According to leading Irish shipping companies based in New York, there is currently an unprecedented demand for containers of personal belongings to be shipped back to Ireland, as more and more Irish people are forced out of the city due to a clampdown on illegal immigrants.

"All of a sudden there are a lot of people going home, " said Jacqueline O'Kane of the Padded Wagon shipping company. "We used to ship maybe one container back to Ireland every month. This week alone we have shipped four, last week we shipped three [containers]. What we have heard from our customers is that they are fed up here and they're not waiting about to be deported. They can't get bank accounts anymore or drivers' licences. They just feel it's not worth it."

Danny Moloney of Liffey Van Line agreed.

"Our container guys have been kept absolutely crazy this last month, " he said. "I would say that this July has been by far our busiest month in well over a year. People are waiting to hear on the immigration bill, but it's just got too much for some and they're going home. It's sad, but then, a lot of them are happy to be going home as well."

There are currently an estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish people living in the US, who hope to be granted citizenship under a new immigration bill. This bill was passed last May, but there have been a series of delays in finalising it and doubts that it will ever be made law. At the same time, there has been a series of crackdowns on illegals.

"The situation is very hard at the moment, " said Frank Carroll of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR). "People are living in the shadows and they can't travel to work because they've lost their driver's licence. The way things are going, we could lose the Irish community altogether in the next 10 years."