“It’s like The Truman Show,” says Belfast woman Sarah Hyland. “Everything is symmetrical, and tourists come to see it.”
The Irish dancing school owner is speaking from her home in Celebration, Florida. In this master-planned town, the houses have front porches and white-picket fences while the walkable manicured streets have the feel of a movie set. The town was built by the Walt Disney Company in the 1990s, modelled on the ideal old-fashioned small American town, with the concept of fostering a missing sense of community.
The town is connected by private road to the enormous Walt Disney World Resort, where Hyland’s daughter (3) gets to enjoy the rides and meet Disney princesses. Her US-born husband’s dog-minding business includes a contract with the theme park to walk the furry friends of guests in one of its pet-friendly resorts.
Hyland is one of thousands of Irish to make their home in the Sunshine State, where one in four residents was born in another country. Florida is the fourth biggest State by number of Irish-born residents, with more than 8,000.
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“I love waking up to the sun every day, immediately my mood is better,” she says. “In Ireland I remember not wanting get out of bed, or running to the shower.” As an asthmatic, she even finds the air is so much better than in Ireland.
Proximity to the ‘magic kingdom’ brings lots of family and friends to visit though the year. Florida is one of the most popular US holiday destinations for Irish people, with multiple direct flights weekly to Orlando, Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
The location is fitting for the trained Irish dancer, because it was Disney that led her to fall for and settle in Orlando. For years after graduating with an Irish and music degree, Hyland (then Costello) danced in more than 30 countries. But of all the places she visited, she always loved Disney and so snapped up a contract offer in 2011 for Irish dancing at Walt Disney World.
She “didn’t want to leave” the US after that job ended, and joined a touring dance show. But she always maintained a base in Orlando and later set up Sarah Costello Irish Dance Academy. She opened the school “in a little town hall with one student” in between dance tours, over a decade ago. With “hard work” she has grown her business to 13 locations across two states, with 150 students.
But in 2018, there came a point where she just “wanted to go home and give it all up”. There was “loneliness” at times, she says, reflecting how making friends was not the same: “Friends at home know the real you. In America you can’t just turn up at their door. My mum said just give it one more year,” says Hyland, who comes from a large family. It was that same year, on St Patrick’s Day, she met her now-husband Scott Hyland when he was in town on a golf trip.
His city of origin, Pittsburgh, brought up difficult memories for the Irish dancer. “I said to him, ‘I don’t like Pittsburgh. Last time I was there I lost my best friend and roommate.’” Hyland had been touring with Rhythm of the Dance in 2003 when sean-nós dancer Margaret Brohan (19) from Ennis, was killed by a drunk driver. “I spent months with her and she was sent home in a coffin,” says Hyland.
“I will always say Mags sent me my husband,” she says. Their long-distance relationship developed over nine months before he quit his job and moved to Orlando.
As well as a high emigrant population, Florida has one of the highest dog populations in the US, according to the American Veterinary Medicine Association.
This opened opportunities for dog-lover Scott Hyland to ditch his corporate health insurance job and set up Paw Academy Pet Care, which has grown to employ 20 people and has 3,000 clients.
His latest venture, the Bark Bus, has a viral video with 25 million views on YouTube, showing the converted schoolbus collecting dogs from their homes for daycare.
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“Only in Celebration Florida would people pay $60 for their dogs to go to daycare,” he says. “Here people treat their dogs like children, they are like family to them, so they put a lot of money into them.”
Despite the Disney surroundings, the year-round sunshine, lots of activities and many well-groomed pets, there are some downsides to life in Orlando. The prevalence of alligators, coyotes and wild boar means dogs need to stay inside or go out on leashes. Although the couple’s businesses are lucrative, it leaves little room for downtime, Sarah says.
She misses bakeries and fresh food, with a lack of “mom and pop stores” in the tourist town. But most of all she misses the people. “I met good friends and they have all moved on,” she says, aware that her daughter doesn’t get to spend much time with cousins and grandparents. But as their daughter grows and prepares to start school, Sarah sees a new chapter and a new sense of community ahead in the family’s Floridian journey.
Sarah and Scott Hyland’s story will air on Escape to Florida, Channel 4, on Thursday May 7th and Friday May 8th at 4pm. channel4.com/programmes/escape-to-florida.
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