To promote their upcoming Australian tour, Irish comedy trio Foil, Arms and Hog posted a video recently where their characters pretend to be Aussies to try to escape having to return to Ireland because their Australian visas have expired.
It’s a funny clip made even funnier by the recognisable element of truth in it. There are now more Irish-born people in Australia than ever before and the majority of the trio’s audiences at next month‘s shows in Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne are likely to be Irish.
Figures released last week showed there were 103,080 people who were born in the Republic living in Australia at the end of 2024. There were also 25,920 who were born in Northern Ireland.
The numbers came as no surprise to Fidelma McCorry, who, along with Patricia O’Connor, literally wrote the book on the issue: Continuity & Change: Post-war migration from Ireland to Australia 1945-2024.
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Having first emigrated from Ireland with her parents and gone back and forth many times in the intervening years, McCorry got her PhD from the University of Adelaide in 2017, with her thesis also being about Irish emigration to Australia.
Some of the problems new arrivals to Australia experience are similar to what they experienced at home, says McCorry. “We have a housing crisis here as well and most of the [Irish backpackers’] posts are about trying to get a room, somewhere to stay.”
Having lived in Adelaide since 1999, McCorry says she is here for good, with one of the reasons being better healthcare. “I was sick last weekend and made a doctor‘s appointment at 4am and by 6am I had antibiotics. The chemist was open,” she says.
During last November‘s election campaign in the Republic, Fine Gael leader Simon Harris said during a debate that he was “gonna get people’s children back from Australia”. McCorry was not impressed, though: “They always say that.”
She says one of her daughters could spend a year studying in Dublin as part of her course, but the cost would be far too high, as despite having an Irish passport, she would still be considered a foreign student.
“Until they make those things open for diaspora children, it [everything the Government says] is just rhetoric, it’s just talk.”
Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce chief executive Barry Corr agrees. “There have been a lot of statements, not a lot of action from those quarters, so I’m not sure if there is substance behind those statements. No one has really articulated how they would do such things.”
Tyrone native Corr, who lives in Melbourne, also references housing problems in Australia, but notes that for the price someone might pay to live in a not so nice part of Dublin, they can live by the beach in Sydney. So for many coming to Australia from Ireland “it’s a lifestyle choice”, he says.
He adds that while many people “come to Australia by choice and for adventure”, there are many making the journey out of economic necessity, “because they don’t see a pathway to a satisfying life in Ireland”.
Martin Hughes first visited Australia with his brother, the late comedian Sean Hughes, in the 1990s and later moved to Melbourne. He recently sold his book publishing company Affirm Press to Simon & Schuster and says he is now “semi-retired”.
He misses Ireland and would be tempted to move back if he didn’t have a family in Melbourne and the “deep roots” he has established in his time there.
At one point, he spent three months back in Ireland to write the Dublin city guide for the Lonely Planet publisher. “For the first seven or eight weeks, not only was I certain I was returning to Ireland, but I was also kicking myself over the 10 years I hadn’t been in Ireland.”
The feeling didn’t last, though. “In the eighth or ninth week, I don’t remember what caused it, but I suddenly thought, ‘get me the f**k out of here‘.”
But, he says, “I genuinely still romanticise the idea of retiring to Ireland”.
Hughes says he appreciates that the Government wants to entice Irish people in Australia and other countries home. “If the economy could sustain bringing Irish people back to Ireland, then I’d be all for it,” he adds.
Dublin man Trevor Weafer has lived in Australia for 13 years and is clear about what keeps him there. “You build a life for yourself here. It’s lifestyle, it’s opportunity. I just find it a lot more fair, like health and the taxation system. There is a lot of opportunity in every industry, no matter what field you work in.
“The lifestyle in general is just a lot more outdoors with the good weather. If you’re having a bad day and you wake up and it’s sunny, it’s not too bad going to work,” he says.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, whose Labor Party won a landslide election victory last weekend, said on Saturday: “Truly there‘s nowhere else you’d rather be than right here in Australia.”
Moreover, a large number of Irish people clearly agree with him.
