Emigration

[seafoid]

I just heard on Raidio na Gaeltachta that over 100 players have emigrated from Kerry and  Kerry football since the start of the year. How is it in other counties ?   

[GalwayBayBoy]

Another one in the news today.

Wexford footballer PJ Banville has revealed that, after much consideration, he is set to leave his native Model County in search of employment in Australia.

Citing economic circumstances as the reason behind the decision, the 24-year-old inter-county player told the Irish Independent that it's something he's always wanted to do.

'I have been thinking about it for some time, possibly over the last two years, but kept putting it on the long finger.

'Right now, my girlfriend has been out of work for the past two months and she is leaving for Australia this month.

'We decided to take on this new lifestyle given our situation. I will be joining up with her in January for 12 months so hopefully everything will be okay from a work point of view.

'It's something I've always wanted to do. I'll be 25 next summer so I felt the time is right.

'I'll miss the football both with the club and the county. Of that there is no doubt but I'm still looking forward to the move.'

[imtommygunn]

Gees I thought Banville was about 30!

[ludermor]

St Peters from Manchester are playing in the All Ireland junior final , they have 4 lads from Achill in their squad.

[BennyHarp]

St Peters from Manchester are playing in the All Ireland junior final they have 4 lads from Achill in their squad.

Thats jumping the gun a bit - they have only just won the all britain!

[Ulick]

Was chatting to a Tyrone AI medalist yesterday who'd received a job offer from the US and is leaving after Christmas. Not on the county panel anymore but will ne missed by his club.

[brokencrossbar1]

Eugene McGee: GAA funds should create jobs for emigrating youth
Eugene McGee


Monday November 15 2010

Recent reports from the Kerry County Board informed us that nearly 200 registered players from the Kingdom have emigrated so far this year to the four corners of the earth in search of work, as unemployment wraps its icy fingers around the best of our young people.

And we can be sure that similar pro-rata numbers are departing from every county in Ireland for the same reason, which means that several thousand GAA players will be missing from clubs throughout the land when the 2011 season comes around.

It is not putting it too strongly to state that this represents a catastrophe for hundreds of GAA clubs because the loss of even a handful of established players can undermine a club -- particularly small rural clubs -- with a very small catchment area, such as a sparsely populated parish or the many 'half-parishes' that exist in GAA land.

The GAA has always prided itself on the high level of practical patriotism it preaches and, overall, this is a valid claim.

There is no denying that a large number of GAA members do regard their membership as a form of patriotism based on making Ireland, locally and nationally, a better place.

That is why the GAA all over the country is now facing a major dilemma caused by the latest wave of youth emigration.

The Kerry statistic is only the tip of the iceberg and this is the greatest problem facing the GAA right now and for the next few years as our imploding economy struggles to survive on life-support.

Droves

Many GAA players just hung around on the dole last summer while their clubs were involved in the county championships, but are now leaving in droves.

This, of course, has been a familiar theme in Irish and GAA life at regular intervals over the past 100 years and the only difference now is that so many of a playing age are leaving.

Also unfortunate is the fact that so many well-educated young people, including third-level graduates, are getting out of Ireland, because such young men are vital for any GAA club, rural or urban, not just as valuable players but also because many progress as leaders on and off the field in subsequent years.

Small rural clubs are the worst victims of emigration because the loss of half a dozen can move a club towards extinction. In parishes in Leitrim and other west of Ireland counties it was often said that they could field a stronger team in New York or London than in their home parish.

But large clubs in towns have the same problem because unemployment is rampant in those areas also and there is a tendency for lads from urban clubs to emigrate in packs of three or four to some foreign land so that they can have a sense of comradeship, which was so important to them with their native club.

If the practical patriotism which the GAA espouses means anything, it should be addressing the emigration of its brightest and best players.

Nothing could be more fundamental to that concept than keeping young Irish people employed in their own country.

There have always been GAA units who have 'fixed up' players with jobs, usually on an individual basis and with the co-operation of a GAA-inclined employer. But a lot more than that is required now.

