Irish ‘silver swallows’ are migrating to the Spanish coast

It’s about 8pm in Paddy’s Point pub. It’s a Monday, but the mood is buoyant and a few of the customers start singing Boys from the County Armagh. Soon the whole place joins in.

“The people we meet, most of them are retired, the same as us,” says Paul, one of the revellers, who has been coming to this spot on the Mediterranean coast near Alicante with his wife, Carmel, for about a decade. “When you meet them, they’re always in good form, it’s a bit of an adventure for them.”

Paul, like most of the customers here, on this particular evening at least, is Irish. The GAA team shirts and horse racing photos on the walls, along with the Guinness and Murphy’s on tap, help make them feel at home, even though they are a thousand miles or so from Dublin.

“When the sport’s on the TV I’d swear you were in Ireland,” says Paul. “Honest to God, the banter and the craic going on. And then you go outside and the sun hits you and you go, ‘Oh yeah, I’m in Spain!’”

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Paul and Carmel are part of a generation of Irish pensioners who have bought property on the coast of the Spanish mainland or its islands and use it to escape the northern winter. Warm weather, the cost of living, cheap air travel and the easy lifestyle have all made Spain a home from home for these “swallows”, giving them a new lease of life.

“This winter we’re seeing a lot more Irish people coming and probably staying for longer than they might have before,” says Hazel Connor, who owns Paddy’s Point with her husband, Rory Lee. “In the past, they might have come for a couple of weeks but now they’re choosing to stay for a month, two months, three months or longer.”

Although they have a car, they rarely need it, with the beach, the promenade, the bank or the church, where they attend Sunday Mass, all within walking distance

Travel from Ireland to Spain is now back to pre-pandemic levels, with just under 1.9 million visits between January and the end of October this year. This makes Ireland the biggest source of tourism to Spain on a per capita basis. The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs said that the base level of travel to Spain remains high throughout the year and visits to the Canary Islands, where many pensioners are going, are even higher during the winter than the summer season.

Direct flights to Alicante and the Canary Islands from Dublin and Cork, in particular, have made the journey back and forth extremely accessible, especially as these travellers tend to fly during low season when the cost is lower. Aer Lingus says that it has an average of 20,000 seats per week from Ireland to Spanish destinations during the winter.

Double life

Alan and Bernadette Cuddihy, from Wexford, have been coming out since 2006 to stay in the property they own in La Zenia. They come for around six weeks at a time, between September and May, spending a total of four or five months of the year in Spain. With two grandchildren back home, they do a lot of babysitting there and they are leading what could be described as a double life.

“We don’t go out at home. Our nearest town is four miles away,” says Bernadette. “Even at the golf club, you go down and play your golf, have lunch and come home.”

I would have been getting up in the dark, going to work, coming home in the dark, and that kind of routine for me in the winter didn’t sit well. Here, even a dull day is a bright dull day

—  Gina Nolan

By contrast, when in La Zenia they visit the beach four or five times a week, enjoying what Alan, who was an environmental researcher, calls “the cleanest air in Spain”. Although they have a car, they rarely need it, with the beach, the promenade, the bank or the church, where they attend Sunday Mass, all within walking distance.

“We have everything in Ireland only we don’t have good weather,” says Alan, explaining the most obvious draw for these semi-migrants. In mid-December, the temperature along the coast near Alicante hovers around 20 Celsius, dropping to 10 degrees at night. Lanzarote is a little warmer. More hours of daylight is another draw.

“At home I suffered from the ‘sad syndrome’ this time of year, so for me this is absolute heaven,” says Gina Nolan, who has been coming to La Zenia from Wicklow with her husband Tommy since the early 2000s, before moving to Spain permanently this September.

“I would have been getting up in the dark, going to work, coming home in the dark, and that kind of routine for me in the winter didn’t sit well,” she says. “Here, even a dull day is a bright dull day. You get up in the morning, you wash, you have breakfast, do your chores, all of that. But you do it with a lighter heart.”

The cost of living also puts a spring in their step, with the Irish pension going a long way.

“Financially there’s a huge difference, particularly if you’re staying or living here on Irish earning power,” says Tommy. “The difference is colossal.” A pint of Heineken, he points out, costs around €3.70 along the Spanish coast, around €2 cheaper than in many pubs in Ireland.

Property prices

Property prices have been crucial in enticing northern Europeans to Spain for decades. Jean and Bill Kelleher bought a house in this area in 1999 for the equivalent of €53,000. They spread the word back in Cork and two of their neighbours there came out and bought the two houses next to them. Now when they come, they always buy a one-way ticket because they are never sure when they will return to Ireland.

“Both of us are 63 and we’re fit at the moment, but it’s time to get banisters for the stairs,” says Bill. But although they don’t plan to sell up their property in Ireland, nor do they expect to abandon the Mediterranean any time soon.

They’ve made a second life for themselves, a home from home here, where they have friends and companionships and things they’re involved in here, be it golf or other activities

—  Hazel Connor

“She loves it here, I love it,” says Bill. “So looking ahead, I can’t see us changing. We’re not in a rush to go back.”

House prices have risen considerably since Bill and Jean bought theirs, but an estate agent in La Zenia is advertising a three-bedroom villa with access to a pool for sale in nearby Benijófar at €185,000.

However, something less tangible than the cost of living seems to be the X-factor drawing these swallows back again and again: the warm atmosphere they have created in places such as La Zenia.

“They’ve made a second life for themselves, a home from home here, where they have friends and companionships and things they’re involved in here, be it golf or other activities,” says Hazel, the owner of Paddy’s Point.

“Many of these friendships have expanded to such an extent that they’ll meet up [in Ireland] and they’ll travel up the country and spend time together there,” says Rory, her husband.

It’s not just the cold which is left behind when they fly south, he says, but also inhibitions.

“You know how it is in small towns back home and you’re meeting the same people all the time, the same faces,” he says. “But when you come over here, you’re a little less known and you’re not even embarrassed to get up and dance, you know?”