OPINION: On Wednesday on these pages, Brendan Landers, a returned emigrant from Canada, poured his heart out about what he saw was wrong with the Ireland to which he and his family returned in 2000, lured by the magnetic appeal of the Celtic Tiger and the belief that the place he left in the 1980s had matured into a modern, liberal country. But then it all went wrong. The article provoked a huge reaction, especially from online readers using www.irishtimes.com which is read by many Irish people around the world. Here's a flavour of their e-mail reactions sent to Brendan.
JOHN IN ALICE SPRINGS, AUSTRALIA: I left Ireland in 1970 – haven't been back to live. Got permanent residency for my mom in 2006 – when I sold her little house [in Ireland] the solicitor tried to help himself to €5,000 extra from the sale . . . Tried to get €200 grant for my 85-year-old uncle – money provided by the Government but disbursed by an NGO – still waiting since last April . . . The list goes on – any society controlled by priests, bankers, solicitors and favoured merchants, as in rural Ireland, is stuffed. So I haven't been back to live.
ANNE, IRELAND: I hope you manage to stay here for Ireland's sake. We need people like you to stay and be a force for change. I believe that so many of Ireland's best citizens now are the ones who left in the 1980s and returned, they see the place much more clearly than those who never left. I loved your piece of writing!!! Please stay!
PAUL, SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE IRELAND: Exceptional article Brendan and right on the button. I emigrated in 1989 and didn't go back, but it could have happened very easily. It's now a genuinely scary thought. It's the disparity between the "haves" and the "have nots" that makes it all so despairing. The underhandedness. Above all though the appallingly inadequate and dangerous health system.
PATRICK, NEW YORK: A truthful and descriptive article. I am an MFA student on Long Island. I emigrated from Ireland in 1970 and didn't/couldn't risk going home. You, on the other hand, should be congratulated on your decisions and your thoughtful perspective. I hope and pray it will work out for you and Ireland and that America can again show the way. I have my doubts though.
DES, NEW YORK: Well and beautifully said, Brendan. I have been back to Ireland a lot, especially in recent years. You might have been reading my mind when you wrote the passages beginning: "We blinked when we saw the old and infirm racked up like refugees on trolleys in hospital waiting rooms, enduring conditions that would be embarrassing in the developing world." The pharaoh's dream, seven fat and seven lean, forgotten. I've shouted at relatives, but they still voted for the cute hoors. Since the '90s, those boyos never were a government – they just played one on television.
ROBERT, ITALY: It pains me to see what has happened to Ireland. There were idiots running the country during the boom who actually believed they were responsible for the economic success and as you put it "they did not save for a rainy day". Instead, they lined their own pockets and those of their their builder friends . . . I met an Irish American who worked for an Irish-American contact group on a flight from Rome to Dublin in the early '90s and he told me that I would not believe the amount of US$ waiting on the sidelines to support the peace process.
What will happen? At least 20 per cent unemployment as most US corporations will pull out. We are throwing money into a black hole by bailing out the banks and economic collapse is possible.
MARION, CALIFORNIA: I am an Irish emigrant who has lived in San Francisco for over 50 years. Your article truly resonated with me. I was homesick for too many years but now, when I return for visits, I am appalled at the general lack of courtesy and manners, the foul language I hear in buses, the Hollywoodisation of the young women, not to mention the heavy drinking/drug culture of the young. Congratulations on your beautifully written article.
MARIE, IRELAND: Your article rings true to myself, my husband and so many of my family and friends who returned to Ireland in the past 3-4 years . . . We, like yourself, ploughed our life savings into our home. We have three young children who are crammed into classes of 30+. We wait six months to see overpaid consultants when one of our children has an illness . . . We should all take to the streets like the French and voice how we really do feel. Unfortunately, our fat cats of politicians - and yes, they certainly did drink the cream over the last 15 years – don't care enough. They are taking away from our children, the very people who will run our country when the current politicians are in their senior years.
JACKIE, CALIFORNIA: Your article put everything into perspective for me. I came to San Jose in 1989 with a husband and two kids, wasn't easy leaving all that familiarity behind but hey, it seems now we are the lucky ones for not jumping ship and going back home after one of my crying sessions and wondering "did we make a mistake?" While we are all wrapped in this recession for the foreseeable future, I still believe there is more scope here for the light at the end of the tunnel than at home. Keep writing!
SEÁN, CANADA: Great article . . . I departed in 1983 . . . and we returned finally to Ireland in 2000 where [my wife and I] had any number of offers. Having had our 1st son in 2004 we started to feel that this was not the right place to bring up the lad, cost of creches, pain of commuting, general cost of living plus we could not afford a decent house in an area we would want to actually live. It was also glaringly obvious that the Government was spending as quick as the money came in and all the signs were that this break-neck pace was finite and we did not want to be around when the crash came . . . OK I miss the family, the GAA and those wild rugby weekends but overall the move [to Canada] was for the best.
ANGELINE, UNITED STATES:I emigrated to the US in 1957 to find a better life than the one lived under de Valera's government. For 50 years I have wondered what my life would have been like had I returned to Éire, the land of by birth, which offered only bread and water to poor families like mine back in those terrible times. Sadly the same old scenario has been rekindled by similar strokers.
LAURA, IRELAND: I emigrated in 1988 to the USA and spend 12 years between New York and California. Then the Celtic Tiger struck and [I] returned . . . I entered the Civil Service and am now facing a 7 per cent pay cut in the next few weeks. I have two young sons, born in America and whom I support financially on my own and now its starts all over again. Recession and all that comes with it. Unfortunately I feel too old and tired to up and leave again. What a huge disappointment and no-one held accountable for the mess the country is in but that's nothing new . . .
MICHAEL, IRELAND: I too fell into that trap. Twenty-seven years in New York and pumped all my savings in a business that now looks like it will close. I was in NY last week trying to drum up old contacts for employment. We were all duped.
PAUL, GERMANY: Like you, I left Ireland in the early '80s because there was nothing doing at home. For a few years, I seriously considered returning from Germany where I had painstakingly built up a good life, but for various reasons it didn't work out. In hindsight, all I can say is: 'there but for the grace of God' . . . What really brought home to me the fact that nothing had really changed was the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank – a clear case of the lads looking after their own at the expense of the general population . . .
JOHN, IRELAND: I agree with you Brendan, maybe you should re-emigrate, it's all you are good for!