Ireland generally inclines towards actively forgetting those who leave. There's a deep vein of begrudgery for people who found success abroad, like they're too big for their boots, and a kind of shame that keeps people silent for those who didn't. The way Joyce put it, Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow; people who leave usually don't come back.

I don't think remittances were ever a significant source of income. It's not like patterns of emigration seen with other countries, where one or the other parent leaves and sends money back to the family, and eventually returns. If anything, remittances were used to fund further emigration, so that families could join up abroad. Ireland's population still hasn't recovered from the famine of the 1850s.