One small town, six young men and the long goodbye. . .
Anita Guidera meets the twenty-somethings forced to leave Ireland in the hope of getting a job in Australia
Saying their goodbyes: Ramelton lads Kristofer McFadden, Brian Pyper, Ben Mooney, Barry Mooney, Adrian Toland and David Moore before setting off for Australia. Photo by Declan Doherty
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At 6.40am last Friday morning, six young men from one small town in Co Donegal boarded a plane bound for Sydney, Australia.
A week from now, they will be joined by two more lads from Ramelton, a town with a population of less than 1,500.
Across Donegal, bars are witnessing a resurgence of the so-called American wakes of the 1970s and 80s, except this time the destination is Australia.
Joining the tens of thousands of Irish emigrants Down Under last week, Ben (23) and Barry (21) Mooney, Adrian Toland (24), Kristofer McFadden (20), David Moore (20) and Brian Pyper (20), had mixed emotions.
Their final week in Ramelton was marked with nights out with pals, meals out with family and the trail of visiting aunts, uncles and relatives in this tightly knit community.
"You don't know who you are saying your last, last good-byes to. It's the older ones you are thinking about," said Ben, as four of the lads gathered for a drink in the thatched Conway's Bar days before their departure. For Ben, leaving represented a golden opportunity to break the devastating cycle of long-term unemployment.
"It has been torture. I am just fed up all the time. You feel worth nothing. The only day you want to get up is Wednesday and that's to collect the dole.
"I tried to get on courses but it was a waste of time. I am happy to get away, in a way, because I want work but I am sad to be leaving because this is home," he said.
His younger brother Barry, who has been unsuccessful in securing a job after a college education, agreed that it was an opportunity they had to seize.
"The job prospects just aren't good. I've been doing the odd shifts in bars but that is it, so in a way we have no choice.
"But it's not like going to London where a fiver would get you home.
"This is a bigger thing," he said.
Adrian Toland admitted he would have stayed at home if a job managing a bar had materialised.
"That would have been me. Full-time work would have been great but it didn't work out.
"I'm looking forward to this very much. I have a cousin who went three years ago with no intention of staying but he wouldn't come back now.
"The older ones are telling us if they didn't have the ties they would have been away a long time ago. We are young and we don't have ties.
"It's hard to say whether we will be back," he said.
Construction worker David Moore decided to make the move when he saw his friends were leaving. His brother has been in Australia for the past two years.
"Whenever these boys booked their tickets, I thought 'what better time to go than when all my friends are going'. I was afraid to be left behind.
"But I have to leave my two nannies, and that's hard," he said.
He added happily that his parents hope to travel to Australia to celebrate his 21st birthday with him in July.
For Ramelton, which has a proud tradition of strong community, their departure is seen as a huge loss.
"There's a pantomime coming up and they won't be here for it. The town's festival is in July and they would have helped out at that. They have gone through the youth project and some of them were helping out as leaders. The town is losing out big time. We are just going to be left with an older population," said Jean Winston, director of the local pantomime society.
Down the west coast, in the village of Strandhill, Co Sligo, two young women who left for Australia a year ago are home but making plans to leave again. They were among a group of upwards of 15 young people between the ages of 18 and 25 who had left.
More have since followed.
Reflecting back on the year, Sarah Carroll (21), who surprised her family with an unscheduled Christmas visit, has had the time of her life and can't wait to leave again.
After six months waitressing in Brisbane, she headed up the Queensland coast in a hired bus with 10 friends from Sligo.
'I know it's good meeting new people but it was really nice getting to see all those places with close friends from home," she said.
She also worked on a banana farm to qualify for a second year working visa.
Now she is planning to return, this time to Melbourne, although she is hoping to find different work this time around.
"Waitressing is good money but it is hard and you are working a lot of the time that your friends are out socialising," she said.
Later in the year, she plans to head to New Zealand for a further year of work and travel.
"It was great to come home but I don't have any plans to return for good any time soon. There is not that much left here," she said.
Her friend, Rachel Mulrooney (22), found work in a photographic studio after arriving in Sydney, in October 2009. She returned to Strandhill the following April when her father became ill and has remained home since.
"I have just finished a six-month hairdressing course with FáS but there is no work.
"I joined a gym just to have a structure to my day and to have something to get up for in the morning," she said.
She is now saving to return later in the year, this time to New Zealand to join Sarah.
But unlike before, she is determined not to repeat the backpacker experience.
"I wouldn't be able to struggle like that again. I was in one house in Bondi with 20 other people. It was all great fun but after a while you get sick of living on Pot Noodles and pasta. It is hard to live on the money you are making but I had fantastic fun as well," she said.
She stressed how disheartening it was for people to go to college and have nothing at the end of it.
"It is a lot of waste and it's sad for the mums and dads who watch their sons and daughters go away. It leaves a little hole in their heart," she said.
- Anita Guidera
Irish Independent
