# Irish immigrants on the increase



## Song_Si

*Irish immigrants on the increase *
08/10/2011

*Thousands of Irish have flooded into New Zealand and not just for the rugby.*

The Wellington Regional Stadium will almost certainly turn green for today's quarterfinal, with Irish fans desperate to see the team make their first World Cup semifinal.

But with Ireland devastated by a crippling economic downturn, how did so many Irish people afford to fly across the world to watch some rugby?

Well, it seems tens of thousands were already here.

Over the past decade more than 35,000 Irish people have been granted permission to work in New Zealand. In the 2001/2002 financial year, 2273 were granted work visas, while in 2008/2009, the figure had skyrocketed to 4574.

Irishwoman Fiona Walsh is a Christchurch resident.

Walsh is an administrator of a Facebook page, with over 1500 followers, set up for Irish people living in New Zealand.

"We left Ireland in February last year, and by the time we left we were both on the dole and pretty glad to be leaving," she said. "We decided on New Zealand as there were lads from our local area who had been here before it and loved it, and we didn't want to dive into Irish-filled areas of Sydney, or Melbourne.

"I think we just wanted to meet a wider range of people, rather than walking down the street and meeting half of Cork."

Like many other Irish, she believes New Zealand is similar to home. 

"I have noticed a significant increase in numbers [of Irish] since the February quake ... I do think that there will be many more make their way to Christchurch for work in the construction area."

And certainly more Irish people could be set for our shore, with Christchurch needing thousands of construction workers for the rebuild.

The Earthquake Commission has talked of attracting Irish workers because they were skilled, spoke English, and were unemployed. It might not just be New Zealand's rugby stadiums that are turning green. 

source


----------



## Song_Si

So many NZ families would have some Irish ancestry a few generations back; including mine, who came via a generation in USA. They were Kennedys, but not _those_ Kennedys.

*Welcome to NZ!*

The Facebook page mentioned in earlier post

Here's a link to an Otago University page _The New Zealand Ireland Connection_. It states 'around 20% of New Zealanders have Irish ancestry.'

and The New Zealand Irish Directory

and some rugby supporters


> *It seems the further you get from Ireland, the more Irish you become.*
> 
> Two brothers and a cousin from Donegal, Daniel, Daniel and Kevin, bought a van in Auckland, and they’ve driven it to all the Ireland games. She's not fast, but already, they've been from Auckland all the way to Dunedin and back to Wellington.
> 
> They’ve met pretty much every Irish fan along the way - and indulging in a little bit of bad behaviour.
> 
> They're loving the beer, the craic, the girls, oh and the rugby of course, but their real mission is to get a signature from every member of the Irish rugby team on the side of the van.
> source


----------



## Song_Si

*Irish, Italians lead influx of recession refugees*
26/01/2012

*New Zealand is proving a favoured place for European immigrants trying to escape the economic downturn.
*
Italians and the Irish are leading the influx as European job markets stall.

There were 50 per cent more Irish migrants in the year till last November than in 2010 (1545 compared with 1030) and 29 per cent more Italians (160 compared with 124).

The Wellington Irish community is flourishing as the jobseekers arrive.

Accountant Catherine Gleeson, 33, said the lifestyle in New Zealand was an improvement on what she had known in Ireland.

"[In Wellington] everybody seems to have extra cash and enjoy themselves ... At home it's hard to get people out at the moment; people are losing their jobs and taking pay cuts." More of her friends at home were planning to look for work overseas.

Eoin Darby, a 26-year-old from north of Dublin, said he was laid off twice in the space of five months before deciding to move to New Zealand for work.

When he graduated from university as a quantity surveyor, about three years ago, he had no trouble finding work in Ireland, he said.

But the job market evaporated.

Mr Darby arrived in 2009 with a working holiday visa and now has a two-year work permit. He recently applied for permanent residency, and did not see himself moving back to Ireland "in the near future".

"It's dismal [in Ireland]. There's just absolutely no work at the moment in construction, and so many other industries.

"People talk about the recession in New Zealand but it's absolutely nothing compared to what's going on at home."

It was "unbelievable" how many Irish people had come to live in Wellington since he arrived.


----------



## Song_Si

saw mention of the Irish people living in New Zealand group in today's news, they had assisted Irish man Steve Redmond who yesterday completed a swim crossing of Cook Strait, from South to North Island. 12 hours 19 minutes in the water. Well done that man!



> *Swimmer crosses Cook Strait*
> 18/02/2012
> 
> Shortly before midnight Mr Redmond, 46, arrived at Mana Harbour, where he was welcomed with members of the group Irish People Living in New Zealand, who had organised his support crews as well as accommodation.
> 
> Mr Redmond, 46, is hoping to become the first person to complete the Oceans 7 Challenge, a series of open water swims which test a swimmer's mental and physical endurance.
> 
> So far Mr Redmond, owner of a tool hire business in County Cork, has completed four swims: in 2009, the English Channel, in 2010 the North Channel in Ireland, and in 2011 the Strait of Gibraltar and Catalina Channel.
> 
> Next up he hopes to continue on to complete the Moloka'i Channel in Hawaii later this month and Tsugaru Strait in Japan in June.


see also West Cork's The Southern Star


----------



## Song_Si

news item today about the Irish in New Zealand



> *Tiger Pups: New Zealand's new Irish*
> 25/03/2012
> 
> It was a chilly November afternoon in Kildorrery, County Cork, when Padraig Hanley made a life-changing decision. He was bored - tired of depending on social welfare and sick of getting out of bed at one in the afternoon only to watch daytime television. A carpetlayer by trade, he was unemployed, like so many others in Ireland. And on that particular day, he decided to leave, like so many other Irish.
> 
> full article here


----------