There ARE some ways by which the GAA could directly employ players if they were to redirect some of their money that way.

For example, several players could be trained quickly to carry out basic coaching for youngsters in schools that would also promote the games.

Most of the larger counties should be able to finance between 10 and 20 people in this way and provide them with a decent living for a couple of years.

If county boards like Meath can hand out €11,000 every month to pay those in charge of the county team, they should be able to do the same to keep young GAA players working in the county, and so should other counties.

County boards or large clubs should also be able to set up FAS-type work schemes from their own resources to keep some playing-members at least on subsistence income. Many players would settle for that for a while rather than having to emigrate to a strange country. That would be investing in the very future of the GAA's own people.

But the GAA has a poor record in the past of actively creating work for potential emigrants or the determination to really help unemployed members. If they REALLY applied themselves to the problem they could redirect some of their money in that direction and away from county teams.

They could take a 10pc levy off all gate revenue at all levels, including television and advertising revenue, county team training costs and various other grant-aided schemes over the next two years for a start.

In that way the GAA could easily accumulate a fund of several million euro to provide sustainable employment for their own young unemployed.

Now that would be practical patriotism. But is there a will with GAA officers at national level and in every county to take initiatives like these?

Or will they instead make up excuses for why it CAN'T be done? Very few of these people have ever been unemployed or forced to emigrate. They live in a different world where they TALK a lot about youth emigration but do little of a practical nature to help out.

But as the largest organisation in the county that is awash with money relative to most other Irish organisations, surely the GAA has the clout to do a lot more than just complain about our young players having to walk away from the games they love?

It would be a nice change if leading GAA politicians were to stop imitating other politicians, by talking a lot but doing very little, and instead provide several million euro from their own resources to stimulate employment for players.

And I am sure GPA members would have no qualms about throwing any player grants they may receive this year into the same kitty to be used for less well-off players.

- Eugene McGee

Irish Independent

[HiMucker]

A communist approach to things

There will always be people within are own organisation that will resent others getting money while they dont, regardless of their own nesessity for it.  It would be great to see the GAA take action but i wouldn hold my breath.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Sunday Tribune yesterday

Gaels forced to take flight as downturn hits grassroots

Faced with an uncertain economic future many GAA players, club and inter-county, are leaving Ireland and it poses a big challenge to the games' administrators, write Ewan MacKenna and Enda McEvoy

Tommy Murphy can still quote the date. It was 21 March 1957, the day that 14 young people from his townland in Myshall left for England. It was a blow to the tiny parish built on the foothills of Mount Leinster. It was a blow to the people, Murphy included, left behind. It was a blow to the local GAA club. But it didn't turn out to be a blow from which that club never recovered.

"That's the big thing when people go abroad," the long-serving Carlow county board officer muses half a century later, having seen recessions come and go. "Is their departure going to bring down the standard? I remember Jack Boothman saying to me during the 1980s, if times are tight and lads have a bit of get up and go, they'll be gone and you can't blame them. And they go and you wish them luck and then you think, who's going to replace them for Sunday? You just get on with the business of running the club."

That's the positive in all of this. Of any country, our history suggests we can hit the canvas and get back up. And of any organisation, the GAA can keep fighting while taking a flurry of violent blows. But it's one of the few positives because in another 53 years most Irish people will also remember a date. It was 18 November 2010 when the IMF arrived and behind the incomprehensible figures and ministerial falsities, the stories and numbers that matter are only beginning to be excavated.

Take Roscommon as a microcosm of what's been happening across the country. When a member of their county board got chatting to a nearby travel agent recently, he was told that these past few months 20 locals a week were booking tickets to Australia. From knowing the club scene well, the travel agent estimated half were young footballers and by the time many would be seen again, there'd be no more football in them. And that's just one travel agent in the 27th most populous county in the land.

