Kilmihil’s missing generation

A recent survey in Kilmihil has revealed that at least 87 people have emigrated from the West Clare parish inside the last two years. The vast majority of the recent emigrants are aged between 20 and 30.
Gerry Johnson, one of the local people who put the figures together, has said the deluge of emigrants from the community has led to Kilmihil losing a generation of people. He maintains the current crisis is worse than emigration figures from the parish in the 1980s.
“We’re missing a generation in Kilmihil now.
“That generation is gone. We’ve the younger people and the older ones like myself. But we’ve nothing in between.
“That’s basically what’s happening in Kilmihil. I think it’s way worse than in the 1980s. Things weren’t as bad here as they are now. It’s lasting so long this time and there’s no sign of it getting better,” Gerry commented.
“My own son, Neil, is 30 years of age and he’s just come home from Australia. He was going out socialising recently and I asked him who was he meeting? He said ‘I’ve no one to meet’. It’s that age group from 20 to 30 that have left Kilmihil. They’re the age group that make things happen. They get involved in every activity that’s happening in the parish,” he added.
Approximately 50% of the recent emigrants from Kilmihil now live in Australia while the remainder are based around the globe in the UK, Europe, the US, Canada, South Korea and New Zealand.
The collapse of the construction industry is a major factor in the high emigration figures from the parish although a sizeable percentage of the emigrants are female. In recent weeks, it has emerged that the Kilmihil ladies senior football team may have to re-grade to intermediate, such is the impact of emigration on their playing numbers.
Prior to investigating how many people had left the parish, Gerry said he believed the figure was significantly smaller than it is.
“We had no idea. If someone had asked me ‘how many were gone?’, I’d have said probably 15 or 20 people gone from Kilmihil was the maximum. I couldn’t believe it. We’ve 16 male footballers lost and there are 10 of those senior players who played in either 2010 or 2011.
“To come up with a figure of almost 90 people who have left Kilmihil is shocking. We’re only talking about 2010 and 2011. It’s frightening stuff. It’s been devastating for the whole parish. It’s across the board devastation,” the Kilmihil man stated.
Some entire families have emigrated, while Gerry is also fearful that the figure of confirmed emigrants from Kilmihil may rise beyond 87.
“We’re going to put these findings out to the broader community in Kilmihil and find out the real figures. This is only going to get worse. There’s two or three families I can think of where there’s six plus of that family emigrated. That’s an unbelievable statistic.
“When we did the calculation around Kilmihil to find out how many were gone, it was really frightening,” he concluded.
Ironically, the population of Kilmihil village rose by 8.3%, according to preliminary 2011 census figures.
According to those figures, 627 people lived in the village when the census was conducted.