|
by Simon McGeady, Inishowen Independent
CONSTRUCTION workers from Carndonagh have begun to
abandon Ireland and head across the sea in search of
employment as a result of the slowdown in the Irish
building industry, the Inishowen Independent can
reveal.
In a scene reminiscent of pre Celtic Tiger Ireland,
a significant number of Carn men now spend weeks at
a time away from home, at work on construction
projects across Britain, at sites in London, Grimsby
and Edinburgh.
Carndonagh-based workers began to move across the
Irish Sea last autumn and since the turn of the year
many more have followed.
Speaking to the Inishowen Independent, plasterer
Kevin Kelly, who has been working in Grimsby since
February, said he started to notice the work in
Donegal and on the East coast dry up at the end of
last summer.
The 24 year old said there has never been so little
work in the country for plasterers since he began
working six years ago.
“The sites in Dublin started closing down last
summer. Then I worked in Gweedore for a while. I
knew a man from Carn, Martin O’Donnell, who went
over to England to work in November. I decided to
follow him and in February I got a job plastering at
a big new school in Grimsby,” said Mr Kelly, who is
one of six Leeds-based Carn workers.
The Millbrae man said that although is still a lot
of work in construction in England, the weak pound
is hitting Irish workers hard.
That said, he expects to continue working in England
will into the summer. After which he intends to
pursue a new career.
Mr Kelly travelled home this week to attend an
interview at LYIT. He hopes to begin a Sports and
Business course at the Letterkenny college in the
autumn.
“I know a few more plasterers who are looking to get
back to college, John Doherty and Adrian McLaughlin
are trying to get into the same course as me.”
The Inishowen Independent attempted to make contact
with another Carn man Christopher Diver, now working
in the London area, but he was unavailable for
comment yesterday.
Central Statistic’s Office figures, released last
autumn revealed that one third of the male workforce
in Carndonagh were involved in the construction
industry.
Chairman of Carndonagh Community and Rural
Development Company, Raymond Doherty, said the
outlook is bleak for many of the town’s young men.
“I live on the Derry Road and for years you would be
a fool to put your car [nose] onto the road early on
a Monday morning because of all the vans heading
down to Dublin for the week, but that has cooled
down big time in the last few months.”
Mr Doherty said it was very hard to estimate the
numbers of Carn people now travelling to England to
work, but he knew of local people working in several
different cities in Britain. He added that many
young men see no future in construction.
“Kevin [Kelly] is lucky, he has his leaving
Certificate. A lot of the boys would have left
school without getting a qualification.
“I would compare what’s happening now in the
construction industry to Fruit of the Loom. In the
early days people left school to work in the factory
and earn money,” said Mr Doherty adding that he
feared several young men in the town had not been
careful with their money when times were good and
could now face financial hardship.
“For many young men it’s definitely going to be a
difficult time ahead.”
Mr Doherty added that his organisation have been
promoting the idea of an enterprise centre at
Barrack Hill to boost the local economy and he urged
locals to challenge local TDs on what they were
doing to create employment in Inishowen. |
