WHY DID SO MANY IRISH WRITERS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CHOOSE TO LIVE IN EXILE?

Sean O'Faolain

Emigration has been a fact of Irish life for over one hundred years, so it’s natural that some writers should have left Ireland too.

However there were particular reasons why many Irish writers chose exile in the decades after Independence.

In many ways, Irish society was already in the process of becoming like any other English province. The most urgent task for the leaders was to clearly formulate a new identity. They decided that it should be catholic, Irish-speaking, rural and moral, drawing its inspiration from its distant heroic past, and its traditions through the ages.

Twentieth century materialism should not be allowed to corrupt the Irish people, many of whom saw themselves as the spiritual saviours of Europe.

Irish society became less liberal; tolerant and pluralist than it had been. Then in 1929 a censorship act was passed. As a result, any writer whose intellectual or moral views offended the defenders of the new Irish state was banned. This state of affairs lasted, gradually improving, for forty years.

More information: Irish Central

The list of banned books reads like a catalogue of the classics of Irish and European literature.

Many Irish writers chose to live in exile abroad, where they could be published and find an audience for their works.

Source: Why do the Irish? by Fiana Griffin

 

There is only one admirable form of the imagination: the imagination that is so intense that it creates a new reality, 

that it makes things happen. 

Sean O'Faolain

WHY DO SO MANY IRISH EMIGRATE?

Irish emigrants arriving to Ellis Island, New York

Almost 50% of those born in Ireland since 1851 have emigrated. Emigration has become a way of life, with Irish communities well established in many parts of the world.

There has always been some degree of emigration from Ireland but the numbers rose dramatically during and after the famine of the 1840’s.

Some people emigrate because their education and qualifications make it possible for them to have a better life in other countries. The Irish have less spending money per person than any other EC country. Some want to escape from a conservative intellectual and social climate.

More information: University College Cork

Most people emigrate reluctantly, however, because they cannot find employment in Ireland. Even with about 40,000 people emigrating every year from a total population of 3.5 million, almost one in five of the workforce remains unemployed.

When other countries were going through the Industrial Revolution, developing urban centres which could provide employment for thousands, the Irish economy was almost entirely agricultural. Ireland entered the twentieth century with just a handful of industries.

The Government tries to attract foreign industry and develop local existing industries but there doesn’t appear to be any immediate prospect of a solution to the problem.

Source: Why do the Irish? by Fiana Griffin

I know so many Irish musicians. They're all over, because there has been so much emigration from Ireland. Like the Jews. 

Daniel Barenboim