ABSTRACT
The Republic of Ireland is a small island country of just over three and a half million people on the western fringe of Europe. It has been a self-governing state since 1922 and it is a member of the European Community. Ireland has a younger population than most other European states with half the population under 25 years of age (OECD, 1991). Emigration has historically been a necessity for many Irish people who were forced to seek employment in other lands, notably the USA, Britain and Australia. While the rate of emigration decreased noticeably during the prosperous years of the 1960s and 1970s it has escalated again in the early 1990s because of increasing unemployment and lack of opportunity for young people at home.
