Achill Island Emigration, Co. Mayo, Ireland 1968
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ม.ค. 2025
- Achill is a favourite holiday destination but when the winter comes and the tourists have gone there are harsh realities for the population of the island.
There is a long tradition of emigration from Achill Island off the Mayo coast. Efforts are now being made by Islanders to stem a mass exodus as the island faces growing population decline.
Locals are now seeking government support to provide incentives for the Islanders to stay on the island.
While many tourists flock to Achill Island over the summer months, what is life on the island like during the winter months? The island is largely dependent on tourism over the summer months, but there is little or no work for the islanders outside of this and emigration has become the norm for most families on the island. Migration is accepted as a part of life.
Farming on Achill is something of a joke because the land is so poor. A cow and a calf and an acre or so of spuds makes a farmer on the island.
There’s hardly a single family on the island that doesn’t have sons, daughters or a father in England. In Dooagh, there are sixty families, 172 children. Every single father is working in England, predominantly on construction sites.
It’s the women who save the turf, look after the stock, do the men’s work.
Some women see their husbands for just a fortnight in the year, and families are growing up not knowing what it is to have a whole family.
In a way, it’s a form of divorce forced on them by circumstance.
School teacher John McNamara had an absentee father from the age of eight, having been forced to emigrate for work. John describes how his mother had to “work like a slave” while “the head of the family” was away in England.
The irony is that island life would not have survived at all were it not for emigrant remittances or “money from England”.
In an effort to put an end to this tide of emigration, the Achill Anti-Emigration Organisation has been set up and led by school teacher John McNamara. The organsiation is a parent body with representatives in each village on the island who are tasked with devising an action plan to keep the Islanders on the Achill. They are seeking the support of the government in playing their part to keep the island alive.
Cathal O’Shannon meets returned emigrants on the island who describe how they struggle to make a living and survive.
This episode of ‘Newsbeat’ was broadcast on 8 February 1968. The reporter is Cathal O’Shannon.
Some changes now! I love that these old videos bring me back fondly to my younger days.
This is a very beautiful video. It not only gives you an insight to those powerful Irishmen and Women and there tough and worthwhile ways of life. Men looking like MEN masculine, and Women hardworking providing for their families. Wherever they are now may God Bless and Protect All. Thank You kindly CRS for sharing. 🙏🇮🇪🙏
The truth is amazing, people actually went to achill in them yrs, to find work and got it. It's on the records, still important for some to continue to rewrite our Eire history. Ps keep up the great work.
And you deserve thanks for your wisdom and kind words that you wrote
I only remember him in his later years but I recognised Cathal O Shannon instantly here
Catholic as far as I know was a pilot in the ROYAL AIR FORCE for a while
Absolutely brilliant. I bet a lot of our people don't know this about our culture. I worry for the future of Irish indigenous people,our history, language,past times and traditions- especially in light of recent immigration who already seem to have more rights than what should be a protected group of people considering what we have been through. Godbless ❤💚☘️🙏
as an irish ‘indigenous’ person i know that emigration is deep in our dna. and i know that to discriminate against those who emigrate to ireland would be hypocritical against my own identity. blame the rich and elite for irelands woes, not the refugees.
@@jackobrien9185 we do sweetheart, I hear you- however this is orchestrated and manipulated by our governments, which we are holding account to for this, if you only listened. It's very different to our own plight.
@Seán Ó Laocha me ya amadán
@Seán Ó Laocha well my lineage is 100% Irish..define what I am then? I am the daughter of the most beautiful heavenly dad. My uncle is an O'Neill the king's of Eiré. My grandmother Eileen McCarthy the most famous, renounced Irish dancer who lived and my grandfather Daithí was put in a room with ten men, forced to work away from his ten children and sent all the money home. He WORKED BRO. work? heard of that? we built the freaking world and if I want to scream from the rooftops that I am an indigenous Irish woman I will. I love hard.
@Seán Ó Laocha babe if you have to ask I really can't tell you. I don't mean to be rude and I'm just passionate and wild- something that school in London tried to beat out of and humiliate me. for me it's a deep spiritual connection to the land, my people and my culture.
Such a wonderful part of the world
it is xx
@@eibhlinnichrualoai do you go there, I go often, would love to meet yous
@@tommercury3349 I would love to meet you, I'm in England at the moment but I'll be home in Cork in the summer and I plan to go xx
Looks like a fun place, and sometimes hell on Earth. They have a bridge now to the mainland so I'm sure its better there now.
Ireland is not Ireland anymore not the land I used to know.
When did they get the bridge
Sad indeed..
What a world then.
Jeez, Going For Gold got awful grim…
They should drive to the mainland and ask for refugee status . These people are hard working and it's a difficult life on achill in the winter.
He's got a bloody nerve .."nothing much to do"...yet he will, undoubtedly, spend the night, with the film crew, in the best hotel, wining and dining themselves at our expense..and not even on Achill to support their economy but big town Westport then swan around RTE until retirement doing eff all
Yeah, I also thought he was talking down to people there, never more so than when he asked the guy if he wanted the government to solve his problems for him. People living in places like Achill did more work in a day cutting turf or working as fishermen than an RTÉ reporter would do in a month.
And yet. - if he hadn't ventured into the area with the microphone in hand, people outside the area would have been none the wiser. Besides, the commentators of the day insist on a standard of professionalism that may have been regarded as arrogant.
Either way, he brought the situation to others' attention.
What has happened to beautiful Ireland. Those times may have been tough, but Ireland belonged to the Irish people then, but not now, not now 😢
@@allureofthelens8858 Ahhhh yes, “lamentation”, a word often used out of context, including now. Plans and ideas for then future, why the plan had been made, its called “Ireland 2040”, and its coming along nicely 🤣.
The Irish emigrated en mass to other countries so please don’t imply bigoted views on people who immigrate here
@@brianfitzpatrick9949 And I myself being an immigrant..!.
@@kcribin5654 😂
100%
The whole country of Ireland was a bit Grimm then with lots of Irish heading to England for work some done well and some had sad lives . I should say GB I SUPPOSE but in general it was called England by everyone
Loads of peole left Scotland to come come to England as well (Corby)
Current admin, ahh I see empty homes lets fill them...
Most often emigration was the only choice in town, yet the heart stayed at home, an immigrant was like a wandering gypsy, no place was home, not even your own home when you return back to it many years later, for the rest of your life you're a wonder always longing for home. .
Achil Abu.
Holy shite, those kids are in their 80’s now 😵💫