GRADUATE AND GO AWAY!!

There is no doubt about it.One of the largest groups Leaving Dublin are young graduates.
On the eve of our general election last week I met with Michelle Ellis and Claire Mc Dermott.
Michelle(left in our image) is a graduate of commerce and has recently been awarded a masters degree.
Even with this postgrad qualification she remains unemployed and as she put it, in an effort to remain positive about her future,she is leaving for Vancouver Canada.

Claire on the other hand is employed but is working way below her qualification as a customer services representative for a dublin based insurance company.
It was Claire who works nearby in Booterstown who chose the location for the shoot.It is a place she has visited on summer evenings after work before the drive home.
Although tinged with sadness,and no doubt a worry for parents and friends who will also feel the loss,it is heartening to see friends making plans together and clearly supporting each other through tough times.
Michelles Boyfriend accompanied them to the shoot and he told me he is planning to leave after graduation this summer, another highly qualified emigre in waiting!!
One can only despair and realise that this summer we will loose thousands of graduates, even with the focus of our new government on job retention/creation.
A sad state of affairs,but we will come through it and we must this time learn a lesson and not allow ourselves to become deluded if successful in the future.
On the night we were joined by Jack Barton and Catalina Iacob, european corespondent and producer respectfully with CCTV a very big chinese TV channel.
They came to Ireland to make a series of pre-election reports and found that one of the big topics for discussion was emigration so they set about researching the story and were sent my way by Noreen Bowden of globalirish.ie
Noreen also pointed Jack and Catalina towards Colin Hart and his excellent project irelands lost wall
the piece went out on Chinese TV and subsequently was viewed by the largest TV audience in the world!!
On the night the weather was on our side and we tried for a very straight uncomplicated composition including a very old set of granite steps, a simple metaphor for the journey ahead.
As always Artur Sikora was on hand to light up the scene and handled it all solo!!
big thanks again to Jack and especially to Catalina for making the tape so readily available for this post!

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thasnks again
david