DURING the 1990s, I had the privilege of travelling to New York on an annual basis to cover the St Patrick’s Dayparade, meeting Carlovians who were living there and telling their stories.
Over the years, I met some lovely people.
They couldn’t do enough for me. All had made good lives for themselves and their families, but some regretted emigrating.
One such man was the late ‘Big’ Paddy Hayden. And boy did he live up to his name. He was a giant of a man, with an equally big personality.
No matter who you were, if you said you were from Carlow, there was nothing the man wouldn’t do for you.
Paddy was an exception to the rule because when he emigrated in his mid-40s he actually had a job.
However, he was anxious to provide a better life for his children, so he took the bold decision to move lock, stock and barrel to the US.
He told me that he first went to Philadelphia, where he worked as a barman, trying to save as much as he could in order to send home money so that his wife and family could join him.
Within two years, they were all with him – lovely people.
I met them at a Carlow Association dinner dance one year. In particular, his son Tom, who also recently passed away, kept abreast of events in Ireland and, at one stage, was Sinn Féin’s spokesman in the US.
While Paddy was happy that his children all did well for themselves, he told me that every night he went home and visualised himself walking over Graigue Bridge, meeting old friends and generally having the craic.
He must have travelled across the Atlantic more times than most because he returned to Carlow at every opportunity. His home was in New York but his heart was always in Carlow.
There are hundreds of thousands of people like Paddy Hayden scattered all over the world. Many returned home during the short-lived economic upturn during the noughties but others did not.
Sadly, some of those who came back to Ireland now have to face emigration all over again.
I called to Carlow Garda Station one night last week to pick up a garda vetting form. I left it until after 7pm, thinking that would be a quiet time. But I was wrong.
When I arrived, there were four people ahead of me. Another six arrived while I was there. Everyone except me was making enquiries about their passport.
I happened to know two of the applicants, who told me they were going to Australia in October – not to take a year out and travel but to go in search of work.
One chap told me he had worked just two days in the past six weeks and could only be guaranteed another couple of days over the next month or so – not enough to earn a living and certainly not enough to encourage him to stay.
Another man I know, married with four children, has already gone to Australia ahead of his family – just like Paddy Hayden did all those years ago – and he is now trying to put matters in place for his family to join him.
His eldest child is 14 and the youngest is little more than a baby, but he believes there is little prospect of the jobs market improving anytime soon.
Economists are now talking of another downturn in the US economy which, if happens, will spread like wildfire to other parts of the world.
It makes you wonder how many more people will be forced to emigrate to make a living. And when the upturn comes – as it always does –will anyone still be living here to avail of it?