Who could have predicted at the beginning of 2016 what unexpected surprises lay ahead for the world - and the Irish abroad - this year?
The election of Donald Trump and the Brexit referendum result sent shock waves through Irish communities in the US and UK, and raised serious uncertainties about the future status of immigrants - including the Irish - in the two most significant destinations for Irish people. We were inundated with reaction from our readers in both countries at the time, and the resulting articles both feature in the top 20 most-read Irish Times Abroad stories of the year (see below for the full list).
Irish emigration numbers have been falling for several years now, but 2016 was the year where we saw a definite turning of the tide; 21,000 Irish people came back from abroad, up a whopping 74 per cent on the previous year. Stories about returning to live in Ireland are consistently well-read online; the top-20 list features six about moving home.
One of the biggest domestic stories of the year was the intensifying calls to repeal the eigth amendment, and the Irish abroad joined the movement by organising demonstrations and support groups around the world.
The Irish Times coverage of the Irish overseas also changed in 2016, to reflect the developing nature of the Irish diaspora. In November, Generation Emigration expanded to become Irish Times Abroad, a bigger site containing a broader range of news, features and first-person stories.
The new Global Irish Media Fund allowed us to send Irish Times journalists abroad to gather stories about the Irish diaspora, and they returned with some fascinating reports, several of which feature in our most-read list. Rosita Boland met Irish-Americans in Boston who have never been to Ireland to hear what they imagine the Emerald Isle would be like; Davin O'Dwyer met some of Silicon Valley's most successful Irish techies; Lorna Siggins and Frank Miller travelled to Montserrat to document the Caribbean island's Irish roots on St Patrick's Day; Erin McGuire joined Irish women's groups in Canada who are helping to forge both business and social connections; Clifford Coonan flew around Asia visiting emerging Irish communities in Singapore, Macau and Beijing; Martin Doyle and Rachel Collins produced a special edition of the Magazine focusing on Ireland's cultural diaspora; Derek Scally attended the European GAA Championships; and I travelled to Perth and Sydney to find out if the tens of thousands of Irish who moved there in the last decade will stay put or move "home".
Thanks to our readers for continuing to submit their stories and experiences from abroad.
The most-read stories from 2016 on Generation Emigration and Irish Times Abroad are...
[ 1. 14 Irish phrases most people won’t understand abroadOpens in new window ]
Why is it that Irish people are more inclined to speak Irish when they travel abroad? As part of our Seachtain na Gaeilge series on speaking Irish overseas, Éanna Ó Caollaí came up with a list of handy seanfhocail you can use to pass comment when you don’t want anyone around to understand what you are saying.
[ 2. Emigrating in our 50s: ‘We wish we had left Ireland sooner’Opens in new window ]
“As a man born in Ireland, I feel my country has let me down. I never wish to see the place again,” wrote John D’Arcy, who emigrated at the age of 59 with his wife to France after they both experienced years of unemployment and financial uncertainty in Ireland. “Almost all our furniture and possessions went to Oxfam. We knew it would be better for us to be poor in the French sunshine without a mortgage, with the chance of a few gigs every now and then... Our language studies improve our French every day, and Ireland and all its problems fade ever further into our rearview mirror.”
[ 3. Moving back to Ireland was as hard as emigrating to AustraliaOpens in new window ]
After four years living in Melbourne, Trudi McDonald decided it was time to return home to Ireland just before Christmas last year. She was wary of leaving her life in Australia behind, but hadn’t expected the move “home” to be difficult. “Ireland is home after all, how hard could it be?” she wrote. “As it turns out, moving home has been more difficult than moving away ever was.”
[ 4. ‘I’m in shock. I feel lost’: Irish in Britain respond to BrexitOpens in new window ]
As the world awoke on the morning of June 24th to the news that the UK had voted to leave the European Union, The Irish Times was inundated with reaction from readers Irish Times readers living in Britain, mostly expressing their shock and dismay. The selection of responses we published online was one of the most-read stories on irishtimes.com on an exceptionally heavy traffic day overall.
[ 5. How Irish-America sees IrelandOpens in new window ]
In September, Rosita Boland travelled to Boston where 21.5 per cent of the population claim Irish descent, to meet the Irish-Americans who have never been to Ireland, “to learn why their Irish heritage was so important to them and what their views were on a country they had never been to; how their lives had been shaped by a religion, culture and education that had been handed down.”
[ 6. Was I right to stay in Ireland instead of emigrating?Opens in new window ]
Most of Conor Hynes’s friends emigrated after graduating, but he decided to stay in Ireland and “ride out the recession”. As they begin to return with great professional experience, tales of adventure and bank balances he “could only dream of”, he wonders, did he make the right choice to stay behind, or has he missed out?
[ 7. Can I answer honestly about whether I’m glad to be back in Ireland?Opens in new window ]
“Are you delighted being home?” is a question Rosie Murphy has been asked a lot since she moved back from Australia. “ Should I be honest and risk insulting the person or do I smile and say, ‘Yes, it’s great’?” she wonders. “ It’s amazing how offended some people can be when I answer frankly, as if I have just said I don’t like their children.”
[ 8. ‘I didn’t feel like an emigrant leaving, but was an alien coming back’Opens in new window ]
Anne Sheeran only spent two years living overseas, and never considered herself an emigrant. So why was moving back so hard? In yet another article about the unexpected challenges of returning to live in Ireland from abroad, she says she “felt like an alien coming back”.
[ 9. In London I’m glad to be away from Ireland’s blame cultureOpens in new window ]
When Katie Walsh first emigrated to London, she told people she felt she had to leave because the Government had failed her generation and there were no jobs. But two years later, she has realised the real reason why she was impelled to go. “The reality was I was stuck in a rut and I wanted to someone to blame for why I was so unhappy.”
[ 10. Two weeks ago in London, I got a call that changed everythingOpens in new window ]
“Everyone who lives outside their own country knows some day they will get the call telling them what they don’t want to hear,” wrote Paul Breen in September, two weeks after he received that dreaded call in London informing him of his father’s sudden death in Fermanagh. “I didn’t think I’d have made this journey so soon, so suddenly. It’s one that as emigrants we always expect in our worst fears but we anticipate something in the far distance, not a moment that comes upon us all too soon like a snowfall in the autumn.”
