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Oisin Gregorian

Vlog Leaving it all behind... one emigrant's story of saying goodbye to Ireland

Young graduate Oisin Gregorian is making a video diary of his experience of leaving Ireland for Spain.

‘OUR PLAN IS working. We’ve turned a corner.’

So said the late Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan when delivering his budget to the Dáil back in December 2009. Having just started a four-year course in DIT, it did make me slightly hopeful.

‘If we’re supposedly turning the corner heading into 2010, surely it’ll be even better come 2013/14!’’ I thought. Unfortunately, we only began to turn the corner just as I entered my final year.

I was proud to finish the one and only college course I had signed up for. I was proud that I attained a degree without repeating a single module. I was proud that I had a piece of paper that maybe, just maybe, would allow me to further myself in my field of study without the thought of doing a masters.

Then harsh reality set in. ‘We would like to offer you an internship.’ ‘Fantastic’, I thought to myself. ‘A chance to prove myself and perhaps be kept on!’ Then came the sticking point. ‘Unfortunately we will be unable to offer you payment for the duration of the internship.’ This was, of course, to become a recurring theme.

As interesting some of the internships I did were, the lack of payment never made things easier. Even if I managed to network my way into paid freelance opportunities, I struggled to break even. Eventually, I joined the masses at the local social welfare office and managed to keep up my unpaid work, wishing and hoping for a lucky break that would lead to a steady flow of income. It never arrived.

‘Do I really have to keep doing this until I get the required three years’ experience most job adverts state?’

It was at that point, nearly a year after finishing college that I decided to put my skills to better use and work to get a TEFL certificate. I initially wanted to do Primary Education, but was put off it around the time of the CAO deadline due to a poor forecast in that particular sector. Maybe with real life experience, I’ll return to that option down the line.

TEFL instantly opened doors for working abroad and gaining experience in a whole new environment; experience that I’d like to use back home down the line. It could be a year from now, it could easily be more. When I got the call of a job offer teaching in a state school in southern Spain for the academic year I accepted on the spot. I didn’t even need to call back following a chance to think it over.

We as a nation talk of emigration as a bad thing. Any time you see a report on the subject, it often takes a more negative angle. One moment we’re getting into trouble, other times we’re lamenting for a pack of Tayto and a cup of Barry’s like you’d swear it was the end of the world.

We as a demographic have offered the world so much as a diaspora, and if I can keep a video diary in the process to prove just that, what harm?

Uploaded by Oisin Gregorian

Oisin Gregorian is an Irish multimedia journalist currently working as a teacher in Seville, Andalusia. He worked previously a sports writer and production assistant. Follow him on Twitter @Oisgreg.

President Higgins has spoken directly to the Irish Diaspora: “We owe them a debt of gratitude.”

20% of GPs who graduated in 2010 now live abroad

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30 Comments
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    Mute James O'Donoghue
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    Nov 1st 2016, 7:48 PM

    Great to see TG4 continue their tradition of having absolute crackers present the weather.

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    Mute John003
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    Nov 1st 2016, 8:09 PM

    Just like the girls on Fox News They
    could be sisters

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    Mute Eugene Walsh
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    Nov 1st 2016, 7:07 PM

    That was kinda good in a kinda way. Beats any effort rte ever did

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    Mute Screaming Toddy
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    Nov 1st 2016, 7:47 PM

    How does it rate against anything done by TV3 or the BBC?

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    Mute Tony Canning
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    Nov 1st 2016, 11:04 PM

    Ah to be fair, rte Christmas news is great.

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    Mute Lazlo Saint Pierre
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    Nov 1st 2016, 9:23 PM

    LOL, fair play to TG4 for having a bit of fun and showing some spirit. A great channel to be fair, whatever amount of the license fee goes to them is better spent than with RTE. It probably doesn’t get the viewer figures it deserves.

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    Mute Tony Canning
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    Nov 1st 2016, 7:01 PM

    How would people think this was anything other than a prank?

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    Mute Greg Blake
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    Nov 1st 2016, 7:09 PM

    You’d be surprised. … my solicitor tells me I obviously suffered PTSD after seeing that, he’s coming on my annual compo holiday to Torremolinos next year.

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    Mute Aural Abuse
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    Nov 1st 2016, 7:35 PM

    Its gonna be tropic

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    Mute Paul Shepherd
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    Nov 1st 2016, 8:17 PM

    Can you pass me his name…..I could do with a good holiday!!!

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    Mute garb yakob
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    Nov 1st 2016, 8:55 PM

    War of the worlds broadcast all over again

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    Mute Dan Dan
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    Nov 1st 2016, 11:03 PM

    @Tony Canning: Of course It’s for real. Cause everybody knows that lighting strikes inside a building. And after it strikes, she just disapear into nowhere.

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    Mute George Hogan
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    Nov 1st 2016, 7:16 PM

    Iontach mhaith!

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    Mute Shane Walsh
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    Nov 1st 2016, 8:06 PM

    Awesome. Love it.

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    Mute Bottleneck
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    Nov 1st 2016, 7:07 PM

    Brilliant!!!

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    Mute smithers
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    Nov 1st 2016, 7:01 PM

    Shocking

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    Mute Nigel Carvill
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    Nov 1st 2016, 8:57 PM

    Brilliant. Beats Teresa Mannion getting soaked in that downpour.

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    Mute Eamonn Boylan
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    Nov 1st 2016, 7:22 PM

    RTE report a joke.. that’s a joke.

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    Mute casey
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    Nov 1st 2016, 7:12 PM

    electrifying stuff

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Nov 1st 2016, 7:25 PM

    Oh no, poor Caitlín :-(

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    Mute Vincent Wallace
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    Nov 1st 2016, 7:10 PM

    Hahaha if only I was watching TG4.

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    Mute Patch Quinn
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    Nov 1st 2016, 10:46 PM

    Here’s to the poor souls of the red thumbs. You obviously need to step away from your keyboard warrior stations and have a pint laughing with at bit of craic. Loosen the feck up . WE ARE IRELAND!

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    Mute JJ
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    Nov 1st 2016, 9:02 PM

    Wow people actually watch TG4 :o

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    Mute Jimmyjoe Wallace
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    Nov 1st 2016, 9:57 PM

    Why not? It’s the best of the Irish stations

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    Mute Naniba Nobru
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    Nov 1st 2016, 11:07 PM

    Us she ok now?

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    Mute Naniba Nobru
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    Nov 1st 2016, 10:30 PM

    Badly done

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    Mute Alois Irlmaier
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    Nov 1st 2016, 8:32 PM

    Not lightening but a charged static streamer, they occur in thunder storms. They travel from the ground up and from the clouds down, it is only when they meet that it provides a path for lightening to travel through as lightening can come from the clouds down or from the ground up.
    A static streamer and she was lucky…

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    Mute Alois Irlmaier
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    Nov 1st 2016, 8:38 PM

    I should have looked at the video first rather than the photo, what a daft joke to do… April 1st is 6 months away…

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    Mute Elma Phudd
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    Nov 1st 2016, 9:31 PM

    Jaysus, it’s not going well for you. You can’t even count.

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    Mute Gerry Fallon
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    Nov 2nd 2016, 12:58 AM

    Sounding like someone farting in the studio!

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