The lead story in this week's Clare Champion makes for chilling reading too. Under the headline "Player exodus crisis for GAA clubs" it emerged that 200 had left the county recently, a figure that will increase when responses from the remaining 11 of the 52 clubs surveyed arrive. Of the 200 in question, only three brought families with them. The vast majority are young, single men – 17 of whom, all from three clubs in north Clare, recently departed from Shannon on the same day. Brian O'Connell, the county hurling captain for the last three years, is in Australia while Micheál McDermott, the football manager, has announced that he's planning for next year without the services of Declan Callinan, Brian Carrig and Mark Killeen.

Next door, figures from Kerry are no different and while their county team was "always going to be high-profile enough to stay employed" according to one county board member who cites the case of a player who lost his job and had a multitude of offers the following day, county secretary Peter Twiss suggests peeling back that veneer to get the true story. "With Kerry, the clubs are a truer reflection. I know one rural club that lost four of their better players at the same time just the other week. That leaves a team struggling but more importantly sucks the life out of a club. But we can't say the jobs aren't there. We are a wider association than sport and need to roll up our sleeves. We need to use our influence and, for example, in south Kerry there's a partnership and we are upskilling guys."

There is a similar programme and support group for county players in Waterford, with former hurling captain Fergal Hartley, who works in recruitment, on board along with local companies. In fact in this year's Munster hurling final programme they took out an ad, the title of which was 'Your Players Working For You' under which were pictures and contact details of painter Clinton Hennessy and electrician Gary Hurney. In Galway the supporters club run a similar project relating to player welfare.

But they are mere candles in a vast darkness, and going through the GAA transfer figures for the first nine months of the year, the numbers are large with 920, or over 61 teams' worth, leaving these shores. But the true figures are far worse. Many of those who emigrated haven't yet or won't join new clubs abroad and if you use Kerry as an example of what's happening, then statistics are startling. The county estimate that 200 players have left although only 74 of those have signed up for sides after emigrating. If that disparity held true across the country then it's more likely that 2,500 players have actually left Ireland, closer to 170 teams' worth of players.

Even the number of county players out of work can be misleading. Louth manager Peter Fitzpatrick, who has lost the spine of his team to emigration, says, "Guys are going from bits of bar work at weekends to a day here and there and that's covering up how bad things really are." Niall Carew, a selector over a Kildare side with no one unemployed adds, "there are seven tradesmen on the panel and it's day to day." Westmeath manager Pat Flanagan notes, "there are a lot gone back to college, simply because there was nothing else," while Leitrim manager Mickey Moran says, "it's an extremely serious situation and in terms of planning ahead it's very difficult because you don't know who will be here".

From reading the Irish news online, Liam Bermingham was well aware a wave of flesh and bone was coming across the Atlantic, but the secretary of the New York county board never realised it would be a tsunami. Now that it has hit though, the county is prospering. A couple of weeks ago they lost 2-9 to 2-7 to a Down line-up that contained 11 of those that started the All Ireland. Last Saturday they drew with a Louth team that wasn't dissimilar to the one that reached the Leinster final.

"I'm getting 30 emails a week from guys looking to come over," says Bermingham. "The problem is it's a hard place to get by illegally so a lot of players come for six months, and then head on to Canada. But the structures have been put in place and I've never seen a New York team so strong. Quite a few inter-county players are asking to come over and work. I've been in this role a long time and virtually no one of that standard ever came looking before now."

Naturally emigration is hitting some areas harder. Six of the eight counties that have had the most club players transfer abroad have Atlantic coastlines. But not only are some counties hit more heavily than others, parts of a county can be more heavily hit than other parts. That was the same in the 1980s. When the Wexford hurling and football champions of 1985 were honoured recently by the county board, it turned out that the Buffers Alley panel had stayed intact afterwards whereas the HWH-Bunclody panel lost eight members to emigration almost immediately afterwards, most of them from in and around the town. The reason? Buffers Alley were a rural club and more players were employed on the land.

