This month we spoke to Irish people living abroad to ask them what they missed most about home. Most contributors did not miss the M50 carpark with “the poor infrastructure or the M50 middle-lane huggers” but “the smile and nod you get when you walk past people” were mentioned with fondness. It seems it’s the little things that people notice when they move away. For John in Massachusetts: “There is no place I would rather be than in West Cork on a fine day. Our family had a little stone cottage on the coast near Skibbereen for many years. Indeed for the three months before I moved here I used stay there every weekend. Even if it were raining, which it does tend to do a lot, I would be more than happy to sit by the fire and read. In the evenings I would go to Mary Anns in Castletownshend for a pint or two of Guinness. Bliss.”
Meanwhile in the US, the GAA community has allowed Irish expats to find a space where they can find a slice of home. Jack Banks plays with Houston Gaels in Texas and has found the “camaraderie and craic within the group were apparent from my first-night training and I knew this was a community I wanted to be a part of”. A recent survey, conducted by Change Research, of Irish Americans found “providing more support for Irish studies programmes in US colleges and universities, as well as lobbying for immigration reform for Irish immigrants in America, would be beneficial.” The survey found “respondents are most attracted to their Irish-American identity through Irish history” with religion playing a lesser role in modern Irish American society. Patrick McKenna swapped the rain in Ireland for the snow of Canada, plunging several degrees which added to his “sense of isolation in the small town in rural Ontario I found myself in where I had no friends, family, or Irish community, and there was no cafe, cinema or anything else to break the boredom”.
The issue of housing remains a hot topic for Irish people home and abroad, with Amy Maher, outlining the challenges she faced finding accommodation in Australia. “The truth is, our start in Melbourne was a fairly rocky one. Finding rented accommodation was surprisingly difficult, as it turns out housing supply is a big issue here.” Amy and her boyfriend are living in a house share, and she hopes to start work soon. Gill Kenny shows a side of moving abroad that has yet to be recognised on a mass scale. She talks about sober life, the value of human connection and divorcing the idea that your best friend is called Sauvignon Blanc.
Daire Halligan gives an insight into European-style living after moving to Spain with his fiancee. He describes that before the move abroad, he worked “mostly from home as a project manager with a start up, so a lot of my time is spent in our apartment in the city centre”. It meant that living situation in Spain would be important but because of the property situation in the country – the couple can afford a city-centre apartment, one that they do not have to share with others.
Meanwhile, David McWilliams wrote a column last week that struck a chord about some of the frustrations around living in Ireland that encourage people to leave. “On almost every economic metric, Ireland has pulled ahead of our peers and yet many people are not feeling it ... It all comes down to a mismatch between supply and demand. In economic language, Ireland appears to be stuck in a permanent state of fragile equilibrium. Equilibrium is when the economy is in balance between demand and supply. Ireland’s paradox is that, in contrast to most other countries where external demand and internal supply are rarely out of whack, demand in Ireland far outstrips supply.”
Regular contributor Dr J Patrick Greene has a quirky story about William Bennet Stevenson, an adventurous Irish man who introduced the potato to Greece in the 19th century.
If stories about Ireland and potatoes sound a little stereotypical be thankful it’s not quite SNL, where the drunken Irish character made a return around St Patrick’s Day. In an episode of our In the News podcast, Bernice Harrison gets into why this is such a long-running trope on US TV and asks is it something we should we get a sense of humour about or are we right to take offence and push back?
Ramadan Mubarak, to those who celebrate the holy month of Ramadan. People in UAE have been writing for us in the Abroad section this month and telling us about their experience of Ramadan, comparing it to the month of Lent in Ireland. Cormac O’Donnell, who teaches media studies and English, knows his students “are thrilled to hear a Ramadan Kareem greeting or hear about an Iftar you have attended”.
On St Patrick’s Day, we published a piece with some of the new Irish passport holders who leant into their Irish connections in the wake of Brexit. When he was 10 days old, Simon Lydiard went into care and was subsequently adopted. But it was only decades later that he discovered his grandfather played a role in the Easter Rising.
Lastly, in the spirit of St Patrick’s Day and thinking about your own memories of home, we want to invite you to share your thoughts with The Irish Times Abroad and give you a chance to feature in this section. If you have a story to tell, get in touch at abroad@irishtimes.com. You’ll find more stories by or about the Irish diaspora this week on irishtimes.com/abroad.
Thanks for reading
