Lynn Rusk is a freelance journalist from Castleblayney, Co Monaghan currently living in London. She has also lived in Edinburgh, Sweden and Japan
They say that home isn’t a place, it’s a feeling and after a year of living in London this sentiment is starting to ring true.
A lot has happened in the short time I’ve lived in this city, which makes me believe that it truly is a place where dreams can become a reality.
I first arrived in London in November 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, knowing just a handful of people and having quite an unstable work set up.
I taught for two days a week at my friend’s school in Mitcham, south London and the rest of the time I worked as a supply primary school teacher.
Having a full-time job again has helped my confidence to soar
School closures coupled with the crippling uncertainty of the pandemic meant I wasn’t always guaranteed work and that was always a source of financial stress and anxiety. That said, supply teaching was a great introduction to discover the great melting pot that London is.
Working in different schools across the city showed me a real cross-section of society. Some days I would be teaching at the independent school in Hampstead, that Jamie Oliver and Sam Mendes’s children attended. Other days I would be working in academies with more than 900 children and exhausted and over-stretched staff, having abuse hurled at me.
Now that I’m in a much more secure position it is easy to think that these experiences were “character building”. After a rocky summer during which I was unable to secure a full-time teaching position for the new school year, I decided to try journalism again, a career I had started, but which had been cut short due to pandemic lay-offs.
After many unanswered applications and bitter disappointments, I was lucky enough to gain a freelance position at a new local news site that launched last September and, after six months, haven’t looked back.
Having a full-time job again has helped my confidence to soar, just having that anchor and sense of security and knowing where I am going to be each day has been a huge boost for me. Having the opportunity to return to a career I thought had ended forever has also given me back a bounce in my step.
I currently work in a very small team. There are just five of us, so I have had the freedom to pursue whichever stories I like.
In my six months as a local news reporter in London, I have interviewed the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan twice, met jazz singer Jamie Cullum and interviewed Victoria Coren Mitchell. I have also had the opportunity to attend a number of protests in Westminster and been able to discover the city in so many new and exciting ways.
There have been many not so pleasant experiences, too. Just a few weeks after starting, I had to attend the horrific crime scene of school teacher Sabina Nessa, who was killed on her way to a first date. I also had to report from the scene of a devastating house fire that killed two sets of infant twins.
Being in close proximity to places where truly horrific events have occurred is a very chilling experience. It has given me a new appreciation for the emergency services and the unimaginably tragic scenes they must have to witness on a daily basis.
Living in London as a woman, your safety is never something that is guaranteed especially at night. When I heard the news of Ashling Murphy being brutally attacked in broad daylight ,it had a deep impact on me.
While I had got used to taking extra precautions travelling around the city on my own, the idea of something so monstrous happening in Tullamore, Co Offaly at 4pm really chilled me to my core. So when I heard a vigil was being held for the beloved teacher in Camden I knew I had to be there. Although I am aware of the tens of thousands of Irish people who live in London, I have never felt it more than at this vigil.
More than one thousand people showed up, both men and women of all ages, to pay their silent respects. A few attendees wore their Offaly GAA strips, traditional Irish songs such as Mo Ghile Mear, were played, while people hummed along in solidarity. Many brought candles and flowers, while many stood in silent prayer.
I know that other vigils were held much further afield than London, in New York, Dubai, Brisbane, which is a true testament of the outpouring of love and grief people felt for their fellow Irish person. If someone hurts one of us, all of us feel that pain. I think for me that’s what it means to be Irish.
To finish this love letter from London to Ireland, I only say that when there is hope, things can get better. My life feels completely unrecognisable from this time last year and I am very grateful that this city has been kind to me. I have learned the importance of not taking anything for granted and finding joy in every day.
None of us know what is around the corner, so making the most of every opportunity is something I intend to keep doing.
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