Abroad

August’s top Abroad stories: ‘There’s a big sense of hopelessness with people in their mid-20s in Ireland’

We hear about an Edinburgh Fringe debut; why many young people are choosing to move to Australia; and Paula Gahan plays the ‘Irish version of Guess Who?’ while travelling the world

Sarah Eisenberg, a retail buyer in Galway, said after eight years living there, it was time for her to move on. Photograph: Niamh Delmer

Thu Aug 31 2023 - 08:43

Leaving family and friends behind is not something anyone comes to lightly. However, young people who are about to emigrate from Galway to Australia shared with us the reasons behind their decision to make the move to the other side of the world. Brian Reaney “is among thousands of Irish people who emigrate every year, with 59,600 having moved overseas in the year ending April 2022″. Despite his love for his home in Galway, he’s “looking for, I suppose, a better quality of life.” It’s a theme that is echoed across the board with retail buyer, Sarah Eisenburg saying “the quality of life and the cost-of-living situation aren’t manageable here any more”. Three of those young emigrants spoke to Niamh Delmer on camera.

Also this month, Rachel O’Neill wrote a striking opinion piece from the other perspective, from those who can’t up sticks and leave be it for family commitments, health or just not wanting to. “Ireland has fundamental problems. Yet I have built a life here. Yes, like many Irish people, I complain about it all the time but that’s the beauty of it. I have built something here that I have to care about. And if I care about it, it means that I want to fight to make it better.”

Kerry Patten writes about her travels abroad and how she has now settled in Spain and opened a coffee business; “coffee is something people don’t seem to want to give up, despite the Spanish heat”. Kerry and her family are no strangers to travelling abroad, having travelled through southeast Asia, South America and lived in San Francisco. It was decided to move to Spain because “we wanted to be closer to home, but without the rain, and as we spoke a little Spanish from our six months in South America”.

For Peter Flanagan, a career in comedy has always been the dream. He left the day job to pursue comedy in January 2020, months before Covid-19 closed all entertainment venues; “comedy is all about timing, right?”, he says. Peter made his Edinburgh Fringe Festival debut this summer, something that he has had in the works since 2020: “Had I made my Edinburgh debut as planned in August 2020, I would not have been ready to be this honest. Now my act has a bit of trauma for an engine.”

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Playwright Martin McNamara speaks about the “bloody unhealthy amount” of his childhood he spent in pubs in south London. McNamara says, children today are at a disadvantage because they don’t get to experience when “adults often forgot you were there”. It’s an “invaluable level of parental neglect”, McNamara says, giving any child a first-row seat to listen and observe all the gossip of their elders. Despite this, it was the Irish women of his childhood who inspired McNamara to write his latest play, Rita McGrinder is Still Here; “I hadn’t quite realised it, but Rita was inspired by those Irish women from my childhood.”

Patrick McKenna writes about why he left home and moved to Canada, “I left Northern Ireland to escape the weather, especially the cool, rainy summers.” However, as he looks back, he is “not sure that was such a good decision”. Patrick settled in Montreal, Quebec to discover “city streets hot as the inside of my toaster”. The adage, careful what you wish for because you just might get it, came to mind; “I had to get up and take a cool shower to be able to sleep.” This year, Patrick has had to deal with news of wildfires in the Northwest Territories as its capital, Yellowknife, evacuated 20,000 its residents. “For these climate refugees, the coming weeks will be at best disruptive, at worst traumatic”, Patrick says.

Dubliner Margaret Kennedy tells the story of moving to France, where she intended to stay for three months but instead stuck around for years. She and her husband left Dublin in August 2019, aged 55 and 66, and moved to the Pyrenees. The arrival of Covid-19 and distance from family “exacerbated the enormity of our move”. As the three months outlasted their welcome due to lockdowns circumstances changed and four years later Margaret admits “I am so glad we took the plunge [to start over].”

Fiona Murphy reflects on when her teacher used to ask her what she wanted to be when she grew up; “an artist or an ice-cream seller”, she would say. Years later, Fiona is an artist who has lived in Italy, Cuba, and the US and now lives in Brazil. She talks about her experience living abroad, “we moved to Cuba in 1996 to work for an NGO. Life was tough in Havana,” she says, “I took to painting murals, to add colour to the drab walls of a once splendid city that was now so dilapidated.”

Paula Gahan writes about the questions she is asked while working when she reveals she is from Ireland. “Do you know (insert Irish person’s name)?” say excited acquaintances, revealing how small people think the country is. “It’s like the Irish version of Guess Who?”, Paula says. Working on a passenger plane she sees hundreds of people each day; “as soon as someone hears your Irish accent, you automatically become an unofficial spokesperson for Ireland”. We asked readers for their experiences of this, and got some interesting replies: “Does it really rain as much as they say?”

Finally, New York’s Róisín Wiley was named the new Rose of Tralee. She said she felt like “I’ve been an ambassador for Ireland my whole life in the background, and now to fully stand as a formal figure I’m just so excited and honoured,” The competition always creates a bit of debate but columnist Brianna Parkins, who was the Sydney Rose in 2016, makes the point that the festival is more for the people who no longer live in Ireland than those who do.

If you live abroad and have a story to tell please contact Irish Times Abroad and share your experience. Email abroad@irishtimes.com with a little information about you and what you do.