IT'S NOT ALWAYS A WALK IN THE PARK!

Life in modern Ireland certainly is tough,no doubt about.
And it gets harder!
The next round of cuts to pay are all lined up,add a dose of propery tax,a liberal amout of watercharges,remove a couple of Billion from next 3 years budget and there you have it things getting tougher for a few years to come.
Truth is things have not bottomed out just yet.Our  downward spiral continues!!
Against this background hundreds of thousands of people have left this land over the last 4 years. (over 67,000 Irish living in Australia  alone as of june2012) The leak started with the property crash and nobody was there to put a finger in the dyke,the initial flowing of the out of work migrant builder gave way to the tide of mass migration of people from all walks of life.Graduates,Doctors,Journalists,Teachers,I.T.specialist,Salesmen,
Photographers,plumbers,mechanics,electricians.All among the group photographed by me as part of the leaving Dublin project, we are less a nation as a result of this depletion. Skeletal and sad we stand trying to make the best while austerity is heaped upon austerity. However,we will abide!But there is something stinking in the ethics of modern  politico-economic thinking.To many wrongs are explained away as how things are,and no one is trying to change the system.
Anyhow!!
Believe it or not I am an optimist and I see the positive side to most desperate situations.
As a result of my endeavours to document a representative portion of the outward tide I have made a lot of valuable friends.(most of them scattered to the four corners of the world)
Occasionally one of these friends makes it home(as far as i can make out 6 of my 120 people have made it home so far)When this happens I rejoice.
Today I met one Aoife O Donnell now a good friend who I photographed over 2 years ago before she left for New york. Our pasts had so much in common both of us spending some years in and around meeting house square giving it all for photography! .She has been home for some months and is delighted to have found work in the last month with Microsoft in Ireland!The future for Aoife is a little more stable for now and I am delighted for this.
We had a long and great conversation over some coffees and a stroll to St Patricks Park today,
the sky was blue,
spring was in the air.
Aoife told me about the game changing nature of the last two years ,how her life has changed,
how she has grown as a person and how she looks forward to exploring further in years to come the corners of this planet with new friends she has made on her time in New York.
Next week end she runs her first one hundred mile race!!
I am in awe!
I never knew such a thing existed! shows I have a way to run, but for the moment I am happy to take a walk in the park whilst I can,and in the best of company.
Thanks Aoife.
 I hope in the next year or so to meet up with most of those I have photographed I have already made it out to Australia and met most of my sitters in that part of the world.
As the picture builds plans for a book should grow and develop.
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