Funferal

Stagg on Irish emigration

The Irish Labour Party is pushing for recognition of and support for Irish emigrants through a motion in An Dáil. Emmet Stagg’s speech (28/1/04) on the motion evokes the era of mass emigration with precision and pathos:
I wish to thank the Labour Party Leader, Pat Rabbitte, and my colleagues for focussing on our forgotten brothers and sisters who are languishing as social outcasts in London, Birmingham, Coventry, Liverpool and every other major town and city in the UK.
I was born in 1944 into a family of 14 children on a 15-acre farm in Co. Mayo. I remember the late 1950s and 1960s and I want to remind the House of the reality of the time.

In De Valera’s ‘Great Republic’ – dominated by an arrogant clergy – there was widespread poverty with no running water, showers, toilets, or electricity, and a limited diet with meat very seldom on the table. There was a savage school regime and unaffordable fees if you were to go to Second Level. Third Level was for doctors’ sons.
The only work was with bigger farmers, as shop assistants, or as skivvies in the houses of the Gombeen men or the remnants of the gentry. All these employers paid slave wages and in some cases none at all. It was considered lucky if you got your keep.
Young men and women in De Valera’s Republic had no option and were practically forced to emigrate to get work simply to survive. This was some Republic.
The process of going abroad took some time and a lot of heart rendering discussion. In the end the decision was made that the son or daughter had to go, and the first to leave was always the hardest. Usually a cardboard suitcase would be purchased holding two shirts, some socks, working clothes and shoes, and some minor personal belongings. A going away ‘do’ would be held the night before, but they were more like wakes than parties. I remember a succession of them. The next day the departure from the house was followed by the hackney to the rail station, and the station would be filled to capacity with other victims of the Great Republic.
A 16 or 17-year-old youth would be dispatched into the unknown, a child to face the foreign unknown without a helping hand.
A new and dreadful reality then dawned that brothers and sisters were gone forever and a new form of death had entered our being. A huge hole had been created in our family and in our community.
Our ‘Great Republic’ forced them out in their tens of thousands onto the cattle boats, and into doss houses. They were forced to queue in the early morning for any chance of a job and would only then get paid in pubs.
They laid the sewers, built the roads, drove the buses, and as nurses cared for the sick. Most came back when they could afford it as they all yearned for home.
It is estimated that this particular traunch of enforced migrants numbered some 800,000 persons. It is also estimated that they sent home some 3.5 billion pounds in present values.
I was the beneficiary of their generosity, of their kindness, and of their inability to forget about the ones at home. We were able to buy clothes, shoes, and food. We paid school fees and we bought books with the money they sent home.
This allowed us to breakout of the black hole of poverty. It broke the damned cycle of poverty and ignorance. But our hearts broke for their absence.
Tonight in our national parliament I want to thank them on behalf of the very many that they did not forget and who they remembered. I am ashamed that it has taken me so long to do so.
I am resolved to now remember them and that we will do so in a meaningful way. The ways and means are set out clearly in the Task Force on Policy Regarding Emigrants, Ireland and the Irish abroad:
“Services to the Irish Abroad

• The promotion of increased cooperation between statutory and voluntary agencies in Ireland and overseas, the Irish Abroad
• The allocation of increased financial assistance to voluntary agencies and programmes abroad which provide welfare services to Irish people who are vulnerable or excluded
• The provision of financial assistance towards the cost of Irish community, cultural and sporting activities abroad where these help people to express the Irish dimension of their identity
• The commissioning of a study to identify the potential of the Internet and to build a communications hub to assist the Irish at home and abroad

Services to Returning Emigrants

• The establishment of a funding scheme for the provision of care and support services to elderly returning emigrants in supported housing accommodation
• The introduction of a ‘Holiday in Ireland’ scheme for elderly Irish emigrants resident in Britain who are unable to return to live permanently in Ireland
• The development of employment and training services for returning emigrants

Structures and Resources

• The allocation to the department of Foreign Affairs of overall responsibility for policy on emigration and for the coordination of support services to emigrants and Irish communities abroad
• The establishment of a new structure – the Agency for the Irish Abroad – under the aegis of the Department of Foreign Affairs to coordinate the provision of services for Irish emigrants and Irish communities abroad
• The appointment of additional staff in the department of Foreign Affairs, at home and at certain Missions overseas, to support the Irish Abroad
• The allocation of additional resources to other departments providing services to Irish emigrants to enable them improve and develop these services
• A significant increase in the level of official funding for emigrant services. A figure of EU18 million is proposed for 2003 building to EU34 million in 2005

There it is. We can no longer have the excuse of flailing about not knowing what to do. The report provides a clear road map in how and what needs to be done and the money required. This year EU18 million was to be provided and that was to grow to EU35 million by 2005. But a Minister in a government awash with money has ignored the report and has provided a miserable EU4 million.
I now demand on their behalf that the government honours its pledge now.
In conclusion, I also wish to record the success of many of our enforced emigrants, socially, economically, and politically. I wish to record their efforts, with minimal assistance to provide for the less well off amongst them.
I am personally aware of the huge efforts required to provide a day centre for old Irish emigrants in Coventry. I also want to praise the work of ‘Safe Home Ireland’ Deputy Jerry Cowley and his volunteers who do a great job but could do so much more if given the resources.
Finally, let me say this. We forced and starved our young people out of this republic into nothing except cardboard suitcases. Now we are leaving them old, homeless, and alone to be buried as paupers in cardboard coffins.
We have the resources and the road map. When we implement it, only then can we call ourselves a Republic.