Quotes of the Day

Phillipa Barry came of age in an Ireland where fortunes skyrocketed, prospects were plentiful and jobs abounded. With a joint honors degree and a specialism in archaeology she looked forward to making her mark amid the boom.

Instead last week, the petite auburn-haired 27-year-old found herself queuing among thousands of others, some of whom arrived at 5:30 a.m. to secure a front-place position to attend a Working Abroad Expo in Cork, Ireland's second biggest city, and compete for job opportunities offered by Canadian and Australian exhibitors.

"The towns are deserted of people my age. Someone would have to emigrate or die before I get the job I want," Barry says bluntly. "I can either stay here on the dole or in a job which requires the Leaving Cert [equivalent to a U.S. high school diploma], which is a bit galling after six years of university, or I can move abroad to find work in my chosen field."

Here is the new diaspora and the challenge facing the Irish government. Tens of thousands of Irish people are now following in the footsteps of the 70 million–strong émigrés who quit the country's shores before them, this time prompted by economic disaster that came in the form of a collapse in the property market and the country's banking foundations as the global financial crisis took hold in 2007 and '08.

The subsequent recession, downturn in employment and government austerity measures demanded by the terms of a $92 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank in November 2010 have not just touched young graduates. "People of my parents' age keep telling me they would go if they could. I find that nearly sadder that the youth leaving," Barry says.

While Barry and hundreds of thousands of Irish people like her will spend this St Patrick's Day considering their prospects, 17 government ministers will set out on March 17 on an annual international charm offensive to 13 countries that now has a heightened imperative. The Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, known as the Taoiseach (pronounced Tee-shuck), will lead one group of ministers on a high-profile visit to the U.S. where he will present a traditional bowl of shamrocks to U.S. President Barack Obama and then attempt to lure some of the 34.7 million U.S. residents claiming Irish ancestry back to their roots via a number of initiatives aimed at harnessing their ideas, energy and entrepreneurship. The government has kicked off a huge tourism campaign marketing a global Irish homecoming called the Gathering, which is planned for 2013, while a genealogy project aims to trace and attract the descendants of people who left parishes in Ireland to entice them back to the Emerald Isle. Even former U.S. President Bill Clinton has offered his services: he recently hosted an economic forum in New York City to attract investment into the country.

One entrepreneur who did not leave has meanwhile launched a program called ConnectIreland.com, which aims to attract companies that are expanding internationally by offering a finders fee of up to €150,000 ($196,000) to people who introduce them. Wicklow-born Terry Clune has set a target of securing 5,000 new Irish jobs in the next five years by this means and says he is confident that the famine which initially drove millions of Ireland's people abroad in the 19th century holds the key to the country's revival now.

"We can turn that famine to our advantage because in our time of difficulty with the economic recession, all those connections that we have overseas can be really beneficial to Ireland," Clune told TIME in determinedly enthusiastic tones. Sitting in a hotel lobby in Dublin, he detailed all the positives his country still offers: access to the E.U. market — Ireland is the only English-speaking country to use the euro — a highly skilled workforce, favorable taxation rates and an attractive regulatory framework.

Despite his reflections on Ireland's historical disaster, Clune says the country must look forward now and fix its problems. "Most people unfortunately are still looking backwards. If you look backwards at what you've lost it's very hard to see ahead. What people have got to do is forget it, move forward."

Yet the immediate future at least doesn't appear to be too bright. The latest Irish Central Bank and European Commission economic forecasts say GDP will grow by just 0.5% in 2012, owing to slow export growth and weak consumer spending. For the time being, internal growth will be tough while the population is being squeezed by high levels of household debt.

"Clearly the last four or five years has been the unfortunately necessary consequence of the splurging of the previous decade or so ... What we saw was a big bubble followed by a big crash, and the Irish economy is only stabilizing from that crash now. The problem is that we're stabilizing at a much lower level of income," says Ronan Lyons, a Dublin-born economist based at Oxford University. He forecast the next five years would continue to be tough.

"The government has to cut spending and raise taxes ... every budget is going to be a tough budget, and that is going to weigh down on sentiment even though slowly but surely exports are going to start growing, there is going to be an upturn in the jobs market ... The recovery is going to be slow."

But, he points out, there are positives: the medium-term IMF forecasts predict that Ireland will return growth between 2% and 3% by 2014-15 and the Central Bank predicts 2.1% growth next year. "Unlike Greece, unlike Portugal, unlike Spain, the fundamental growth path is solid," Lyons says.

In this scenario the government's strategy of seeking inward investment will be key. Ireland has a proven track record of success in this area, ranking top of the IBM Global Location Trends report for foreign direct investment in 2011, with only Singapore creating more jobs per capita through foreign direct investment. Meanwhile the downturn has brought some advantages: "The crash has brought the cost level down significantly ... that's made Ireland an easier sell," Lyons notes.

But such cautious optimism may come to fruition too late for the thousands of young people like Philippa Barry who will continue to leave the country in the interim.

"A few of my friends have tried to stay in education to wait out the recession but now are emigrating to the U.K.," Barry says. "Other friends are trying to find a way out. One is in New York on a holiday. He'll probably come back to collect his clothes and leave."

• Pamela Duncan / Dublin
• Tens of thousands of Irish people are now following in the footsteps of the 70 million-strong emigres who quit the country's shores before them