What does it mean to be of Ireland? It is an idea that gets placed within a single uniform vision, particularly as we approach St Patrick’s Day. It is something that as a nation we try to define and repackage and sell door to door as Ministers make their way to outposts across the globe.
As a concept it gets distilled into an essence the further we travel in distance from the island. It becomes an emerald-green river snaking through a windy city, a shamrock shake sucked from a straw under the golden arches at Toronto’s union station and a glittering shamrock-springed headband that ends up in landfill at Sydney’s Lucas Heights dump.
There is an idea in psychology that many siblings experience childhood in the same family in vastly different ways. Factors such as birth order, economic circumstances, role, temperament all go into this mix.
If Ireland is a family and its citizens are its children, we also experience being from the same island in a myriad of different ways. We are from a variety of generations, social classes and sexualities. Some of us live through booms, and peacetime, others in housing crises, times of homophobia, political division and unrest.
READ MORE
For Irish people living abroad, the distance brings these questions sharply into focus. Emigrants may wonder if the reasons they feel different in their adopted home is down to nationality. Ireland can be reduced, in the minds of some who leave it, to fading memories and moments; its molecules reside in their bodies as old unspoken feelings.
So can this concept and experience of Ireland really be universal? Sure, there are commonalities that shape Ireland - passed on trauma from colonialism and religious oppression; the geography of rainy days and island life; and the values and messages embedded in our education and culture.
But is it more likely that Ireland means something very different to all of us? For some it’s green spaces, friendly people, fun and creativity. For others it’s urban sprawl, exclusion, loneliness and struggling to make ends meet.
For many emigrants who left for economic reasons, Ireland is not a place that valued them or looked after them.
Lauren Fay recently told us about leaving Galway for Gdansk to escape the housing crisis.
“This is not the normal progression ... buying a house wasn’t even on the cards, we couldn’t even rent ... You feel like you’ve been pushed out.” She notes how many Poles are being attracted back to their home country “I want the same for Ireland”.
For Sorcha Swan in London, “Ireland will always be home,” and she misses the welcome, the buzz and the community spirit. But London offers her career, cultural pursuits and diversity unmatched in Ireland.
For many emigrants, the Ireland they “know” stays static, but the country moves on.
Irish multi-millonaire Michael Smurfit told The Irish Times, from the luxury yacht he lives on in Monaco, that he hadn’t been to Ireland for a years. “All the things I knew are gone, the K Club I sold, Shanahan’s on the Green, my favourite restaurant is no longer open and I don’t recognise it.”
For him the Ireland he remembers was very different: “The Ireland I grew up in was totally different to the Ireland of today. It was an Ireland of emigration and poverty. I’ve seen a transformation both in politics and in business beyond my wildest imagination.”
Aoife Nash living in France, is torn about the difference she feels. “I wonder, perhaps it is us in Ireland that have it wrong and the French that have it right. Is it not better to work to live rather than live to work as it sometimes feels at home?” But ultimately she longs for Ireland: “I am missing my kin, the knowing wink, the warm smile, the way we raise our children.”
Laura Kennedy identifies one thing Ireland cannot ever be for those who leave, it can never not be Ireland.
“Emigration has many benefits, and one of these is that the unspoken question lingering in all of us who leave our home country by choice – ‘Who could I be here?’ – receives a concrete answer.
“It’s true that wherever you go, there you are, but it’s also true that the culture and physical environment you live in, as well as the network of people around you, make some versions of you feel more possible than others,” she writes.
Thank you for reading this newsletter. If you’d like to contribute to Abroad email abroad@irishtimes.com, fill in the form below, follow us on Instagram and sign up for this newsletter to your inbox.
