Ireland and Migration in the Twenty-First Century by Mary Gilmartin

Author:Mary Gilmartin [Gilmartin, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Political Science, Emigration & Immigration, History & Theory
ISBN: 9781784996574
Google: 1XW5DwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B06X1BNVJ9
Goodreads: 51868739
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2015-07-29T10:21:00+00:00

Source: Adapted from GAA 2014.

Table 5.2 Total player transfers between GAA clubs by origin and by destination, 2004–13

Source: Adapted from GAA 2014.

On one level, then, the GAA transfer records provide an interesting insight into the patterns of movement of young men. Through these records, we get a sense of where players move to and from, and we also get a sense of both established and new destinations for players as migrants. These records corroborate the changing patterns of migration from Ireland identified by the CSO, but also provide more local and regional information. It is not unusual, for example, to see clusters of players transferring from the same small club in rural Ireland to the same club in urban Britain or North America, at the same time. Movements like these help to give rise to the stories of crisis at local level, which are then translated to the national scale. Yet, the reasons for international migration are varied. For example, McAnallen et al.have highlighted the increase in the numbers of Irish people attending British universities from the 1970s onwards. This included students from Northern Ireland, who moved to Britain for a variety of reasons. They describe these migrants as a ‘temporary diaspora’ (McAnallen et al. 2007: 402), a phrase similar to that used by Hassan. He suggested that Irish migrants in Europe are ‘temporary emigrants. … [M]ost are well paid, mobile professionals working in the banking, finance, IT and recruitment sectors’ (Hassan 2007: 393). Equally, the transfer statistics also show a consistent international movement of people from clubs outside Ireland to clubs in Ireland. In 2013, for example, over 300 players transferred from clubs in Britain, the vast majority moving to clubs in Ireland. While players do not necessarily transfer back to their original club, they do return to the country, though not at the same rate that was evident during the Celtic Tiger era.

The focus on rural clubs and international migration masks the other important stories that are highlighted by the transfer statistics. The first is the internal migration of players, and the extent to which clubs in rural areas have consistently been losing players to clubs in urban areas. For example, while Dublin clubs recorded a net gain from transfers each year, clubs in other counties, e.g. Kerry and Mayo, but also counties in the North of Ireland such as Tyrone, Down and Armagh, were recording growing net losses. The second is the extent to which the records show migration from Northern Ireland, particularly to Britain. While this may be understood as a form of internal migration, the specific issues faced by people from Northern Ireland living in Britain mean that it is not an unproblematic movement (Ní Laoire 2002). Yet, its classification as internal migration means that it receives limited attention. The third is the level of return migration: in many ways, it is the fall in return migration rather than the rise in the overall levels of migration that is the most significant change as a consequence of the recession.

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