Emigration nation
Sir, – The ongoing peddling by the media of the maudlin out of date shtick lamenting the incoming and outgoing of our citizens at Christmas is well past its sell-by date.
Today people emigrate from this island by choice and return by choice. Some decide to stay where they landed because they like it and not because they were coerced to leave.
Due to the Irish education system, most find well-paying employment and enjoy a good standard of living in their chosen countries.
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With modern communication all can converse and see their relatives on a daily basis. Recently, a friend whose children are having the time of their lives in Australia and New Zealand met up and spent a month touring South Africa.
A number of young people home for Christmas told me they will never return to live permanently in Ireland as they love living and working in the US – and how wonderful it is to hear this.
It’s time to consign the historic trauma and folk memory of emigration and move on to today’s opportunities afforded to our people by travel, education and choice. – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS FINN,
Co Galway.
