The Irish must be the world's greatest optimists. We stare at the rain lashing down on the barbecue, waiting patiently for our allocation of one hot summer's day. Like Bono, we keep our sunglasses on indoors. We even use the smoking ban to make every pub doorway look like part of a new outdoor cafe culture.
But is Spain more than just a giant patio heater by the sea? Speaking to a range of Ireland's new lovers of Spain, it seems people are going there for more than a bit of heat and cheap wine. Irish people are beginning to build up a connection with the country and its culture: it's not all Ballymun in the sun. Sorcha Hamilton reports
PETER LAHIFF, MADRID
'IT ISN'T BEAUTIFUL, LIKE BARCELONA, BUT I LIKE THE PEOPLE'
Big evening dinners were what Peter Lahiff missed most when he arrived in Madrid. "I went hungry for a few weeks, until I realised that they just share small dishes of tapas in the evening and have a big lunch instead." Lahiff decided to take a year out after his degree and head to Madrid, to teach English. "I had done a lot of backpacking and travelling around, ticking off sites on the map, but I really wanted to go somewhere and get into the culture." He quickly grew to love the Spanish capital, and he ended up staying for another year: "Madrid isn't beautiful, like Paris or Barcelona, but what I liked was the people. They're very straight-up and sociable. The transport is fantastic, too, and you can have a great nightlife, always finishing with chocolate and churros at 6am."
PETER SHERIDAN, FUENGIROLA
'BALLYMUN IN THE SUN'
Sand so hot you can't walk on it is the first thing that comes to mind when the writer Peter Sheridan thinks of Spain. "I also love that you can walk around with nothing on - clothes are just something you don't have to worry about there." Sheridan and his wife, Sheila, bought an apartment on the beach in Carvajal, Fuengirola, a few years ago. "We can get there in three and a half hours. We're 15 minutes from the airport in Dublin, and the apartment is 10 minutes from the airport in Spain. It's quicker than going to Galway." They usually try to get away a few times a year to Spain, where they spend their time reading, playing golf and lazing on the beach. "We love being away from the TV and always eating outdoors, and we spend hours on the balcony playing Scrabble." Sheridan also writes there, while Sheila brushes up her Spanish verbs. "We surprised ourselves loving life in the high rise," she says, "but Ballymun in the sun suits us perfectly well."
SHEILA O'FLANAGAN, ALICANTE
'I SPEAK AS MUCH SPANISH AS I CAN'
The best-selling author doesn't dance flamenco or take siestas, but she does like to escape to her home in Alicante for a few months every year. Located in a town called Rojales, her house is only half an hour from Alicante but still enjoys the quiet of the countryside. "I'm a city girl at heart - I can't do miles of empty scenery - so this suits me really well," she says. O'Flanagan has spectacular lake views from her bedroom. "Often I take the laptop out onto the balcony and do a bit of writing. It's very quiet here, and it's a great place for chill-out time." She also loves testing her Spanish on the locals. "Although there is a certain amount of English spoken here, I try to speak as much Spanish as I can, and I get a great kick out of being understood."
TOM McGRATH, BILBAO
'LISTENING TO CRICKETS AT NIGHT'
Tom McGrath was in Spain the day Franco died. "I remember it being announced on the TV - 'Franco ha muerto' - and there were people out demonstrating on the streets, just delighted to be able to demonstrate." McGrath, a lawyer, has been to Bilbao many times since his first trip, in 1970, when he bought a ticket for £11. He returned every summer after that, camping, enjoying the warm evenings and "listening to the crickets at night". He would also visit a Spanish woman - now his wife - and they would walk in the mountains around the city. He returns to Bilbao frequently, to visit his father-in-law and for work. "A lot of people just think of the Costa del Sol or high rises when they think of Spain, but there's so much more to the country than that."
BERNADETTE DOORLY, ALOZAINA, MALAGA
'YOU WON'T GET A FULL IRISH BREAKFAST'
The idea of farming in the pouring rain was enough to make Bernadette Doorly leave Ireland with her husband and three children to live in a pueblo blanco in southern Spain. "We wanted to move from Bray, and had considered moving to the countryside, but Spain seemed a much better idea. Here the kids have more of an outdoor life. In Bray they never played unsupervised, but here they can run around all they like, because it's very safe." It took a while to get used to the slow pace of life and the small-community atmosphere of the town. "But they're very friendly here, and now I feel like we have a place in the community." Alozaina, which is only an hour from Malaga, is different from the coastal hot spots. "Here you're surrounded by olive farms and orange groves. You won't get a full Irish breakfast or the papers, and you have to speak Spanish, but that's what I love about it."
ALAN GRIFFIN, BASQUE COUNTRY
'MANY OF MY FORMER STUDENTS ARE IN PRISON'
Alan Griffin arrived in the Basque country - now his home of 20 years - by "a series of accidents". A love of the Spanish author Pio Baroja, a group of Basque friends and a woman who later became his wife drew the Clare man to Astigarraga, a town 12 miles from the French border. Griffin, who runs an English school, loves being at the heart of Basque culture. He plays a traditional Basque instrument he describes as "a small bagpipe without the bag" in a band called Alboka. "Most people here wouldn't consider themselves Spanish or in Spain; it's very different here to the rest of the country," he says. Griffin has witnessed the area's political conflict. "Many of my ex-students are in prison, have died or have been tortured by police. I live very close to the conflict, but things are changing, and there's a feeling that this is the end to the violence." Although Griffin visits Ireland for a month each year, he has no plans to return permanently, even if the weather isn't much better in the Basque Country than at home. "Everything is green here. It's certainly not hot, dusty Spain."