Great Speeches and a great speech about the emigrants that left Ireland with cardboard suitcases

Posted on June 21, 2010 at 10:47 PM

Was looking at the Oireachtas Website the other day and found a little gem on it, for those that like myself, like looking back through the historical debates.

http://www.oireachtas.ie/parliament/education/historicaldebatesandspeeches/

The link to this link is on the menu on the home page under the heading Education and ‘Great Historical Debates and Speeches'.  The speeches include the Dail Debate on the Treaty with Michael Collins, Erskine Childers and Austin Stack among the contributors.  A speech that could be included is one made by Emmet Stagg T.D about the plight of Irish Emigrants to Britain on the 28 January 2004.  There was much commentary at the time that it was a great speech by Emmet, and I remember hearing about it at the time and think I may have heard an extract on the radio.

I found the official transcript of Emmet's speech by going into the option on the top menu on the home page of the Oireachtas website, ‘Oireachtas Business’, then into debates, the historical debates and I did a search under Mr. Stagg and Emigrants.  I attach his speech below, and it reads as a very good speech and that is the case even without the emotion that would have shown in Emmet's voice as he spoke at the time.

From time to time there are good speeches in the Dail, but mostly those are the ones the media miss, because they are not the set speeches that the media tend to attend in greater numbers, which in turn are usually spoken from a script, written by an advisor or civil servant. Emmet’s speech on the other hand was spoken from the heart, and his sentiments are shaped by his own experience of family members emigrating to Britain from Mayo.

Dáil Éireann - Volume 578 - 28 January, 2004

Mr. Stagg: I thank the Labour Party Leader, Deputy Rabbitte, and colleagues for focusing on our forgotten brothers and sisters languishing as social outcasts in London, Birmingham, Coventry, Liverpool and every other major town and city in the United Kingdom.

I was born in 1944 into a family of 14 children on a 15 acre farm in County Mayo, which was typical of families in the area at the time. Ten of the family emigrated. I remember the late 1950s and 1960s and want to remind the House of the reality of the time. In de Valera's great Republic — his picture hung in the kitchen of my house — dominated by an arrogant clergy who visited regularly, there was widespread poverty. We had no running water, showers, toilets, or electricity and had a limited diet. Meat was seldom on the table. Tuberculosis was rampant. There was a savage school regime and unaffordable fees if one was to go to second level school. Third level education was for doctors' sons. The only work was with larger farmers, as shop assistants or as skivvies in the houses of the gombeenmen or the remnants of the gentry. I could write a book on that alone. All they paid were slave wages and in some cases none. One was lucky to earn one's keep. Young men and women in de Valera's Republic had no option. They were forced to emigrate to get work simply to survive. That was some Republic.

The process of going abroad took some time and a lot of heartrending discussion before the decision was made. There was no option; a son or daughter had to emigrate. The first one to go was the hardest. A cardboard suitcase was purchased and all they brought with them were two shirts, some socks, working clothes, shoes and minor personal belongings. A going away “do” was held the night before. It was not called a party. It was more like a wake. I remember a succession of them. The next morning there was the leaving of the house, the hackney to the railway station, the tears and misery heaped on misery. The station in Claremorris was filled to capacity with other victims of the great Republic. There were more tears and heartbreak.

A 16 or 17 year old raw green youth was despatched into the unknown. He was a child who had to face the foreign unknown without a helping hand. A new and dreadful reality then dawned. That brother or sister was gone forever. A new form of death had entered into our being. A hole had been created in our family and community. Our small community of seven houses eventually emptied completely. Our great Republic forced them out in tens of thousands. They travelled in cattle boats, stayed in doss houses, queued in the early morning frost for a chance of a job and were paid in pubs. They laid the sewers, built the roads and houses, drove the buses and, as nurses, cared for the sick. Most came back when they could afford it. They all yearned for home.

It is estimated that this tranche of enforced migrants numbered 800,000 persons. It is also estimated that they sent home €3.5 billion in present values. I was a beneficiary of their generosity and kindness and of their not forgetting us — the ones at home. We bought clothes, shoes, food and books and paid school fees with the money they sent home. It allowed us to break out of the black hole of poverty. It broke the damned cycle of poverty and ignorance, but our hearts broke because of their absence. Tonight in our national Parliament, I thank them on behalf of the very many they did not forget. I am ashamed it has taken me so long to do so and I am resolved that we will now remember them and do so in a meaningful way.
The ways of assisting the emigrants are set out clearly in the report of the task force on policy regarding emigrants, Ireland and the Irish Abroad.

Under the heading “Action Plan to Meet these Objectives”, the following points are listed regarding services to the Irish abroad:
— The promotion of increased co-operation between statutory and voluntary agencies in Ireland and overseas, and the Irish abroad;
— The allocation of increased financial assistance to voluntary agencies and programmes abroad which provide welfare services to Irish people who are vulnerable or excluded
— The provision of financial assistance towards the cost of Irish community, cultural and sporting activities abroad where these help people to express the Irish dimension of their identity
— The commissioning of a study to identify the potential of the Internet and to build a communications hub to assist the Irish at home and abroad
— The establishment of an awards scheme to recognise exceptional or distinguished service by Irish people abroad
The plan also lists recommendations regarding services to returning emigrants, to which Deputy Cowley referred.
The last point listed under the heading “Structures and Resources” states: “A significant increase in the level of official funding for emigrant services. A figure of €18 million is proposed for 2003 building to €34 million in 2005”.
Given the existence of the action plan, we no longer have the excuse of flailing about not knowing what to do. The report gives us a clear roadmap stating what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, how it should be done and the money required. This year, €18 million was to be provided, which is to grow to €34 million by 2005. However, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, as a member of a Government awash with money, ignored the report after having previously accepted it and provided a miserable €4 million, although the report states that an initial sum of €18 million should be provided. For clear ideological reasons, he has set other priorities and provided only a quarter of the target sum. I demand on behalf of those affected that the Minister honour his pledge and do so now.

We must acknowledge the social, economic and political success of many who were forced to emigrate, as well as their efforts, in spite of minimal assistance, to provide for the less well off among them. I am aware of the huge efforts required to provide a day centre for old Irish emigrants in Coventry. I praise the work of Safe Home Ireland and of Deputy Cowley and his volunteers, who do a great job but who could do so much more if given the resources.

We forced and starved our young people out of this Republic with nothing except cardboard suitcases. Now we are leaving them old, homeless and alone, to be buried as paupers in cardboard coffins. We have the resources to address this. We also have the roadmap, and when we implement it we can then call ourselves a Republic.

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