As Ireland slipped into severe recession in the late 1970s and early 1980s, unemployment rose dramatically. By 1984, it accounted for 16.4 per cent of the workforce and one in three out of work were under the age of twenty-five. In parts of Dublin the figures were much higher, and it was here that the social consequences of unemployment were most marked, with a major drug and crime epidemic hitting the city. Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, the intransigent position of the Thatcher government in relation to republican prisoners' demands for political status led to the hunger strikes of 1981. As a consequence of these events, attitudes north of the border became increasingly polarized and the economy continued to stagnate. Against this backdrop of economic and political stasis, large numbers of young people from both parts of Ireland once again began moving to Britain, especially London, in search of work. By 1991, there were over a quarter of a million Irish-born in London and, as had been the case for most of the twentieth century, the majority were women.

This generation, however, was distinctly different from previous ones in important respects. While some migrants followed their predecessors by entering the unskilled and semi-skilled sectors of the economy, a new cohort of better educated, more self-confident and socially mobile migrants found jobs in the financial institutions of the City of London, the media and the professions.