About ten years ago, while I was working in Israel for a Swiss investment bank, one of my Israeli colleagues asked me about the Irish diaspora.
He noted that, wherever he went on business – whether New York, London or Sydney – it seemed to him that there were always Jews and Irish involved in the business deals. He continued that Israel would be nothing without international Jewish support. He wondered how we, the Irish in Ireland, used our own global tribe.
It was difficult to give him a concrete answer because it was clear that we did not, in any organised way, use the great, untapped resource that is our diaspora. On an ad hoc basis, there were deep, deep links but, as a state, we didn’t embrace the Irish abroad at all. The Israeli thought this was a missed opportunity, which we might regret.
The diaspora want to be part of our story and we, the homeland of the tribe, seem to turn our backs on them. With so many prominent Irish people in positions of power around the world, this is quite an oversight. The Israelis got me thinking about how the economy – and business – works.
Three years ago, at the World Economic Forum in Davos high up in the Swiss Alps, it struck me again just how many people of Irish decent – not just from the US, but also from Britain, Australia and even Argentina – were movers and shakers in the world of business. The annual Davos conference gives many of these people a chance to meet up, exchange ideas and make deals. Watching how this worked, I thought that an ‘Irish Davos’, using the power and network of the tribe for the benefit of the homeland, would be a concept worth exploring.
After discussions with the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Global Irish Economic Conference at Farmleigh on September 18 will be this Irish Davos conference. It is aimed at harnessing some of the ideas and networks of the diaspora, to come up with plans for the long-term recovery and positioning of the country. I say long-term because it will not solve the banking crisis, the property market collapse or the fact that we are now facing a period of debt deflation, but if we really listen to those who have been successful abroad, we can only gain.
In fact, one of the reasons Ireland is in this mess is because we thought that we knew best. We thought that we were the smart ones – to use that nauseating phrase which was bandied about in the mania years, ‘‘the envy of Europe’’.
The narrow sectoral influences of vested interests got us into this predicament. The conference is trying to change that, to make us look at issues more globally and to do so with people who are familiar with us and emotionally bonded to us. They are our networks, our sales force, the people who maintain our brand – and they can be of great service to us, if we let them.
Because they want to be part of our story, we can fill a gap that they feel in terms of their heritage. The time has come for Ireland to be the recharging battery for Irishness around the globe. If the recession makes us think seriously about our role in the world, if it serves to help us re-imagine and reinvent the country, then it might not all be bad news.
And re-imagining is what we need.
Think about the potency of a global tribe in a world where communication is so easy. Today, we can keep in touch instantaneously and we can Skype each other for free. Immediately, your contacts and experience become my contacts and experience; and if you don’t know someone who can be of benefit to a certain project, your network does.
In a globally interconnected world, the country with the best network has a huge comparative advantage. Think about the power of the diaspora in a world where communication is immediate. The world is undergoing a communications revolution that will obliterate national power as we have come to know it. It will mean that a nation’s message becomes blurred, and the power of being sociable – sometimes in the past portrayed as a weakness, and the antithesis of the stoicism and aloofness of power – will dominate.
The world has 1.4 billion plugged-in internet users – and that number is growing by 250million a year. There are three billion mobile phones in the world, with another billion coming in the next three years. Ten hours of video are being uploaded onto YouTube every minute of every day.
This connectivity revolution, where the best salespeople for ideas will be individuals playing a giant game of ‘pass it on’, is ideally suited to dramatic initiatives, and the diaspora is a natural sales force for the country.
The winners will be those countries which have access to the best brains, are open to ideas and allow individuals to travel freely. We should be promoting much freer travel between Ireland and America for people of Irish heritage; we could see our potential workforce increase from four million to 70 million.
These people would not have to move here – although some undoubtedly would – but by telling them that Ireland is open to them and vice-versa, you create the network necessary to compete.
If we just consider the Irish in America, the commercial power of the diaspora is irrefutable. Of the 34 million Irish-Americans registered in the 2005 census, a third have bachelors’ degrees or higher. That’s over 11 million graduates.
More than 30 million Irish-Americans have a high school diploma. As 91 per cent of the total Irish-American population has completed secondary education, our American cousins are considerably better educated than us. Even today, only seven out of ten Irish children finish the Leaving Cert. Some 40 per cent of Irish-Americans are either professionals or work in management, and 72 per cent are homeowners.
