This article is part of Letters Home for Christmas, an Irish Times series exploring views about Ireland among young emigrants as the year draws to a close
This Christmas will look quite different for Galway-born Yasmin Rather, who has just spent her first year in Australia working as an agency nurse.
In recent weeks, the 24-year-old says photos of the Galway Christmas markets on friends’ social media pages has made her feel the pull of home. “There is absolutely nothing like that over here,” she says. “There’s not even Christmas songs playing; it’s definitely a whole different vibe.”
Since moving in January, Rather has travelled and worked in Perth and New South Wales, and is now in Melbourne.
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She is one of 13,500 people who left Ireland for Australia in the 12 months leading up to April 2025, an increase of 27 per cent from 2024.
For many, Australia’s lifestyle, work-life balance and wages have become a strong draw.
After qualifying as a nurse in 2023, Rather found that the cost of living in Galway had become unmanageable.
“I was just burning money, because everything I earned was just going on rent,” she says. “I was so happy where I was in Galway, where I was working. But I’d pay my rent, I’d pay my car, and unless I was working overtime there was no way I was saving for a mortgage, because I’d been renting for so long.”
Rather felt the pressure of understaffing while completing her first year working as a nurse in Galway, saying she was “constantly drowning” in work.
“There were nights when I’d finish [work] at home and I’d just sit in my car and absolutely bawl my eyes out,” she says.
“Over here, I’m learning so much and getting so much support, because there’s nurses here that have time to show me stuff, whereas back home, it was so busy.”
Now, she says, there is “never a day where I’m dreading going in” to work. She hopes to eventually apply for a permanent residency sponsorship.
Rather has bought a flight for her younger sister to visit during the festive season. “It’ll be weird” not being in Ireland for Christmas, she says.
Living with her friend Caoimhe they are determined to re-create some sense of an Irish Christmas in the apartment. Rather’s sister being tasked with bringing over Christmas pyjamas from Penneys for them all to wear.
She says friends have plans to spend Christmas on the beach in Sydney. While Bondi Beach is ritual for the Irish on Christmas day, many people will feel “a bit more nervous” in the wake of last weekend’s terror attack.
Rather plans to join fellow Irish emigrants in Melbourne for a Christmas dinner. The large Irish network in Australia has been a source of comfort.
She recalls walking into an Irish pub on her own when she first moved to over, and leaving with “10 new best friends”, who she still meets regularly.
“You’d feel homesick, but there’d be loads of things that would kind of bring you home in a certain way,” she says. Watching Troy Parrot score goals for Ireland has brought the Irish community in Melbourne even closer. “It was really nice to see everyone when Ireland won,” she says. “We were all just jumping up and down” in the pub.
Still, the distance brings a sense of disconnect for Rather. She catches snippets of Irish news through TikTok or conversations with friends.
“I feel like I’m so far away from home,” she says. “I literally wouldn’t have known there was a presidency change, only that I have TikTok.”
She would like to return to Ireland “if the cost of housing went down, or my wages went up”. She “absolutely loved” home, and is finding it difficult missing big family moments.
“My sister passed her driving test, my little brother finished his Junior Cert, my other brother graduated. There was so much stuff that I missed out on,” she says.
Rather is on a career break from her nursing job in Galway, and notes the option to return home is still there. However, she wonders if the cost of living will improve.
“There’s no way I could continue just going on the way I was [in Ireland]. I mean I could barely afford my groceries, never mind put a mortgage down on a house,” she says.
This Christmas, she’ll swap winter evenings at the Galway Christmas markets for sunny days in Melbourne, spending the festive season with her sister, her new friends and the wider Irish community that has helped her feel at home on the other side of the world.
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