New to the Parish: ‘Irish people don’t speak up about how they feel’

The first time Inés Rubio played a Gaelic football match she didn’t even know the rules of the game. She had watched her boyfriend play a few matches and thought it looked quite physical and violent. However, when news got out that the young Spaniard played soccer, she was quickly encouraged to join the Hague’s ladies’ Gaelic football team.

“At the time they were recruiting anyone and trying to get as many people as possible involved. I agreed and went to the training session and straight away I loved it. The first session they were teaching me the rules and then asked, ‘What are you doing this weekend?’ ”

She ended up playing her first ever GAA match a couple of days later with only a very basic knowledge of this strange Irish sport. “You can’t know if you have the skill till you’ve tried. You probably do but you’ve never played.”

Her introduction to Gaelic football was through her boyfriend from Achill island in Co Mayo. They had met a few months previously while both working in the Netherlands.

“He was delighted when I scored my first goal in the tournament. It was also good because out of all of his friends’ girlfriends, I was the only one who played on the ladies’ team.”

Back home in Spain, Rubio was always interested in team sports. She grew up playing soccer, basketball, volleyball and tennis in her hometown of Getxo on the northern coast of Spain in the Basque country. She attended an American bilingual school until she was 16. There she learned to speak English.

“My parents were friends with one of the teachers in the school and they thought it would be a good investment so we could speak perfect English.”

After graduating with a degree in law in Bilbao in 2010, she moved to Brussels to work in international criminal law and human rights. A year later she moved to the Hague, where she began an internship with the International Criminal Court.

“When I finished college in 2010 it was very obvious it would be tough to get a job anywhere. Internships were a great thing to get, and it was quite normal to start unpaid in that sector. Everyone finds it difficult but it’s the norm.”

Change of career

Eight months after the couple met, Rubio’s boyfriend was offered a job in Dublin and he moved back to Ireland. She spent another year in the Netherlands before following him to Dublin in 2013.

“I just decided to go for a bit of a career change. I thought, if I find a job, great. It not, I’ll move back. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with the skill set I had. I applied to some legal firms but I couldn’t practise in Ireland as a lawyer.”

Two weeks after arriving in Dublin she was offered a job with Espion, an organisation that works with information governance and online security. She now works as a digital forensics consultant, collecting information that is used as evidence in court.

Once she had secured a job in Dublin, she began searching for a local GAA club. She joined St Brendan’s and now trains with the team twice a week in Grangegorman. She was also recently elected vice-chairwoman of the club. Rubio’s teammates were surprised at first to discover their new member was Spanish, but she quickly blended in. Aside from a Polish teammate, she is the only non-Irish player on the team.

Rubio says Gaelic football is a great way of exercising and uses a whole range of sporting skills. She also enjoys the social side of playing with the team. “Sometimes we organise trips together over weekends. It’s nice to go out training to meet friends and get fit.”

She also trains a girls’ team on Saturday mornings. “I normally work with the youngest kids, between about four and six years of age. It’s even more rewarding because you can see their improvement in a second. Some are super-switched-on. It’s tough to get up early on a Saturday morning but feels great in the end.”

Rubio has found settling into life in Dublin very easy. “I’m quite flexible in terms of where I live. I travel quite a bit and I tend to ease into new situations quite easily.

“The toughest thing about moving to a new city is finding an apartment and making friends. I basically had that all covered: I moved in with my boyfriend and met his friends. You’re not as lost, as it can be tough to get started. You can hit the ground running.”

She knows very few Spaniards in Ireland and tends to spend time with Irish people. She is so used to speaking English that it often takes a few days to ease back into Spanish when she visits home. Meanwhile she is helping her boyfriend improve his Spanish. “We’re still working on his Spanish skills. It’s getting there, but it’s still a bit basic.”

Slagging culture

Irish people are quite similar to Spaniards, says Rubio, particularly because they love sitting around the pub “slagging each other for hours. Before I knew Irish people I thought Spanish people drank a lot. Then I moved here.”

However, she has noticed some differences. “There’s the fact that people don’t speak up about how they feel. I’m a very honest person and I will say something if it’s bothering me. Irish people would rather complain and then not say anything about it.”

She has no plans to leave Ireland in the near future and loves the easy-going Irish approach to life.

“It’s my home away from home. I’ve lived in other places and I never felt the way I feel about Dublin and Ireland. I don’t see myself going back to Spain any time soon. I’m really happy here.”

• We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past five years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com. @newtotheparish