurch as a marketing and graphic designer for a company who use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. My partner is third-in-command in his company, with many perks in his role that he wouldn’t receive in an Irish job.
Five years later and married, we are here, hopefully, for the long haul. I do get homesick for family, especially around Christmas and birthdays; but I don’t miss the country we left behind. Social media has been great for keeping in contact with family, friends and Irish news. We both would find it difficult to leave beautiful New Zealand.
Conor Henry, Dubai: ‘Our kids see Dubai as home’
In 2007, my pregnant wife and I moved from Edinburgh back home to Derry to settle into family life. I’m a chartered surveyor carrying out valuations on behalf of banks, and I couldn’t believe the price of property at home. In March 2008, I could see things were in a bubble and decided to actively look to the Middle East, just as a safety net. I was offered work, and in May 2008, with our eight-month-old daughter, we left Ireland for Dubai.
We now also have a son (aged 7) born here in Dubai. Both our kids know no different, they see Dubai as home. We don’t know if we will return to Ireland, but who knows what the future holds.
Deirdre O’Rourke, Perth: ‘We spent five years living hand-to-mouth’
My husband (boyfriend at the time) was made redundant in June 2007. I had just finished my degree. We lived in a box room in his brother's house for months. My husband got a job in England so we moved there, and spent five years living hand-to-mouth before we moved to Australia.
Another five years and two children later, we are still here. We have been on a bridging visa for nearly two years, and the Australian government still hasn’t made a decision as to whether we can stay or not. I just want a place to call home. Where is home?