The average income of an IrishAmerican household is $53,000.This puts them at the top of the ethnic league after the Jews, in terms of education, income and social class. Close to 900,000 English speaking Irish-Americans speak a second language. Their average age is 37,but there are over ten million Irish-Americans under 18.
This is an extraordinary reservoir of talent. The Irish-Americans define themselves as Irish; and while they are American, they also have a deep affection for, and affiliation to, this country. The 3.8 million Irish-Canadians, the 1.9 million Irish-Australians and the half-million Irish-Argentines have similar profiles in terms of education and income.
It’s time to re-imagine the country so that we become the guardian of the exiled Irish. This is why the Global Irish Economic Conference in Farmleigh on September 18 is a great start to what could be the next phase of our country’s development, where by Ireland reaches out to the diaspora. In the midst of the present despair, we should try to imagine a greater Ireland that transcends geography.
Sounds like a great idea, but perhaps consider why all these Irish Americans/Australians/Canadians etc are where they are now. Is it not the case that they and there forefathers left Ireland to find a better life/living elsewhere, and the generations they have created are quite aware of the Ireland they left many years ago? What chance of them getting involved with the current Irish economy, its a bit like inviting them to a pub for a drink, but there is no beer. Anyway, Ireland currently has a wealth of overseas talent within, but I fear the influx of East Europeans… Read more »
Welcome back David. Congrats on having finished the book. Your productivity is inspiring. I’m not sure which has had the greater influence: your advocacy of the diaspora or my own experience of leaving Ireland in 1975 and eventually returning in 2005. Even though I was pleased to leave Ireland, and enjoyed the comparative anonymity of London, there was always discomfort around the feeling of being away from “home”. I could never find a fully satisfactory relationship with Ireland from abroad. I had no wish to go back and live there, but I still felt there was unfinished business. It helped… Read more »
David: Good to see your column back and I look forward to your RTE series. When does it begin? I remember that you have drawn attention to the economic potential of the Irish diaspora in other articles in the past year. Indeed they often have responded through close family ties in hard times down through the generations. I well remember the flavour of packets of Libby’s chicken noodle soup from a large carton my aunt sent from America during second world war rationing. There is a big difference between family ties of trust and expectation and ties merely of common… Read more »
Hello David, Well done for writing this up, it struck a few chords! My partner Bernadette and I are London Irish who moved over / back to Ireland about 5 years ago. Ireland at the time was at the tail end of being ‘the envy of Europe’ and from our perspective seemed fairly oblivious to its diaspora. Having grown up in strong Irish communities in the UK, communities that really knew how to preserve their culture and sense of values, it seemed strange that those at home were so unaware. Anyway one thing lead to another and earlier this year… Read more »
Some very good points here. I think there is a huge issue in Ireland with regards to education because of the nature of the “diaspora.” You make it sound very positive, but a friend of mine whose family were the only public family of athiests in Listowel in the 1970s discovered unwittingly, the nasty side of the diaspora – its hatred, cutlural insularity and naked bigotry and exclusion, when the son of the family was not only excluded from playing GAA as a child, but also when he discovered a large Kerry community in New York in the early 90s,… Read more »
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David, Welcome back. With respect though I’d prefer if you weren’t going on about your “diaspora” again. The country is about to be screwed big time with NAMA & it is announced today that we have some politicians today claiming over 200,000 in expenses (or 534,000 if you’re John O’Donoghue) on top of their 106,000 basic dail salary. Ireland is basically a corrupt banana (or banama) republic with FF at its heart creating inequality whilst running the country exclusively for the very rich. We need discussions on how it could be possible to create a new society out of this… Read more »
David – welcome back. Seen your article in the Sunday Business Post yesterday. Was expecting a more subdued first article back in the context of the subdued atmosphere now in this country. NAMA is in the news. Not too confident about Dr. Garrett Fitzgerald’s opinions. As somebody mentioned in The Irish Times commentary this morning, Garrett did not see this as a bubble either. In fact you and a handful in the public domain told this was a bubble. The rest claimed to say it was a bubble after it burst. But my concern about the Diaspora is this. Does… Read more »
Banama Republic. The auld sod is reeping what it sowed. In recent years it offered graduates a cost of living that was nothing more than extortion. Never mind treating the diaspora poorly what about those who would have liked to live, work, and settle for a fair price. As I unfashoinably emmigrated a few years ago the USA I saw the signs all around me. Unsustainable shopping sprees by the decklanders and “Hills” wannabees. Empty apartment blocks invading historic parts of town for a quick buck. The contractors would trade in their oversized SUV’s if anyone would take them while… Read more »
Welcome back, David! As a returned Irish-American myself, with many family members and friends still living in the US, I agree with the core concept of your article. In order to join in the spirit of the concept, therefore, I will now use both twitter and facebook to help spread the word about Mick Regan’s site http://www.diaspora.ie to all my friends and relatives in America and elsewhere. I see great potential in your idea and it will help if enough of us “get on-board” and just do it.
