Ana Vale Oliveira, from Portugal, moved to Ireland with her boyfriend, Fernando, in May 2017. Eight years later they are married and raising their three-year-old daughter in Stillorgan, in Dublin.
Having studied nursing in her Portuguese coastal hometown, Viana do Castelo, she is now enjoying her role as a clinical nurse manager in Shrewsbury House, a dementia-specific day centre in Cabinteely.
“Most of the other nurses that graduated at the same time that I did, they went to the UK ... I had been to London before a couple of times and just didn’t like it.
“My husband had lived in Portugal, Brazil, Lithuania and Angola, and we wanted to work abroad,” she says.
After doing some research, the couple decided they would make Ireland their new home.
“I knew I didn’t want to go to the UK, but I also didn’t want to go through the hassle of having to learn a new language, so Ireland seemed like the perfect place.”
A memory from the 2004 football European Championship, held in Portugal that year, may also have played a part in the decision-making process.
Although Ireland didn’t qualify, some fans still travelled. “It’s just a memory I have of the supporters from Ireland. They were so funny and I remember all the nice songs they were singing. That was in the back of my head.”
Since moving to Ireland, she has found people to be generally “very helpful and welcoming”.
“I was surprised because I feel like Portuguese and Irish people are kind of similar. People here are always very helpful and welcoming, and I do see those qualities in Portuguese people as well.”
Here I just feel like kids are not welcome after a certain time of the day
When the couple first moved, they lived in Mullingar, Co Westmeath. But after a year, she wanted a change of scenery.
“I was missing the sea ... I love going for a swim, when the weather allows.”
Opting for south Dublin, she found work in a nursing home, where she worked through the beginning of Covid-19.
“Covid came and it was a very hard time having to deal with the unknown in nursing homes and having to see people dying. It was a very stressful time ... I think that everyone from all different levels of healthcare, and not only in the healthcare system, was learning as you go.”
She says attitudes towards nurses are better in Ireland than in Portugal, as are nurses’ salaries.
[ ‘I didn’t expect to find an exciting life in Dublin’Opens in new window ]
“I feel like nurses are a lot more valued here. People value what I do and respect it, and in Portugal I don’t see it that way ... People take into consideration what you say. [In Portugal] people see nurses as the doctor helper. And here they see nurses, and they see doctors, and I feel like that’s a big difference.”
In June 2021, her daughter Olivia was born, and just two months later her young family moved to Gibraltar to follow a job opportunity for Fernando, who works in business management.
“When we moved here I had a good job and he didn’t, and now it was my turn to do that for him ... I think it was the perfect place for maternity leave.”
After 18 months they decided to return to Ireland. The challenging hunt for childcare began before the move back.
“When I was working nights in Gibraltar, there was one night I opened Google Maps and contacted every single creche and Montessori [in Dublin]. Some of them were saying they only had availability in 2025, so that was a two-year waiting list.”
Especially on a sunny day, there’s no place like Dublin. I just love walking around
After much searching, she had a stroke of luck when a new creche opened in their area. She says her daughter’s bilingualism is one benefit of life in Ireland.
“I think one of the best things that she can take from the life that I’m choosing for her is the fact that she speaks two languages. She speaks Portuguese, because me and my husband speak Portuguese at home, and she goes to creche and she speaks English.”
One cultural difference is the way children are integrated into Irish society.
“In Portugal, you can see kids out in the street at midnight, and here I just feel like kids are not welcome after a certain time of the day. I feel like you don’t see kids anywhere and that narrows down our possibilities of social plans from 7pm onwards ... so that’s a bit challenging.”
Reflecting on this observation, she suggests that “the day starts a lot earlier here than in Portugal ... and maybe that’s why kids go to bed a little bit earlier”.
“Transport is really bad here,” she says. “Sometimes it can take you hours to do a short drive. It’s very fresh in my mind as last week I had to go to the airport to pick up my family. And it’s just bonkers, the way that you can spend two hours on the M50 for a 30km drive.” Luckily her commute to work is fairly straightforward.
As she prepares for her daughter starting in primary school next year, she feels “very comfortable” with the life she has built in Dublin.
“I’d say that the foreseeable future is here in Ireland, in Dublin. We are very comfortable and I like my life here now.
“Especially on a sunny day, there’s no place like Dublin. I just love walking around. You always have so many beautiful parks and places around the sea: Dún Laoghaire, Howth, Sandycove, Vico baths and Killiney Hill.”
We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past 10 years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com or tweet @newtotheparish
