Galway Sinn Féin will be distributing thousands of postcards to households throughout the city to highlight the return of emigration and to petition the Government to take action to create jobs.
SF members will be distributing the postcards and calling on the public to sign them. The cards will then be collected and delivered to the office of An Taoiseach Brian Cowen as a petition.
“As a young man in the 1980s I and many others were forced to emigrate,” said Sinn Féin activist Martin Concannon. “It will be a sad day for Ireland if history repeats itself once gain due to the total arrogance of this current incoherent government.”
The party has come up with this campaign in light of figures released by the CSO in January showing there are more than 54,600 people under 25 on the Live Register - an increase of approximately 10,000 since January 2009. The return of unemployment has also seen a return of emigration which so blighted Ireland in the 1950s and 1980s.
Mr Concannon said emigration will not only deprive Ireland of a “skilled and educated workforce” but it will also damage community life and spirit.
“Local sport will feel the wrath of forced emigration as several local GAA players I personally know have emigrated,” he said. “If this continues it will have dire consequences for all sports and local communities”
