Leanna Byrne | Deputy Editor
Alex Mann [10 Good Reasons To Go]
We are lining up in our thousands to escape the hand the jaded jobs market has dealt us.
As students we all know somebody living in London, Paris or further afield. In fact, moving away from Ireland after finishing university seems to be part of the graduating process for most students. Invites to going away parties are rampant during May, September and December. Last year, the UK was the most popular destination with with 19,000 people moving there. The rest of the EU was the second choice for emigrants as 24,000 of Irish moved to the continent. Our generation has become more and more disillusioned with the hand that has been dealt to them, so for many of us the only option is to get up and go where the jobs are.
Right now, Alex Mann is living the American dream. Along with two other graduates, Dermot Markey and the notorious Tiernan Kennedy, their business plan was the only foreign team accepted onto the General Electric/Omnicom’s OMD summer incubator programme. Now they have their own company in New York with an office on Broadway.
Could they offer us a sweeter deal than that in Ireland?
“I probably could have pursued setting up my own company in Ireland, but the more I think about it the more I know I never would have attempted to set it up in Ireland,” explained Alex. “There is just something about Irish people’s attitude, in general about startups. They’re not taken seriously in many quarters.”
In New York, Alex’s dream of becoming an entrepreneur became reality. In Ireland banks are not willing to put faith in start-ups. Reports of over-prudent banks turning their back on Irish business are being discussed every day, but nothing is done about it. The alternative is to take a chance in “the city where anyone can mould their destiny”.
“Anyone with a visa straight out of college can get a job. If you impress you’ll get sponsored to stay here, which is what you’ll want after a week of being here!”
You cannot exactly say the same about the grim streets of Dublin.
As a Tralee native, he feels that “Ireland just doesn’t have enough people and it certainly doesn’t have enough young people left”. It’s not just about opportunity, it’s about the lifestyle and the adventure behind it all. In New York, Alex does not have to suffer the repetitive Irish social/nightlife scene. He doesn’t yearn for the drunken gangs of Harcourt and Camden Street when events in the Big Apple are fluid and exciting; a social scene unreliant on drink and dancing in dives.
Although Alex admits that the ‘city that never sleeps’ can be lonely, in his mind it’s a challenge he has to overcome.
“[New York is] an opportunity that cannot be passed up and sacrifices have to be made to leave Ireland, even if that includes leaving friends and loved ones behind”.
Katie Greene [1000 Tiny Reasons Not To]
Last September emigration rose to a record high as 35,800 in the 15-24 age group emigrated. Many of our friends have graduated only to find their degree offered them no prospects. It’s only purpose has been to be dressed in a pretty frame hanging on the wall. They feel worthless because the employers are now setting their standards higher. An undergraduate degree is the new Leaving Certificate. It’s simple – if you want a job you either need contacts or a Masters. But who’s going to pay for it? Not the government; not anymore.
So what is left here for us? A recent Trinity graduate, Katie Greene, told me about 1000 tiny things that are keeping her here.
Katie Greene has been in the year ahead of me in school for twelve years. In Gaelcholáiste Reachrann she was the President of our Student Council, part of the English, Irish and French debating teams and always had great hair. Katie has just graduated with a joint honours degree in Business and Sociology after studying BESS for four years. Any employer would be more than lucky to have her.
The only difference between Katie and thousands of other graduate students is that she has decided to keep faith. She never planned on going abroad because even though job opportunities are few, and there are many reasons to go, it is the little things that are keeping her here.
Katie explained to me that most BESS students progress into banking and finance. A lot of her friends went abroad, mainly to London, or some took australian gap years to go travelling around the country. That wasn’t for her.
“I don’t want to echo Dorothy or anything,” said Katie. “But there’s no place like home. I’m a real home bird.”
Despite the fact that everyone has a lot less money than before, Katie still manages to have coffee and lunch at least twice a week “just because”. She’s always been very social, and her friends have always been very important to her. In school she was loved by everyone in her year. In the mornings some of the guys in the year ahead of me used to get off the bus a stop early to call in for Katie to have orange juice and a chat. After that they would all walk to school together. It’s friends like that who are hard to leave.
Katie wants to travel and see the places that she wants to see, but she will always call Ireland home. She’d miss the fact that tea is the beginning to every solution, going out “just for one” and staying out till 6am, the nights out, the nights in, the Dublin music scene, and the Irish rugby team. New York or Paris doesn’t serve our native delicacies like 3 in 1’s, chicken fillet rolls or Manhattan popcorn. Nowhere else in the world would one consider getting a taxi from College Green to Wexford Street because “it’s such a trek”. If Katie was in London she wouldn’t be able to go on college nights out organised by the class rep, even though they have all graduated. Nowhere else in the world has any of that.
Home is where the craic, the memories and the heart are. Katie is determined not to be forced to leave any of this anytime soon.