(Heartiest greetings to all “returning contributors” here!)
Welcome back!! I am going out on a limb here by suggesting that unlike Israel, Ireland has an equivocal approach to religion and maybe many aspects of morality. We are pragmatists, opportunists and wanderers. I believe this explains our government, our way of living here and our individual strength abroad. Maybe we should be focusing on our strengths rather than what may well be a genetic inability to form diaspora. We are guerilla fighters by nature. No central control. Totally automonous and all the advantages and disadvantages that entails. I think the diaspora idea may be a non-starter and should… Read more »
Welcome back David . I left Ireland in 2005 for Australia . I have helped Ireland by pointing stunned young Irish people here on the one year woking holiday visa who think that they have emigrated find some work with some Irish employers that I know . Irish people think that they can do whatever they like . They are amazed that the Australians actually follow the rules and cannot understand why nobody will turn a blind eye to their visa restrictions . I have taken a close interest in Irelands problems of late while watching the Australian government deal… Read more »
The e mail in question was seeking favours .( I left that bit out .)
Jews see Israel as the homeland . For hundreds of years they have kept everything inhouse . They will always direct business to one another and everything flows back to the homeland . The two toughest people to do business with are the Jews and the Chinese . I really do see your point about the diaspora and an Irish homeland but not until their is complete political reform . Not until corruption comes down to even normal levels .
I sent this email to Mick and Bernadette – “Hello Mick and Bernadette, I look forward to reading more on the site, right now I’m a passenger on a road trip from Minneapolis to Council Bluffs, Iowa, so its a bit tricky to focus on the small text on my phone. I have lived in the Caribbean for 10 years splitting time between the islands of Dominica and more recently Antigua – my wife is Antiguan / American and my little girl (21 months) is Antiguan / American / Irish with all 3 passports! I read David’s article with interest,… Read more »
Those who feel the need to emphasise the extent of corruption in Irish culture have a strong point to make. It’s hardly surprising that many wish to lambaste the politico-business community. Essentially they say “I won’t be helping Ireland until there has been thorough reform.” This blog is a good forum on which to deliver powerful critique. Those who interpret David McW as advocating that the diaspora contribute funds to rescue Ireland are, I think, missing the point. Those who see David as advocating a new form of cronyism are also misleading themselves, I’d say. Admittedly, David did refer to… Read more »
Hullo hullo hullo to one and all. Fingers at the ready, we are in for one hell’va fight of our lives here in direland. NAMA must be stopped, it cannot be so where the powers at be, pass the cost of private banking engineered bubbles onto the backs of the country’s taxpayers after bubble bursts. Bond issuance is not for to be used to get private banking and property tycoons debts paid off for them. This is tyranny. NAMA is tyranny. It is a a robbing of taxpayers future earnings to pay for a bill run up by a crony… Read more »
Well done!
Anyone who has developed anything, knows about a leap of faith,
And this notion of a Diaspora, is not even a leap.
Go for it, drive it, and bring it to be.
wills… I honestly believe that “twitter.com” is suitable for you. (as well as here… please make sure that you stay)
I use twitter, POM uses twitter, DMcW uses twitter……
I think you should try it. I will follow you.
We’ll never revolt, the criminals will never be brought to justice, all these bankers and developers still command respect in the eyes of the public….we’re in awe of them, our Gods!!!
