Fluorescent rat deserts sinking ship.

bonerm

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/I-never-thought-Id-leave-Ireland-for-the-American-dream--118159014.html?page=1

As of today I am officially a statistic.

I read on a daily basis about 1,000 people a week leaving the Emerald Isle in search of greener pastures for a greener future, but to be personally thrown into this mess is completely overwhelming.

How has it come to this?

I want out.

I am now one of the 1,000 this week.

Lately I had become nauseous at the failure of the Irish government to keep its people employed and prevent them from jumping willy nilly on great big planes to foreign lands.

With further cuts required under the IMF-EU bailout terms, I am at a loss for words. I feel suffocated, and the only means of resuscitation is coming from the Land of the Free.

I never thought I would choose to leave my beloved country because of economic factors. Nor return to education at the age of 30 in a foreign land. Nor look to better myself in the hands of an education system other than the Irish one.

Yet this is becoming the established practice. Emigration, so long the bitter wrath undergone by our ancestors, has come back to bite the younger generation with a vengeance, and we have no option but to all fall into line.

It was late at night when I got the email heralding a new life in America.

I applied on a whim last year, thinking it could be an option if things became bleak and dried up dramatically in Ireland, never really expecting them to for me.

However, I was shaking in anticipation as I clicked into the email from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York, as I now really needed to get a place in this prestigious university.

One night two and a half years ago a small group of Irish politicians gathered in Government Buildings to make the biggest financial decision in Irish history which not only crippled our country, but derailed and damaged the lives of so many of its citizens.

What happened behind those closed doors in the last days of September 2008 is one of the reasons I know Ireland can no longer offer me anything of interest in the short term. I have become restless with it all.

I have given up on the country I love so dear, in search of a new beginning, a fresh start, a different outlook on life.

Why wait in Ireland and pick up this exorbitant tab when I could be bettering myself elsewhere and increasing my chances of job prospects in the long run?

The chilling blow of departure is only softened by the fact that many of my friends are now casually dotted across the sphere, and that I will actually have good friends on arrival in New York.

What has for generations been the land of promise is where I hope I will get my next break, like generations of Irish before me.

When I saw my application for Columbia University accepted, it was not overall joy but mixed feelings that I experienced.

Who would pay my mortgage on my Irish home when I was overseas?

What about the loved ones I leave behind?

Am I doing the right thing returning to study after all these years?

But when those people most important to me urged me to look at this as an opportunity with Ireland still being in a state of limbo as the rest of the world is on the road to recovery, I knew I must take the risk.

I am a part of what they call the next generation. The next coming of Irish people ready to make a new life for themselves anywhere but Ireland.

I am going to New York where the new Irish emigrants are going to, and where the prospects of survival are much higher. Yes, the United States is in better shape than Ireland, but I’m not so stupid as to think it is thriving. There are more opportunities, opportunities I hope will come my way.

With the flow of emigration continuing out of Ireland, it doesn’t seem to be coming to an end.


I once looked at emigration as a curse; I now look at it as an opportunity, a release from the pain endured by so many.

I see Ireland’s prospects as stark whereas the prospects in America are more plentiful and appealing.

I hope by the time I finish in Columbia University that Ireland will be reasonably stable once more and in possession of the type of job that will want to lure me back.

Irish people have often tried to escape tough times by crossing the Atlantic and many have been successful. I just hope some of that luck will rub off on me.

Ireland has sucked up my positivity. I am now desperate for a taste of the American dream.

Thanks Alison for helping to fuel the artificial property bubble by paying over the odds for shoddy accommodation, then running away when it causes economic collapse.

Absurdum

state of her head lol

galwayrush

Alison did nothing wrong regarding fuelling the property bubble,she didn't cause it, she merely paid the market value at the time for the desire and need to have her own home, and good luck to her for wanting a better future.

Donkey Oaty

The chilling blow of departure...

It's an ill wind, etc.

Ostrom

Dumped from the Indo?

For as long as I live, I will never forget; 'comparing skiing resorts is like comparing two flavours of ice cream, each one has a different taste...'

Awful tool

edit: wtf Columbia?? Was she assesed on previously published material???

raymann

she writes like a five year old. seriously. its almost unreadable. i cant believe it gets past an editor.

Tonyandthewhale

"Who would pay my mortgage on my Irish home while I was overseas?" Good ****ing question.

Tahuti

Alison wrote:

What about the loved ones I leave behind?

They are about to pour scorn and derision all over you.

Renn

Need?

drunkmonkey

galwayrush wrote: »

Alison did nothing wrong regarding fuelling the property bubble,she didn't cause it, she merely paid the market value at the time for the desire and need to have her own home

I desire a Ferrari and need transport, I can't afford one, what's your point?

the_syco

She'll still owe money to the bank. If she ever comes back, she'll owe money to the bank.

