NI minister asks 200,000 emigrants to 'Make it back home'
In the autumn of the 1994 ceasefire, a Northern Ireland minister invited the emigrants of the Troubles to come home. Our editorial asked what guarantee they would get.
As printed in the Celtic Mirror, November 1995
In early October, Baroness Denton, the Northern Ireland Economy Minister, launched a worldwide initiative "Make it Back Home," being pioneered by the Local Enterprise and Development Unit, aimed at encouraging emigrants from Northern Ireland to return home to help develop the local economy.
Denton lamented the fact: "Almost 200,000 people have left Northern Ireland during the last 25 years and now we want them back," especially those who were educated to secondary level and university graduates and who "would normally have made a huge contribution to business and community life."
She went on to say that not only does she want those emigrants back, but they, too, want to return home.
Denton said they left when circumstances were more difficult - quite an understatement - but the quality of business and domestic life in Northern Ireland has improved.
That may be the case, but even if, as she says "Now is an exciting time for Northern Ireland," there has to be more.
Before any of those 200,000 emigrants return, it would be wise to ask why they left in the first place.
Surely, there had to be a reason, especially for those who love the country and want to return.
Offering advisory and support services and even financial assistance isn't enough at this juncture.
Denton says "Northern Ireland is now a peaceful and increasingly prosperous society."
Why? Because of the cease-fire, but how long can that peace and prosperity last when the long-awaited peace talks remain stalled?
How long are the people going to remain content to sit back and wait while Britain keeps beating the dead horse that is called disarmament?
Denton should be making a similar appeal to the British government. Tell it to stop stalling and get back on track.
No one can argue at this point in time that peace is the only way Northern Ireland can grow and prosper.
There has to be some type of guarantee to anyone returning there, that in a month or a year, the cease-fire will be no more and the situation will return to what it was before, making them leave again.
Denton also said Northern Ireland's economy is strong and there's a sense of optimism and "let's do it" in the air and the people are eager to learn and eager to earn.
Now, if she can just get that message across to the powers that be, maybe - just maybe - those who left in despair can return with optimism.
What happened next
The worry in our last paragraphs turned out to be the right one. On 9 February 1996, three months after this issue went to press, the IRA detonated a truck bomb at South Quay near Canary Wharf in London. Two people were killed and the damage ran to an estimated £150 million. The blast ended a ceasefire that had held for seventeen months, and it came, as the record shows, after London had insisted on full IRA disarmament before Sinn Féin could join talks. After the bombing the British government dropped that demand. The dead horse, in other words, was finally buried, at a terrible price.
Jean Denton herself was an unusual minister. Born in Wakefield in 1935, she had been Britain's woman racing champion in 1967 and 1968 and a senior figure in the motor trade before she was made a life peer in 1992. She served at the Northern Ireland Office from 1994 to 1997, so 'Make it Back Home' ran almost exactly across the ceasefire and its collapse. She died in London on 5 February 2001, aged 65.
The guarantee our editorial asked for came slowly. The Good Friday Agreement was signed on 10 April 1998 and approved on 22 May, with 71 percent voting yes in Northern Ireland. The IRA's weapons were declared beyond use on 26 September 2005, and a power-sharing executive with Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness at its head took office in May 2007.
Did the emigrants come back? Some did, and the place they returned to had changed. The 2021 census found that people born outside the UK and Ireland now made up 6.6 percent of the population, and for the first time Catholics by background outnumbered Protestants. Emigration never stopped either. A rough estimate built from births, deaths and the 2021 census suggests that about 18.5 percent of everyone born in Northern Ireland since 1955 now lives elsewhere. Some of them, no doubt, read this paper in Seattle and Anchorage.
Questions readers ask
Who was Baroness Denton, the Northern Ireland minister?
Jean Denton (1935 to 2001) was a Conservative peer from Wakefield who served as a junior minister at the Northern Ireland Office from 1994 to 1997, with responsibility for the economy. Before politics she was Britain's woman racing champion in 1967 and 1968 and a marketing and public relations executive in the car industry, including at Austin Rover. She was created Baroness Denton of Wakefield in 1992 and died on 5 February 2001.
What was the Make it Back Home campaign in Northern Ireland?
'Make it Back Home' was a 1995 initiative launched in October of that year by Baroness Denton and run through the Local Enterprise Development Unit. It offered advice, support services and some financial help to Northern Ireland emigrants, especially graduates, who might return during the IRA ceasefire of 1994. Denton said almost 200,000 people had left over the previous 25 years. The ceasefire broke down in February 1996.
When did the 1994 IRA ceasefire end?
The IRA ceasefire declared in August 1994 ended on 9 February 1996, when the IRA exploded a truck bomb at South Quay near Canary Wharf in London. Two people died and more than 100 were injured. The bombing followed a deadlock over British demands for IRA disarmament before talks. A new ceasefire was called in July 1997, which led into the negotiations that produced the Good Friday Agreement.
How many people have emigrated from Northern Ireland?
In 1995 the Northern Ireland Office put the figure at almost 200,000 people over the preceding 25 years. A later estimate based on births, deaths and the 2021 census suggests that around 18.5 percent of everyone born in Northern Ireland since 1955 has emigrated, rising to about 23 percent of adults aged 18 to 66. Roughly 40 percent of those emigrants settled in England or Wales.