As a US descendent of a McWilliams family who left Ireland 100 years ago, I have followed the fortunes and misfortunes of Ireland intently all my life. Over the generations we have never become less Irish and I am visiting Ireland next week for the first time. I am thrilled to have found your blog and this notion of an Irish diaspora has been on my tongue for the past few years. I can tell you that getting a good education and as much education as possible has been the core of our Irish family values. I hope that this… Read more »
David, another theory exists about the New World. This states that the optimists, the seekers of fairness, the opportunity creators, the inventive element in European society got out of Europe in the 1800s and went to America. This influenced American thinking to be generally more upbeat, more positive, more egalitarean, more transparent and fairer than the society of the old World. The Irish who left Ireland have mores that are in contravention to the mores of those who dominate Ireland. They also have a broader and more blanced view of the world, and are less narrow minded. If only the… Read more »
Welcome back David. Having spent the last 12 or so years living outside of Ireland, I think you have really hit on something. It occured to me when reading the Generation Game that in fact of the Irish that I have met abroad, it is the second, third (and beyond) generations that seem to have the strongest sense of attachment to Ireland. I cannot over-emphasise how their sense of ‘Irishness’ is an extremely important part of their identity, and sits comfortably alongside their connections to the country they currently live in. Its a huge competitive advantage for Ireland. There is… Read more »
The notion of diaspora is just a way of making a small entity bigger. I think this is DMcW’s solution of trying to make Ireland look bigger than it actually is. The game is one of influence. Creating the global Irish gang. It’s a nice and comforting idea being part of a bigger family. It is also self deluding with regard to the realities of business. Make no mistake, the Irish where they are successful is all about doing things right for the environment and time they live in. This is the same for all nationalities. The failure rate of… Read more »
Re: “need to go beyond the politics of the recent past, and start putting intelligence in and take ideology out”, Well we definitely need to go beyond the politics cause we can’t afford the buying every gombeen off any more!, Even the courts here are a tool for reflecting the elite views rather than carefully interpreting the laws made by enacted legislation. Re: ‘The Irish who left Ireland have mores that are in contravention to the mores of those who dominate Ireland’, there was a theory that the reason the apparent rates of schizophrenia were so high in West of… Read more »
‘ It’s not what you know, but who you know. ‘ This attitude has resulted in no small part in getting us to where we are now. And now, to pick up the debris from our self-induced economic implosion, we appeal to the ‘Diaspora’. It’s the new buzzword in town. The way forward is to get our thinking caps on, and to create products and services that will sell abroad, brining money into the country. We should form our allegiances with the best and most innovative individuals, organisations, and nations. Based on merit alone. Playing the Paddy card may well… Read more »
Farmleigh , what a talking shop that will be too !,…before ‘We the Irish’ start looking for our relations to help us out , we need to sort ourselves out right here. We have a political mess the best paid and most useless group of individuals governing this Nation, with examples where we pay a qute Kerry man half a million in two years for been the chair person of our politicians and , now because of this positions independence , he can’t comment on this massive figure!… It is pure economic fantasy journalism as the Paddy won’t do any… Read more »
Let’s get a few things straight and save ourselves time and energy: (1) The beauty of David McW’s espousal of the Diaspora, as a valuable resource, is that the idea divides people: into those who think negatively towards it and those who welcome it. (2) This divide helps because it legitimises each side. (3) The vital point I want to make: those who are against the idea have plenty of other things they can put their weight behind. They can pursue links with people who are not part of the Diaspora. This is not a zero-sum game. Some people can… Read more »
From today’s Indo: http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/national-news/banks-agree-to-lend-carroll-companies-more-money-1874846.html “A number of banks who are owed millions of euro by companies controlled by developer Liam Carroll have said they are willing to lend the companies more money if a scheme of arrangement is put in place. Anglo Irish Bank, in a letter, said it had no objection to an examiner being appointed in a bid to save the Zoe Group and is willing to finance the companies further to the tune of over €60 million. The High Court also heard today that Ulster Bank, KBC, Bank of Ireland, AIB and Bank of Scotland are in… Read more »
David, While I always admire your optimism and can-do attitude, I am skeptical about your dreams for the Diaspora as a panacea for Ireland’s ongoing problems, especially when it applies to those magical 30 million Irish-Americans. Let me pose a question: stripped of sentimentality and tribal loyalty, why would Americans want to support Ireland in this day and age? The truth is that the Internet and the Celtic Tiger have revealed an ugly side of the Irish to which many sentimental Irish-Americans had not been privy. I’m talking about the snide, mean-spirited, relentless attack on Americans in Ireland’s public discourse… Read more »
Hi all, Methinks the business and political diaspora are well disposed towards Ireland but could probably be improved. Not sure where DMcW was in the ninties but Mary Robinson did highlight the diaspora and there was even talk of giving them the vote. I vehemently opposed the vote for those living abroad as I had lived in San Francisco from 1985-1989 and in my humble opinion many of the “Irish” had a very skewed view of Ireland and were for the most part supporters of SF/IRA. The older Irish Americans tended towards Reaganomics, racism; and young and old towards homophobia.… Read more »
There’s some interesting comments going on here (diaspora, NAMA and otherwise), so i thought i’d sum up my own thoughts based on the original article. The diaspora cannot be defined solely from within Ireland, and we cannot necessarily say what it is, or should be, or how we like to ‘use’ it. Philip is right when he says ‘We are pragmatists, opportunists and wanderers, we are guerilla fighters by nature’, but the view that it is within Irelands control to ‘form a diaspora’ misses the point that the diaspora already exists. We can however educate ourselves as to what the… Read more »
Hi Tim,
You’re right in your understanding, other than i am of the ‘diaspora’.
