'There are no workers left in Lithuania'

I have lived in Boyle, Co Roscommon, with my wife Birute and my son Vilius for nearly a year. I was a stone-cutter in Lithuania but there was no work there. No jobs, no money. My three brothers work in Norway.

There are no workers left in Lithuania. Everyone has to go. I do not know if any more of my family will come to Ireland.

I work in Feelystone and my wife works in the fish factory next door. Our son goes to the local school. He is 13. He has made good friends. His English is better than mine. It is easier for young people.

We have been in Ireland for two years. Before this we lived in Ballyhaunis and Ballinlough.

I am now working on a baptismal font from a very old church in Galway. It is a very beautiful piece. In Lithuainia the churches are different - not stone churches like in Ireland.

I have not been to Galway but they told me this font is from the Augustinian church in the middle of that city. It was broken in 20 pieces. It is so delicate and there is so much detail that it will take two weeks to polish it but I love this work.

I visited Boyle when I was on holidays here last year and showed them a book of my work and they gave me a job. I worked at tarmac and on the building sites making foundations. The stone work is better.

We live in a rented house in Boyle. I start work at 8.30am. My wife works different shifts. Sometimes she starts at 7.30am. There is another Lithuanian working here. We came to Ireland because I had one friend working here and he said it was easy to get jobs. My wife worked in a restaurant at first.

I miss Lithuania. I miss my family , my parents and my three brothers and two sisters. I think I will stay until my son finishes school. Then maybe we will go home and I will build a house for my family.

We went home this year for five weeks during the summer. I brought my car here from Lithuania. It is an Audi. I need to change it. It is a 1989 car. But I drove it to Lithuania and back to Ireland this summer with my family. It took two and a half days to get home.

We drove in eight countries - Ireland, England, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Lithuania. It is 3,500km. No - there was no fighting in the car. We drove because it is so expensive to fly. It costs €1,150 for two people. In the car it cost €800 for three people.

You need a car here. In our spare time we go for excursions. Ireland is different from my country. There are no mountains in Lithuania. We lived 30km from the Baltic Sea.

The food here is different. But there are two shops in Sligo where you can buy Lithuanian food. There are many people from our country coming to Ireland.

My son has good friends. He plays basketball. Basketball is more popular in Lithuania than football. We will not be going to our country for Christmas - maybe we will visit again in the summer.

Christmas in Lithuania is very like Christmas in Ireland. We have turkey and carols and presents. In Lithuania most people are Catholics. We are Catholics and we meet local people when we go to Mass.

We don't go out too much at night but yes, we have been in an Irish pub.

My wife is very happy here. We hope we can stay in Boyle. I do not know if we will buy a house here. It is very expensive.

Irish people have been very good to us but we dream of having our own home some day in Lithuania.

In conversation with Marese McDonagh