She mentions "Columbia University"... I wonder where, she'll get the money for it from?

galwayrush

drunkmonkey wrote: »

I desire a Ferrari and need transport, I can't afford one, what's your point?

Read it again, it's simple to underatand.

Cheap Thrills!

See yah thicky! :pac:

Don't let the door hit you in the arse.... etc

Acoshla

School of Journalism will hopefully do her the world of good. Should possibly have considered doing that before writing all her self pitying amateur articles.

Donkey Oaty

With further cuts required under the IMF-EU bailout terms, I am at a loss for words.

We had noticed.

futonic

drunkmonkey wrote: »

I desire a Ferrari and need transport, I can't afford one, what's your point?

I accuired a ferrari on hire purchase when I could afford it, but my circumstances changed and can no longer afford the payments. Now I'm leaving the ferrari back. Whats your point?

Dozen Wicked Words

Why is she chewing a wasp?

Praetorian Saighdiuir

I love the title of this thread.


Alison O Riordan is a completely useless journo.

Cool Mo D

It's terrible seeing our best and brightest forced to emigrate.

Tonyandthewhale

This reads like a shoddy first draft of a junior cert essay. I can't understand how she ever made money writing anything.

Aldebaran

Heh, 'willy nilly'.

Aidric

Did Columbia University actually vet her application properly? Something doesn't quite add up here.

Cheap Thrills!

Cool Mo D wrote: »

It's terrible seeing our best and brightest forced to emigrate.

Hmm yeh, and Alison too.

drunkmonkey

futonic wrote: »

I accuired a ferrari on hire purchase when I could afford it, but my circumstances changed and can no longer afford the payments. Now I'm leaving the ferrari back. Whats your point?

My tax isn't paying for your ferrari but it is paying for her house when she hands it back.

Sorry to hear about your Ferrari:(

My name is URL

I applied on a whim last year, thinking it could be an option if things became bleak and dried up dramatically in Ireland, never really expecting them to for me.
...
Why wait in Ireland and pick up this exorbitant tab when I could be bettering myself elsewhere?

Urge to kill.. rising

TheZohanS

Goodnight sweet princess...

Donkey Oaty

Interesting information from the Columbia University School of Journalism website:

Full-Time M.S. Tuition and Fees 2010-11 (10 months)

Tuition $45,703
Health Service Fee $876
Standard Medical Insurance $1,778
University Fees $704
Transcript Fee (one-time fee) $95
Technology Fee (one-time fee) $1,000
Enrollment Fee (nonrefundable) $1,000
TOTAL $51,156

Including living expenses (rent, utilities, food, travel, personal) of approximately $24,050, the full-time, student budget is estimated at $75,206.

$75,206 = Euro 53,663.75

Ronan|Raven

Who the **** is this twat? boo ****ing hoo you bought an overpriced box and now have to emigrate. **** off and dont come back. thanks.

c0rk3r

Failing upwards

You gotta laugh

Renn

galwayrush wrote: »

Read it again, it's simple to underatand.

Hi Alison!

Tzetze

Alison wrote:

Who would pay my mortgage on my Irish home when I was overseas?

Dozen Wicked Words

Excerpt from email our heroine recieved, in her junk mail for some weird reason.

Dear Sir,

You don't know me, but I am dean at big America college, please forward money via Western Union to Lagos New York. See you soon.

Sincerely,

Dean Gaffney.

pixelburp

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't she still have to pay off the mortgage for the apartment whilst abroad? She may be leaving the country behind, but the country will still be sticking her for her foolish spending.

Good luck to her; her articles always made her seem like an obnoxious individual with delusions of self-entitlement, living some "Sex and the City" fantasy & beyond her means or reality. She'll be at home in New York.

Dozen Wicked Words

I wonder if she applied to the right place, I think she might end up at Bogota Tech studying drug muleing 101.

TheZohanS

pixelburp wrote: »

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't she still have to pay off the mortgage for the apartment whilst abroad? She may be leaving the country behind, but the country will still be sticking her for her foolish spending.

Good luck to her; her articles always made her seem like an obnoxious individual with delusions of self-entitlement, living some "Sex and the City" fantasy & beyond her means or reality. She'll be at home in New York.

Well someone will have to pay the mortgage. Judging by her past articles I would hazard a guess that she'll rent out her apartment and some benefactor will pay the shortfall. I would also hazard a guess that it's the same benefactor that is paying for her education and board abroad, most likely her parents.

She's a very lucky girl indeed to be in a position to up and leave to further her education, and I hope this further education will improver her journalistic skills along with her social skills as her journalistic writing to date has been quite lacking and has frequently portrayed her in a very, very negative light.

Good or bad reason, I hate trolltastic thread titles.

Daisy!

Good riddance to her! Sure God love us :rolleyes:

Blobby George

Lulz. Poor America.

Super-Rush

Sorry but no.

Closed.