Born in England to Irish parents – moved to Ireland 5 years ago.
Where that puts me in the scenario i’m not sure, but i hope it does at least give me a broader perspective.
I don’t have a ‘them’ and ‘us’ attitude, quite the opposite. In fact any hint of exclusiveness riles!
I would’nt worry too much about the word ‘diaspora’, it’s a bit easier than saying ‘a scattering of seeds’.
Other than that i think your sentiment is spot on.
David: can you please explain how any solution to our economic crisis that your Global Irish Economic Forum produces will differ from Fascism, as defined in Wikipedia?
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/economist-rallies-our-exiles-in-push-for-recovery-1866876.html
There is a grave danger that this interesting blog could turn into a personality cult with your good self in the role of Ireland’s Mussolini.
I respectfully suggest that you invite Alan Dukes to chair the Farmleigh conference, as the outstanding voice of sanity to be heard through the current cacophony of issues and solutions.
Good Morning to all and sundry and it’s great to read all the above comments and feel once more that ‘our crossings’, in the hot desert when this site was off the air, has finally made ‘our mirage’ a real reappearance of life as we want to know it to be. The true definition of Irish Diaspora is ‘US’ as Tim explained . Our names prove that we arrived from somewhere else before we landed on the aoulde green soil of Ireland ….the land in the west or westland….Lynch – boat people , mc na mara …sons of the sea… Read more »
David’s analysis of the NAMA story will be interesting – in the context that in his documentary years ago, he was called it a property bubble, when Dan McLaughlin and pals were saying it was going up forever. The latest economist to call for an abolition to the SuperQuango is Dr. Sean Barrett (TCD). He has a track record in lambasting ineffective state programs which in the end became self perpetuating hierarchies of nonsense, phuney tendering processes, and cronyism. [And you can throw in the odd nail bar receipt as well when you are at it.] http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0902/1224253663079.html This is to… Read more »
It is high time that somebody threw the Competition Law book at Denis O’Brien’s media interests. This is another example of control of the debate on national issues. He is getting more powerful now than Tony O’Reilly ever was. Nobody says anything about it. His coverage of the tribunals will be skewed for one thing !!
“The Tax-Diaspora” [O’Brien, O’Reilly, Bono, The Three Amigos, etc…]
Hi David. there is a thread on Politics.ie that would interest you!
http://www.politics.ie/culture-community/60106-campaigning-irish-diaspora-ancestral-return-rights-jus-sanguin.html
http://www.politics.ie/groups/citizenship-rights-irish-diaspora-unrestricted-ancestral-return.html
It’s got a lot of coverage so far!!!
Don’t feed the Trolls.
Happy trails.
Fellow posters, ye crack me up – in a nice way. Today is my last free day for a while so I’m indulging myself. @Deco, I did not say that all Irish Americans are SF/IRA. I said many. And I’m absolutely not anti-American, I loved my job there and had great friends. Hiking the Grand Canyon and back country Yosemite could almost make me a believer. @Wills, I’m presuming your first two sentences on the market are ironic? If not, you and I live on different planets. Your frivolous and male sentence is simply hilarious – I guess I’m just… Read more »
If it’s diasporas you want, have a look at Brittany’s interceltic cultural festivities it hosts every year around this time. This unifies the celtic strands of music and langauge across France, Ireland, Spain, UK and beyond. I have yet to see the same globally viewed dedication in Ireland about celtic culture. Maybe I have missed something. I fiigure Ireland could do worse than host a Global Celtic New Scientist, Architectural Prizes, Beer making etc. “Súil Eile” on a global scale but less of the comely maidens dancing at the cross roads nonsense please. As for the NAMA atrocity that is… Read more »
Welcome back David.
You can’t be serious!! And to whoever suggested votes for emigrants: this is just mad. Instead we should be looking to restrict the franchise as the voters have proved they can’t be trusted. Let’s limit the vote to property owners. Large property owners to get multiple votes according to the size of their stake in the country. These are the ‘real’ Irish.