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About LinkBacksI hear the local name for Dungannon is Portagannon. Lol. If it wasn't for immigration there be a lot more schools closing.Originally Posted by vinoboy
I hear the local name for Dungannon is Portagannon. Lol. If it wasn't for immigration there be a lot more schools closing.
How the feck did Portugese come to Dungannon ,BTW I love Portugal and Portugese folk (much less money grabbing than Spaniards , sweeping generalisation , I know ) .IN 80'S every worker came from 5 mile radius ! Mind you , that dreary Portugese folk music the Fado fits the mood of dreary Dungannon ,miserable gits.
The Moypark chicken processing operation there plus the meat factory. From my limited knowledge many/most of them are East Timorese over here on Portuguese passports, which they are entitled to as E. Timor was a Portuguese colony until the 1974 Carnation Revolution.
One or both these operations started contracting out their labour sourcing operations in the spirit of true Thatcherism and this is the result. There are Brazilians (and a few other South American nationals) as well.
The question should be why they don't leave Dungannon while they still have the chance? Dreary doesn't cover it. The locals lost interest in working in Moypark when they found they could earn as much " on the sick" and DLA.
The immigrant population in Dungannon is only going to get much larger if st pats primary in Dungannon is anything to go by. Might be a few Ronaldo's playing for Tyrone in the not so distant future!
Keep them away from derrytresk boxing club
It's only a bit of craic
That is Bogman Central ,these guys just love to fight .......anybody will do .Complete wild west territory. Though can be very civil ,lol.
I have seen those people from East Timor in a couple of the mid Ulster towns and had guessed at what life was like for them there, and whether any of the local people gave them a second's thought other than just seeing them as brown skinned immigrants who were working in the food processing plants. And whether they were there for the long term, or who would be gone as soon as any jobs they had, disappeared. A bit of both I'm sure. In Galway, many of the Brazilian immigrants who had come to work in the meat packing industry have been leaving Ireland as some plants closed down. It seems a bit sad if they are not really thought of highly or liked or given much heed by a local population (of Christians) that they live amongst. I really don't know, but I kind of presumed that some people would see them as interlopers, or job takers. Maybe even as ''scabs'' who enable local employers to keep wages and conditions for existing jobs low. And their being Catholics and keen church attenders probably doesn't endear them to the hearts of some people.
We have a habbit of ignoring new and marginalised immigrants quite often. I was hearing something on the radio this morning about it being the 40th anniversary of the Ugandan Asians arriving in England after being expelled by Idi Amin, and a woman was speaking of going there as an eight year old and how there was casual racism and indifference in the early years. But now all this time later, their story is higlighted all over the media and by the local council - because they have become such an integral part of the society.
Leicester City Council - 40 Years: The Ugandan Asian Story
..... And my point is, I wonder if the minorities that are coming to Northern Ireland will become a part of the society in the same way as the Leicester Asians have. Particularly the Roma ones.
That, is hard to see though. Integration is the key, but as the Romanian ones still can't take regular jobs like those in Mid Ulster, they are confined to the margins at this moment. From seenig my local Roma guys in the supermarket of an evening, all looking like they've been grafting at something and wearing wellingtons, (washing cars I think) - jobs in food processing factories would be the ideal place for them I'd have thought.
Although, with them being so mobile and moving about over the whole of Europe, they are much more likely to end up becoming more like Irelands own Traveller population and going into work for themselves if they can manage it. Doing the same sorts of things Irish Travellers do to make a living.
I get on grand with immigrants. I used to work with a Pole who was an ex navy man. Could speak Russian, Spanish, Italian and English and the last time I saw him he was working in a Chinese warehouse in south Belfast. God that was a bastard of a job and those Chinese people who ran it where the biggest pack of racists. I'm sure there was slave labour going on in that place with illegal immigrants.
That's a blast from the past. Wow, 40 years - I'm feeling a bit ancient now! If ever there was a parable for the utter stupidity of racism, this is it.
The Ugandan Asians were persecuted by Idi Amin and ultimately expelled, for much the same reason as Jews in Eastern Europe - they were an alien culture who had to a large extent, remained self contained, and had been exceptionally successful in Uganda. They were also, for the most part, relatively well educated, and that, along with the fact that they worked hard ensured that they quickly became successful in Britain. Many of them have since risen to the very top.
Britain's gain is a loss that Uganda could scarcely afford.
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