Dublin: 2011-02-28

Canada welcomes scores of new arrivals to our shores as Ireland luckily experiences a democratic revolution of sorts that could well have been more like the ongoing violent revolutions we are witnessing throughout Africa and the Middle East. Saner minds have prevailed in old Hibernia and the people have spoken through the ballot box by turfing the government of too many days and decades, and opting for a new regime that hopefully will not betray the people it serves like too many of the Teachta Dála's (Irish Parliamentarians) before them.

This new Government will be looked upon with jaundiced eye by an electorate that has been lied to, swindled, cheated and taken for granted. Ireland's hapless Fianna Fail Party have once again proven Lord Acton's maxim that "All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely". If any other party had been in power as long as Fianna Fail, perhaps we may also have had similar outcomes. We'll never know.

Thus, Fine Gael returns to power for the first time since 1997. Ireland's new Taoiseach, Enda Kenny (Prime Minister / Chieftain), a decent Mayo man of impeccable character and sense of civic duty can expect the briefest of honeymoons of any man that ever took the reins at Leinster House. Taoiseach's Haughey, Ahern and most recently Cowen took care of that.

While the Taoiseach faces immense challenges with the financial mess he has inherited, he also has a mandate and a huge opportunity, once and for all to change the face of Irish politics, from working for the good of the politicians, to working for the good of the people.

We wish him and his coalition partners all the best in the challenging months ahead and hope that the opposition will also look to the greater good of the Irish people and place partisanship on the sidelines. History will look upon 2011 as a milestone where Ireland had the opportunity of heading in a direction for the sustainable good of her people or once again heading up the dead end bóithrín of cronyism, me feinism and greed that got the nation where it is today. What will they choose?

Toronto: 2011-02-28

As the new government settles into the business at hand a new generation of Irish immigrants settles into a new land - The Land of the Maple Leaf.

Like many in the past, they didn't leave because they wanted to - they left because they had to leave. This is nothing new one might say. What is new is that they shouldn't have had to leave. As Fintan O'Toole in his recent book, Ship of Fools - How Stupidity and Corruption Sank the Celtic Tiger reveals, "the Irish government (of the day) deregulated and all but abandoned financial oversight and a great financial ceilidh began". The new wave of Irish immigrants are now suffering from the inevitable outcome of such negligence and they along with their families left behind and indeed generations to come, will continue to suffer from this mother of all financal hangovers that would even have kept King Solomon awake at night.

The Irish brain drain tsunami is well underway and Toronto along with many of Canada's major cities are the beneficiaries of Ireland's woes. It is a bittersweet moment in time, especially here in Toronto where a greying Irish community is eager to welcome with open arms a new generation. It is a time for us old soldiers to pass the baton to the new recruits and to help them in anyway we can to settle in to their new home.

The upcoing photo on page thirteen helps us to put faces to this new wave of young Irish immigrants. They are faces full of hope and aspirations and a can do attitude that will undoubtedly have a collective positive affect on their adopted country and indeed the Irish Diaspora already here.

The open arms and generosity of the Irish Canadian Diaspora was nowhere more evident than on a cold January evening (January 18^th) when over 350 new arrivals  descended on Grace O'Malley's on Duncan Street,  just a few blocks from where the Famine Irish perished in the fever sheds in 1847. Over 160 years later, this new crop of Irish immigrants that are well educated, talented and able to hold their own with the very best from around the globe, received a warm welcome from the Ireland Canada Chamber of Commerce. The message from Chamber President, Cormac Monaghan spoke to the fact that "the Chamber and many other community groups were potentially a strong resource in terms of social networks and employment search while the new arrivals resided in Toronto. Many of the older Irish in Toronto benefited over the years from a helping hand from a fellow immigrant and so the cycle continues".

The Chamber's New Arrivals Committee under the leadership of Declan Treacy, a recent immigrant from County Fermanagh (2008), assembled a roster of very interesting and helpful speakers. Also in attendance were representatives from companies that were either hiring / recruitment agencies or immigration consultants. Networking was the order of the evening and it would appear that many of the new arrivals made some good connections - the whole reason for the exercise. At last count over 25 people had secured positions as a result of attending the evening and that number grows daily as the networking continues.

In addition to this event (the second of its kind since June), the Chamber followed up with an Immigration Seminar in mid February and the possibility of additional seminars are currently being investigated. The Chamber through the good offices of Gilaroo.com continues to host the very popular website Declan Treacy developed exclusively for the new arrivals to post their CV's where companies can find a wealth of new Irish talent. To date many companies and candidates have been the beneficiaries of www.irishjobs.ca.