Joe Duffy hit by wingnut brigade

My blood is boiling after listening to the bunch of self-righteous horrors who called in to the Joe Duffy show this week. Not one of the self-satisfied callers - many of whom had been in the US themselves - had any sympathy for a man called Gareth who was deported from the US after 20 years.

They also seemed to have very little knowledge of the current visa situation - one woman was labouring under the illusion that there was an amnesty (yes, Philomena, there was, but it happened in the early 1980s long before the new Irish began going to the US.)

Some other man said that being an undocumented immigrant was like breaking into a person's house. Another man actually said he would advocate the death penalty if that's what the US wanted.

Thankfully, Celine Kennelly, the Executive Director of the Irish Immigration Pastoral Center, was at home for her sister's wedding and called in. If not for Celine, the whole show would have been taken over by those vicious people who called in.

Celine also nailed the myths that the undocumented Irish could have sorted themselves out by now. As Celine pointed out there is no way for people to do that. Celine also added that they are seeing more and more people coming through the centres - higher numbers than have been seen in recent years.

Click here to hear the show

More bad news on jobs front in Ireland

Funny; I had just posted yesterday when someone sent me a link to this story.
No surprise to some of us but it seems as if the Independent has only just learned that there's a lot of us struggling to stay afloat these days.
The story says that 25 per cent of the current jobs are expected to be lost in construction.
And where do you think people are going to go? London's not the big magnet people think it is because the cost of living is fierce expensive. I know people spending 500 sterling A WEEK for accommodation there. Compare that with 500 dollars A MONTH for a flat in the Bronx and the numbers soon start to add up.
And those numbers mean an increase in undocumented Irish in the US.
Making a bad problem worse.

Queuing for a Living

I left school in 1982 so I know what a recession looks like - Wonder if this picture is a clue on what's happening here again? My brother-in-law was doing his plumbing apprenticeship in FAS in Louth and Monaghan until three months ago when he got laid off. He's talking about joining HIS brother in New York. His brother's been in NYC since 1996 and he can get him work in construction. My brother-in-law's said he'd be making up his mind soon. He's out of work now for 14 weeks. Can't get anything here.

Sarah Joins the 33rd County

Hi there - I am a new addition to the blogging family here on The 33rd County. My name's Sarah and I live in Co Westmeath. I have two brothers and two sisters in New York. Two of them got Morrisons and the other two didn't so you can imagine how this affects our family. I got involved in the blog because I kept posting comments - Kate's asked me to give it a go, so you'll know all my posts because they'll be signed Sarah.