Number of Irish J1 students travelling to US drops by 25pc as social media vetting kicks in
Undocumented Irish being quietly detained and deported after attending routine check-ins
There has been a 25pc drop in young people travelling from Ireland to the US on student visas, US authorities recorded last month.
Preliminary data from the tourism office within the US Department of Commerce shows Denmark saw an even steeper decline in May compared to the same month last year, with a 32pc drop in student visa arrivals.
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Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Being a tourist is ruined by other tourists. You'd wonder what holidays are for
I was in McDonald's trying to navigate the large touchpad order screen. Daughter Number Four will eat a quarter-pounder with cheese, but only if certain ingredients have been removed: pickle, onions, mustard. And cheese. A woman loomed up beside me, her eyes blazing. 'We were waiting in line,' she declared. It wasn't clear to me if she was American or another nationality and had learned to speak English with an American accent. What was clear was that she was angry and stressed and accusing me of jumping the queue. She had a small child in a pushchair. The child didn't look too happy either. READ MORE I'm pretty sure I hadn't jumped the line, though the queuing system was chaotic. I opted not to debate the point but instead endeavoured to continue inputting the complex instructions for Daughter Number Four's cheeseless cheeseburger. The woman remained standing beside me: so closely that whenever my finger paused on the screen, I could see her hand moving forward to complete my order. This isn't about a narky woman in a fast-food restaurant. The McDonald's was in Barcelona , adjacent to the Sagrada Família: just about the most touristy part of that city. Swarms of people had come to take the expensive guided tour or queue up outside in the heat; to buy fridge magnets or boxes of chocolates that would never be eaten. Kids were crying. Adults were arguing or looking bewildered. Just like that woman, we were all being tourists. Everyone was narky. Being a tourist is ruined by the presence of other tourists, yet still we go to the big attractions, secretly thinking of ourselves as adventurers or citizens of the world: there to drink in the culture or have some sort of Eat Pray Love epiphany. Yet we arrive and are aghast to find thousands of others doing the same thing. We form into queues and plod obediently into world heritage sites and get to stare at the Mona Lisa for 10 seconds, where we think: it's much smaller than I imagined. [ Contrary Catalonia: Barcelona is a great place to visit, even if locals would rather you didn't Opens in new window ] The Sagrada Família is a magnificent building. It'll be great when it's finished (2033, they're hoping), but the entire experience was, by necessity, so curated that it almost felt like we hadn't been there at all: like we'd read about it in Wikipedia or looked it up on Google Street View. And it feels like all tourist experiences are like that. We go to see the Tower of London or the Acropolis hoping to get some feeling of what these places are like, or what they were like. But all they feel is touristy. There's a hope that the rest of the time you might glean a sense of what the city or country is really like. But even that's difficult. When you walk around the streets, you can't help but wonder how many of the people you see are also tourists, wondering the same thing about you. You'd wonder what holidays are for. We stayed in the L'Eixample district, which (according to Wikipedia) does have real-life Barcelonans living in it. It's designed in a New York-style grid system, so from the balcony of our apartment, I had a view of the back gardens and balconies of some of the locals. I felt a bit guilty about it – like they were zoo exhibits – but I'd spend 20 minutes every evening watching them. They all seemed to eat outside. They'd sit outside and watch TV through their huge patio doors. They'd hang out washing. The apartments seemed gorgeous. (I looked it up: €1 million for a one-bed.) As I've done before in various countries, I had a brief fantasy of coming to live here one day, of somehow overcoming the lack of Spanish, Catalan or cash. Perhaps that is what a foreign holiday is really for: to provide a brief dream of escape; one that is never realised.
