I had just turned 19 and finished a 1 year secretarial course. A job was more important than anything else, any job. I sent out 300 CVs and got no replies. I took the boat to Wales and the train to London where a friend of a friend I'd never met took me to her home in Kent.

The

next day I went to an employment agency and had a job in 3 hours as a medical conference organiser.

Charles Haughey was Taoiseach.

Less than 6 months later, my sister, a year older, quit UCD and followed me over. She never came back, I did.

Charles Haughey was Taoiseach.

A

few years later, my baby brother flew to the States. He never came back.

Charlie Haughey was still Taoiseach, his arch nemesis Albert Reynolds enabled him.

The middle brother, well he hung in there long after. Right up until Bertie Ahern & Co. ran the economy off the cliff.

He's in Oz now with his wife and kids. He ain't ever coming back.

My Mam skypes all her gandchildren weekly. 2 years ago, Mam and Dad did Oz and the US together for the last time. They'll never get to do it again, they did it to see their grandchildren.

This is our past,

present and future if we keep voting the same way. Emigration is a safety valve every Irish govt ever has used to mask their incompetence and they will again.

Think about that when you vote. How much worse could it be if you voted differently just once?

The future doesn't have

the same as the past. We are capable of something much better.