For thousands of young Irish people, going to Australia on a working holiday visa has become a well-trodden path. Record numbers of Irish went to Australia in 2024 and Irish citizens were granted almost 15,000 first time one-year working holiday visas for Australia in the year to June 2023.
But what of the reverse? Data shows the number of young Australians coming to live in the State is a tiny fraction (3 per cent) of their Irish counterparts.
Just 454 working holiday authorisations were granted to Australian citizens by the Irish embassy in Canberra in 2024, according to figures from Department of Foreign Affairs. This does not include young Australians who have come through dual citizenship - having EU-born parents or grandparents. But the total numbers of Australians aged 18-35 in Ireland is still low, just 700 according to the 2022 census.
The UK is a much more well-established route for young Australians wishing to spread their wings with 8,600 of Youth Mobility Scheme visas granted by the UK to Australians in the year to June 2025.
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Annalisa Cercone is a young Australian who had initially intended to follow this well-trodden UK path. However she ended up coming into Ireland through dual EU citizenship from her Italian grandparents. Having recently returned to Melbourne, she has written about choosing Ireland over the more traditional destination.
For many Australians, moving to London is their rite of passage: a way of challenging oneself or escaping everyday life down under.
Like many other Aussies who wish to “do Europe” in their 20s – early 30s, I wanted to live there. I had visions of morning commutes on the tube, nights out in Soho and sunny days in Hampstead Heath. I wanted a city similar to home: bustling with a large expat community and connectivity to Europe.
But things turned out slightly different. I abandoned the London dream for an undiscovered one: Dublin.
It seems like everyone in Ireland knows someone in Australia, and in many ways moving to Australia for the Irish is a reverse of our rite of passage. So the idea of me, a born and bred Aussie voluntarily moving to Ireland, seemed ludicrous and to many, exotic.
[ As an Irish person in Australia there is one question I’m always askedOpens in new window ]
“But the weather!” they said. “Why would anyone trade those blue skies for such grey?” After a winter of frosty roads, umbrellas broken by winds and a power outage that left me locked out of my apartment, I too started to question what I did to myself.
But overall the weather in Ireland really isn’t that bad. It’s crazy and then it’s grand, all in the space of a couple of minutes. Living through four seasons in a day is what keeps us on our toes. And I’m from Melbourne after all, so is it really that different?
Ireland makes up for crappy weather in other ways with nearby beaches and stunning surrounding mountains.
Coming over was initially a means to an end. I wanted to go somewhere English-speaking and Ireland was perfectly placed for me to jetset around Europe. When asked what I was most looking forward to about Dublin, my honest answer was travelling on weekends via Dublin Airport.
My first visit to Ireland was cut short. It was late March 2020, I had been travelling around Europe and as borders were shutting down, I couldn’t outrun the pandemic. I got one of the last operating long-haul flights back and saw the city in one of its worst periods.
But as I said in my job interview remotely from Melbourne, “I need to give Ireland another chance”, and I am so glad I did.
Dublin, like any city, has its issues and I’ve experienced some of them first-hand. I knew about the housing crisis before coming over and almost didn’t believe the scale of it. As months went by in a tricky and expensive sub-leasing situation, every missed rental opportunity was a stab in the guts.
While Dublin is grungy at times: in many ways the city is much like Melbourne: vibrant and multicultural, with a strong emphasis on the arts and its own dirty river running throughout.
As a born and bred Melbourne northsider, I stayed true to myself and always lived and worked above the Rriver Liffey. Dublin’s multicultural and slightly hipster scene made me feel right at home. Much of my childhood was spent in Fitzroy and I was lucky to find myself living in Dublin’s equivalent, Stoneybatter.
While I missed the Melbourne restaurant culture and the breadth of Asian food in Australia, Dublin exposed me more to other new cultures. Thanks to a large eastern European community I found new friends, new foods and new places to visit.
I travelled like a maniac, heading to the airport directly from the office on many Fridays and (sometimes) flying back to Dublin early on a Monday morning before starting a full day of work.
But as my friendships in Ireland strengthened, the weekend flights lessened and I wanted to spend more time exploring my new home with friends who are like family: kayaking under bridges, trips along the coast and exploring the city’s pubs.
I’ve just returned to Melbourne and I’ll be telling my-fellow Australians that Dublin is an underrated place to live. I hope more of them consider it for their European adventures. I will always feel a sense of home in Ireland, and with so many Irish in Melbourne, I am confident I will continue to feel that down under.
Annalisa Cercone (31) lived in Dublin for a year where she worked in the NGO sector. She returned to her native Melbourne in July.
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