And if there's any micro-group of GAA players who should be feeling the pinch right now it's Carlow footballers. Carlow town, where many hail from, used to be a manufacturing town; it is no longer that since the demise of Braun, Lapple and the sugar factory. Besides, the Carlow football team departed the championship earlier this year than did the county's hurlers, who are mostly rurally based. "The GPA are doing a lot of good work," says GAA Director General Pádraic Duffy. "There is no national programme for club players out of work but the GAA has a tradition of helping guys. That is still there but the problem is the sheer scale of unemployment. We are seeing a lot of players leaving, but we expect it to get worse."

So, it's in 2011 that clubs will suffer further. Very few of them will fold, however. Tommy Murphy has yet to see a club in Carlow or surrounding counties go out of existence. And his own Naomh Eoin of Myshall, far from being broken by 14 of the young people of the parish that cold March day 53 years ago, are doing as well these days as they ever did. "You have to be positive and keep working with the youth. Everybody isn't going away. There'll always be people left to man the ship."

sport@tribune.ie

Antrim

2010 county players who have emigrated 0 2010 panel currently out of work 10 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 20

Armagh

2010 county players who have emigrated 0

2010 panel currently out of work 4 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 26

Carlow

2010 county players who have emigrated 2 2010 panel currently out of work 8 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 4

Cavan

2010 county players who have emigrated 0 2010 panel currently out of work 5 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 28

Clare

2010 county players who have emigrated Declan Callinan, Brian Carrig, Brian O'Connell (all Australia) 2010 panel currently out of work 9 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 50

Cork

2010 county players who have emigrated Aisake Ó hAilpín (Australia) 2010 panel currently out of work 7 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 63

Derry

2010 county players who have emigrated 0 2010 panel currently out of work 4 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 28

Donegal

2010 county players who have emigrated 0 2010 panel currently out of work 7 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 40

Down

2010 county players who have emigrated 0 2010 panel currently out of work 0 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 10

Dublin

2010 county players who have emigrated Niall Corkery (GB) 2010 panel currently out of work 0 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 49

Fermanagh

2010 county players who have emigrated Ryan Carson (GB), Ryan Jones (Australia) 2010 panel currently out of work 4 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 22

Galway

2010 county players who have emigrated Cyril Donnellan (Argentina) 2010 panel currently out of work 2 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 62

Kerry

2010 county players who have emigrated 0 2010 panel currently out of work 0 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 74

Kildare

2010 county players who have emigrated Mike Hartnett (Canada) 2010 panel currently out of work 0 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 23

Kilkenny

2010 county players who have emigrated 0 2010 panel currently out of work 0 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 26

Laois

2010 county players who have emigrated Cahir Healy, Brian Glynn (studying in GB) 2010 panel currently out of work 12 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 5

Leitrim

2010 county players who have emigrated Pat Gilmartin (New Zealand), Gary McCluskey, Barry McWeeney, David O'Connor, Adrian O'Flynn (all GB) 2010 panel currently out of work 6 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 24

Limerick

2010 county players who have emigrated Pádraig Browne (Australia) 2010 panel currently out of work 9 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 150

Longford

2010 county players who have emigrated Pádraic Berry (USA), Seamus Hannon (GB), Kevin Smith (Australia) 2010 panel currently out of work 5 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 8

Louth

2010 county players who have emigrated Mick Fanning, John O'Brien, Brian White (all Australia) 2010 panel currently out of work 6 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 6

Mayo

2010 county players who have emigrated 0 2010 panel currently out of work 2 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 51

Meath

2010 county players who have emigrated Jamie Queeney (Australia, expected to return) 2010 panel currently out of work 2 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 30

Monaghan

2010 county players who have emigrated Darren Hughes (Australia, expected to return), Rory Woods (USA) 2010 panel currently out of work 5 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 10

Offaly

2010 county players who have emigrated 0 2010 panel currently out of work 4 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 15

Roscommon

2010 county players who have emigrated 0 2010 panel currently out of work 3 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 23

