The top five most read Abroad stories of the year
The challenges of returning to Ireland from Singapore, the intensity of college sport in the US and how to get in flight attendants’ bad books
Irish abroad
A critic of this column thinks there’s too much negativity about Ireland, not enough about Australia’s beaches
That reader should know that, even though I live 3½ hours from the coast, I am taking her concerns on board
‘In Ireland we have lost some the human connection in business dealings. In Uganda it is deeply valued’
Wild Geese: Living and working in Uganda, Declan Peppard ‘truly misses’ St Anne’s Park in Dublin
An Irishman in Basque Country: ‘My first encounter with a tortilla came out of necessity. Now I order one out of desire’
From my experience of them in Ireland I expected a bland flavour. How wrong I was
From an Irish workhouse to Australia – the story of the Famine orphan girls
Every year descendants of the thousands of orphaned Irish teenage girls sent to Australia during the Great Famine gather in Melbourne to remember them
Australia offers me a more dignified life than the one I had in Ireland. It’s not unpatriotic to say so
Like many emigrants, the reality is that I am more invested in Ireland than the country I have moved to
‘Trades are very well paid here compared to anywhere else in the world I have been’
Wild Geese: Chris Kidney is a carpenter in Melbourne, Australia
‘I know nothing about running a kitchen . . . it looks like absolute hell – tiring, time consuming and extremely risky’
Irishman Oscar Brophy is subletting the kitchen of his new Bratislava bar-cum-nightclub, whose name translates as Falling Plaster
‘Learning Gaeilge is a true challenge’
Anna Derrig talks about life in London and Martina Tyrrell discusses settling in Spain after sailing around the globe
The Italian job: In Dubai, you eat on the go. In Tuscany? Lunch is two hours minimum, and you savour every bite
Following a post-holiday dream, Irish-born Niall O’Toole and his family now run a wine and holiday business in Tuscany
An Irish businessman in Singapore: ‘You’ll get a year in jail if you are in a drunken brawl, so people don’t step out of line’
Wild Geese: Martin O’Regan has a leading role in a niche business in the island nation
Many Irish have voted with their feet but can’t vote in the election. The reason is plain
What are opponents to voting abroad so afraid of? The explanations of ‘it’s too hard’ or ‘it’s too risky’ feel threadbare and lazy
An Offaly woman in London: ‘I was a teenager before I had the guts to identify as Irish’
I don’t really do envy, but I envied the sense of belonging all the native speakers had with their array of languages
Australia is so very far from Europe and US, and yet is as deeply rooted in Anglosphere norms, customs and culture
If you’re having an out-of-body experience, pasta and cheese may not strictly fix it, but they certainly won’t do you any harm
In Paris it’s always about your next meal - here are my favourite restaurants in the City of Light
Dublin woman Patricia Killeen always enjoys an excellent experience with her meal in Paris - but only if she goes go out
Brianna Parkins: ‘The Irish have a natural instinct for nosiness’
What better way to spend a hot sunny day than in the park, staking out two strange couples’ proposals?
Washing up in Iberia: ‘We realised we weren’t ever going to sail the world, so we moved ashore and sold the boat’
Plans changed when this family paid a visit to a little piece of paradise during a round-the-world yacht trip
Irishman in Canada for 50 years: ‘I was about to return home after three years but then things changed’
Patrick McKenna fitted right into the political hothouse in Montreal in 1978, which provided him with the adrenaline rush he had been missing since leaving Belfast
Laura Kennedy: Australians respond differently to nature compared to Irish people
I awoke early one morning in Canberra to a bizarre sound. What the actual f**k is that, I thought, a pterodactyl? It was a magpie, but not like the ones I’d known
I moved to London certain that I’d eventually return home. Now, I’ve settled
This Dubliner has seen a lot of change happen in London, but when will she come back to Ireland?
An Irish woman in Malta: ‘I miss my family and the greenery of home but not the driving rain’
Solicitor Fiona Healy cites the lower cost of living, the international focus and the ease of doing business as reasons why she loves living on the Mediterranean island
Poet Paul Muldoon: ‘My dad, a market gardener, was a guy who could barely write his own name’
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, academic and musician Paul Muldoon on growing up in a nationalist family in Co Armagh, life in Belfast during the Troubles and moving to the US
A Hell’s Kitchen winner on life as a chef in the US
We hear from the man running The Irish Times pub in Prague, as well as some tips for travelling Europe by train and surviving long-distance flights
A Dubliner returning to France after 15 years away: ‘Here are some of the many changes I noticed’
A Dubliner returning to France finds smoky bars replaced by bubblegum clouds from vapes, that you no longer risk going tealess, and you can even ask directions in English
Chef Ryan O’Sullivan: ‘I was like, I have to get back to the States and make something of myself’
O’Sullivan, who hails from Cork, won season 22 of Gordon Ramsay’s US television show Hell’s Kitchen
‘Slow travel? I like travelling using fastest modes. But I’m persuaded to go on a 16-day trip designed around trains’
Tipperary woman Phoebe Moore and Moneer Seify headed on a journey from London-Paris-Marseille-Hyères-Genova-Bologna-Venice
When you return home to Ireland from abroad, you notice that everyone is a little changed
Laura Kennedy: It shouldn’t take a trip back to realise that home is, above all, people
Dublin Bus drivers are practised in the art of soundness. Sydney could learn from them
The girl sprinting for the ferry in Sydney late on a Saturday night was meanly cut off, prompting an unusual display of social solidarity
How working abroad can make it easier to secure a mortgage back in Ireland
Tens of thousands of Irish people go abroad every year: many see it as a short-term plan to turbocharge their homebuying prospects
I can’t tell you how many times someone has said to me: ‘You’re Irish! I’ve always wanted to visit Ireland. Is it really so green?’
‘As the new world invited those of us with unusual names in, and as this country accepted me, I welcome my Venezuelan deliverers to this world where they find themselves – Colombia’
A Dane in Dublin: ‘In Denmark death is taboo but in Dublin I’ve been met with a different warmth’
Grief has given a Danish journalist the strength to live her life in Dublin on her own terms and find healing
An Irishman in Paris: ‘Getting under the many layers of Parisian culture is a fascinating but neverending endeavour’
Wild Geese: Eoghan MacDonagh is a senior associate with the law firm Clifford Chance
Laura Kennedy: Long-haul flight tips from snore-proof ear plugs to tummy-friendly food
Since friends or family giving Irish emigrants helpful information is forbidden in our culture, you can rely on me to do it for you
Coming home to live in Ireland? There will be tax implications for your income and assets
Immigrants and Irish people returning after working abroad need to consider their potential tax liabilities regarding savings, property and pensions
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