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GAA clubs across the country are suffering from a mass exodus of up to 250 players per month, as young men are forced to leave Ireland in their masses in search of work.

On busy days there are enough men passing through Dublin airport to form their own team.

While it’s a bonus for clubs in London or Sydney who would have previously have struggled to pull together a full side, it spells misery for many teams up and down the country.

Clare GAA, for example, has had to cope with the departure of its senior hurling captain Brian O’Connell for Australia, where he hopes to secure work.

And those GAA players leaving to find work are just the tip of the iceberg. The Government’s economic think-tank the ESRI says that 1,000 people were emigrating per week and estimated that 100,000 would depart Ireland over the two-year period between April 2010 and April 2012 – well above the 1989 emigration peak of 44,000.

According to a survey carried out by the National Youth Council of Ireland, 70 per cent of unemployed between 18 and 25 plan to emigrate in the next 12 months.

Meanwhile, and as we predicted a couple of weeks ago, Canada has increased the allocation of working visas for Irish citizens aged 18-35 wishing to head there. The increase goes up from 4,000 to 5,000.