'Outrageous' cost of living makes return to Ireland difficult

Brendan De hÓra from Crumlin, Dublin, is 61 and has lived in the US since 1964. He served in the army for three years, but not in Vietnam, and now lives at Liddington, Michigan.

He works there as a machine operator and raised his daughter as a single parent. She is now studying law in Alabama.

Currently in Ireland on a three-week holiday, he comes home every couple of years and has "thought of coming back since the day I left. I never got over being homesick."

However, as the years went on - with a daughter, a house, a mortgage and a job - he had settled in Michigan.

He now hopes to come back to Dublin "in the near future". The logistics of return don't bother him, but the cost of housing in Ireland does. "You would get three houses in Michigan for the price of one in Dublin. It's outrageous," Mr De dÓra said.

It was his biggest barrier to coming home and "may be insurmountable", although his return was not "entirely conditional on getting a house".

Many of his old friends and family are still in Dublin, including a sister and brother, as well as nieces and nephews.

The biggest changes he had noticed on his visits were the cost of living and how cosmopolitan and multicultural the city had become.

He might have to consider renting, "but you could rent two rooms in the US for one here".

He felt a sadness that his own country "might have priced me out of it".