Sligo

2010 county players who have emigrated 0 2010 panel currently out of work 7 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 8

Tipperary

2010 county players who have emigrated 0 2010 panel currently out of work 8 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 45

Tyrone

2010 county players who have emigrated 0 2010 panel currently out of work 0 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 32

Waterford

2010 county players who have emigrated Conor McGrath (Australia) 2010 panel currently out of work 5 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 25

Westmeath

2010 county players who have emigrated 0 2010 panel currently out of work 6 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 9

Wexford

2010 county players who have emigrated PJ Banville (Australia) 2010 panel currently out of work 20 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 25

Wicklow

2010 county players who have emigrated Shane Morley, Darragh O'Sullivan (both Australia) Dara Ó hAnnaidh (USA) 2010 panel currently out of work 8 Club players who have transferred to clubs abroad in 2010 13

[ludermor]

St Peters from Manchester are playing in the All Ireland junior final they have 4 lads from Achill in their squad.

Thats jumping the gun a bit - they have only just won the all britain!

Just saw this!!! Aye got a bit mixed up there alright!!!

[tyssam5]

"Take Roscommon as a microcosm of what's been happening across the country. When a member of their county board got chatting to a nearby travel agent recently, he was told that these past few months 20 locals a week were booking tickets to Australia"

Does that bit sound like bullshit to anybody else? Does anyone under 50 still even use travel agents?

[crossdoesitbest]

Judging by that list above, would it be fair to point out that it seems to be effecting southern counties more harshly than their northern counterparts and it also seems fairly noticable that the so called bigger teams seem to have fewer of their panels unemployed. This surely can't be coincidence and therefore shows that in some small way the GAA are looking after a select few of their members!!!

[ross4life]

"Take Roscommon as a microcosm of what's been happening across the country. When a member of their county board got chatting to a nearby travel agent recently, he was told that these past few months 20 locals a week were booking tickets to Australia"

Does that bit sound like bullshit to anybody else? Does anyone under 50 still even use travel agents?

I haven't used a travel agent myself since the late 90s sounds BS to me aswell

Thankfully none of the main Roscommon players have needed to emigrate yet though most these guys are still going to College & may have no choice after their courses are finished 

[Eamonnca1]

4 things:

• GAA members are not serfs. They're free to go anywhere they want.


• Just because someone leaves the country doesn't mean they leave the GAA.  All this talk about a 'catastrophe' for the GAA is a symptom of peoples' inability to think of the GAA as the global organisation it is. Whether someone's playing hurling in Tipp or in Chicago, they're still part of the GAA.


• That proposal above about GAA units creating jobs to keep players in Ireland is just too funny.  Where's the money going to come from, hmmm? More people unemployed = less gate receipts = less money available to employ people to do what needs to be done right now, never mind adding additional work just to create jobs for the boys.


• That assertion that GAA officials have never lost their jobs and "live in a different world" is completely unfounded. Who does that writer think county board officers are? Does he think they're some sort of paid board of directors like in a corporation or something? Greatest load of trash I've ever read

[BarryBreensBandage]

4 things:

• GAA members are not serfs. They're free to go anywhere they want.


• Just because someone leaves the country doesn't mean they leave the GAA.  All this talk about a 'catastrophe' for the GAA is a symptom of peoples' inability to think of the GAA as the global organisation it is. Whether someone's playing hurling in Tipp or in Chicago, they're still part of the GAA.


• That proposal above about GAA units creating jobs to keep players in Ireland is just too funny.  Where's the money going to come from, hmmm? More people unemployed = less gate receipts = less money available to employ people to do what needs to be done right now, never mind adding additional work just to create jobs for the boys.


• That assertion that GAA officials have never lost their jobs and "live in a different world" is completely unfounded. Who does that writer think county board officers are? Does he think they're some sort of paid board of directors like in a corporation or something? Greatest load of trash I've ever read

True, they can go anywhere they want, but surely they should be able to choose where they go, instead of being forced to go?