Irish Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Family of missing Amy Fitzpatrick call on Spanish police to launch murder probe
The heartbroken family of missing Irish teen Amy Fitzpatrick have launched a new online campaign demanding a review of her case. The emotional video features various pictures of the youngster growing up and wants her disappearance to be upgraded to a murder investigation. Amy, 15, vanished as she walked home from her friend Ashley Rose's house on the Costa del Sol on the night of New Year's Day 2008. She is listed by the Spanish police as a missing person but no serious effort to try and find her has been made since the first week after she disappeared. Since then the family have received various new leads and information in relation to the case but it has not been acted upon by the Spanish authorities. They have watched silently as every effort was made by police forces across Europe to try and find missing Madeleine McCann and yet nothing has been done to find Amy. Her aunt Christine Kenny said: 'Amy is Ireland's Madeleine McCann, she was only a child when she went missing but yet she has been ignored and forgotten about. 'We have not heard from the Spanish police in years – there is no contact, no liaison with us. 'All we are asking for is for a review of Amy's case and for it to be upgraded from a missing person's case to a murder inquiry. 'That way the Spanish police might take it seriously and put all the resources required to try and find out what happened to her. 'We have no doubt that at this stage Amy is more than likely dead but all her dad Christopher wants to do is to find her and bring her home and bury her with her brother.' Amy lived near Calahonda with her mother Audrey, brother Dean and her mum's boyfriend Dave Mahon. But Dean lost his life after being stabbed to death by Mahon after a row in a Dublin apartment in 2013. Mahon served five years for manslaughter and he and Audrey are still together living in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim. Amy used to ring her dad Chris most days when she lived in Spain and was due to move back to Ireland to live with him when she disappeared. Christine added: 'It is nearly 17 years since she went missing and we have received little or no answers. All her father wants is closure and to bring Amy home. There are people out there who know the truth about what happened and are covering it up for whatever reason. 'We have spoken to various members of the Irish Government about Amy over the years but they have done little or nothing to help us. 'We repeatedly ask them for their help but nothing ever happens. They know Amy was a child, an Irish citizen, but yet they do nothing. It is very frustrating and so wrong.' No one has ever been arrested over her disappearance or suspects quizzed. Relatives have been given information her body could be buried beneath a stable in the disused Fuengirola racetrack but the Spanish police have never acted on it and searched the area. The family have always felt if Amy was from south county Dublin and not the northside, the Irish Government would leave no stone unturned to find her.
Irish Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Convicted drink drivers may soon have to use breathalyser to get behind wheel
Convicted drink drivers will only be allowed back on the roads if they use a device in which they must pass a breath test before their car will start, it has emerged. The plans are part of phase two of a Government initiative to end drink driving for good and bring down fatal road accidents rates. Transport Minister Darragh O'Brien will soon bring a memo to Cabinet on the Phase 2 Action Plan for the Road Safety Strategy. The draft memo, seen by the Irish Sunday Mirror, stated that the strategy has the 'target of reducing road deaths and serious injuries by 50% by 2030' and to achieve 'Vision Zero', or as close as possible to no deaths or serious injuries, on Irish roads by 2050. The Strategy is divided into three phases: 2021 to 2024, 2025 to 2027 and 2028 to 2030. The plan that will be brought to Cabinet by Minister O'Brien is phase two of the strategy. The draft report is divided into seven 'priority intervention areas,' including safe and healthy modes of travel, safe roads and roadsides, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe road use, safe-work-related road use and 'post-crash response'. One action, listed under both safe road use and safe-work related road use, suggests introducing more penalties for those who are caught drink driving. This includes the use of Alcohol Ignition Interlocks, a breathalyser fitted to a vehicle preventing it from starting until the driver provides a breath sample below a designated limit. It continues: 'The MBRS (Medical Bureau of Road Safety) tested and approved a number of interlock products in phase one of the strategy, to support the voluntary uptake of these devices, particularly by organisations with large vehicle fleets. 'In phase two, proposals will be brought forward, based on expert medical research, for the possible mandatory use of alcohol interlocks, alongside rehabilitation courses, as a sanction for drunk driving in certain cases.' The report suggests that this will 'lay the groundwork for further action on their deployment in phase three', which will span between 2028 and 2030. As of June 19, there have been 77 people killed on Irish roads so far this year. According to the report, if Ireland wants to reach Vision Zero by 2050, annual road fatalities would need to drop to 72 by 2030. There were 172 road deaths last year, which is above the target of 122 to meet Vision Zero. Other actions in the plan include expanding the 'efficiency and capability of camera-based enforcement to improve road safety by changing driver behaviour'. This will involve using cameras to 'automatically detect mobile phone use and non-wearing of seat belts'. It will also expand 'the use of cameras for traffic management improvements and enforcement of other offences where road safety is likely to also benefit'. Following the Speed Limit Review in 2023, the report recommends continuing with its implementation, including reducing the default speed limit on national secondary roads from 100kph to 80kph and bylaws to extend the number of 30kph zones. The Department of Transport will publish a strategy to take a 'systems approach' to reducing kilometres travelled, air pollution and congestion. The RSA will be tasked with publishing the Road Collision Facts every two years and reviewing the content of the Rules of the Road. It will also analyse hospital discharge records to 'quantify the number of road users hospitalised following road traffic collision' and the number sustaining serious injuries.
