An extract from a 'Today Tonight' report on emigration from Ireland to America. Reporter Jerry O'Callaghan visits the town of Ballinrobe in county Mayo.

In the Leaving Certificate class at the CBS school in Ballinrobe Brother Edward Deeney principal, asks how many see their future in Ireland? Only 10 out of 43 say they will stay.Brother Edward Deeney says he is not surprised to see so many say they will leave the country.

In a classroom of the girls secondary school. Vice principal Kathleen Ryder asks the pupils how many of them intend to stay in Ireland. Only 8 out of the 55 see themselves staying.

There is a new community school under construction.

Reporter Jerry O'Callaghan "Beside the convent a new community school is going up for all the town's third level students but will it be needed by the next generation?"

A number of young people from Ballinrobe give the reasons why they will probably have to leave.

Tony Walkin a travel agent in Ballinrobe says he expects that most of the young people who will leave school this year will leave the country. 

An IDA supported factory in Ballinrobe which was been unoccupied for six years. Michael McDarby a solicitor in the town says a hundred jobs would make a huge difference to Ballinrobe.

In the north Bronx, New York. there is a huge influx of Irish emigrants. There maybe 100,000 undocumented Irish in the USA without legal status. Nobody knows exactly. There are no less than 20 Irish pubs in this stretch of Bainbridge Avenue.

Reporter Jerry O'Callaghan says, most Irish women coming to America now like their predecessors work in domestic service. Janet and Lisa and their brother Joe are living in America. Their parents are now living in England. All have left Finglas, Dublin.

Janet describes the bad experience she had at first when she was treated badly by her host families.

Lisa  describes her initial experience working for an American family. Their brother Joe says he was depressed in Ireland not working. He had been in London for two years and didn't like it. He went back to Dublin but there was no work. He has been two weeks in America and has a job. There is no opportunity like that in Dublin.

On a building site workers are laying blocks. A  bricklayer Peter who trained in Ireland describes the pay and working conditions in New York. He says it was tough at the beginning but you can earn good money. "It is a pity we could not build Ireland up as much as we are building New York up."

'Today Tonight' was an RTÉ current affairs programme covering stories from home and abroad and was broadcast from 1982 to 1992.

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