It may seem as if a lot of the hostels blog entries are about the Irish backpackers we host. That’s because there has, indeed, been a plethora of them of late. Since they constitute the largest single segment of our hostel guests, it is only natural that we write about them.
The Irish have a long history of forced migration from their beautiful, but often luckless homeland. In the past, famine has compelled them to seek economic refuge in othr lands.
Like a lot of young travelers, they have come seeking work on year-long working/holiday visas. (These visas have recently been extended to 2 years.) But unlike most youthful backpackers, many Irish have come to stay.
It is in the Irish character to put their stamp on the places to which they emigrate. Perhaps nowhere have they done it so thoroughly as they have in North America.
The Irish diaspora (Diaspóra na nGael) now numbers an estimated 80 million worldwide. (More than 13 times the population of Ireland itself.) Fully one-half of them (40 million) are Americans who claim Irish ethnicity. In Canada our total populaion is 10% of our U.S. neighbours, as one might guess over 4 million Canadians claim Irish roots.
It is claimed that about 80% of Newfoundlanders have Irish ancestry. The family names, the physical features, the main religion (Catholicism), the prevalence of Irish music and even the accents of the people are so reminiscent of rural Ireland that the Irish author Tim Pat Coogan described Newfoundland as “the most Irish place in the world outside of Ireland”.
It has been forecast that the economic recovery in Erie will be a slow process. The Government of Canada has just extended working/holiday visas to two years.
It appears as if we are going to get a lot more Irish backpackers from now on.