From a librarian from a small town in Minnesota, to learning Irish and playing camogie in Dublin city, in the course of a few years: It’s been quite the life journey for Talia Earle.
Earle grew up in a very rural area near Mankato in southern Minnesota, later moving to St Louis, Missouri, then Baltimore, Maryland, where she was a librarian for a law firm.
She has Irish heritage from way back – the 1700s, on her mum’s side.
“My parents are very into the history and really instilled in me the love of the land, down the line, down through the generations, my grandparents telling their kids. I grew up learning about the history of Ireland and getting a real appreciation for the language, the culture, the sports. That’s why I’m playing camogie and I’m learning the language,” Earle says.
‘The US has become really divisive. I definitely prefer the quality of life here. I like the people and the possibilities’
‘I feel like in Ireland we have women in higher positions and opportunities for women to grow’
Irish education and food are great but ‘as a sober person, it’s very odd to be here’
“I do have Irish ancestry,” she adds, “I’m not one to be like ‘oh I’m Irish’. I’m not that kind of American!”
Earle first visited Ireland the end of 2019 and “absolutely fell in love with the place, the people, everything”.
“And I thought, I’m going to come back. I’m going to try and visit at least once a year. Then in 2021 when Covid restrictions were lifted I finally came back,” she says.
One night in November 2021 she met her husband Domhnall, a teacher, at a session in The Cobblestone pub in Dublin. They hit it off. She had been trying to teach herself Irish on Duolingo for years, and had done some Irish classes in Baltimore.
“The night we met, he’s like, ‘Oh, I’m an Irish teacher. I can teach you Irish’. I said, ‘all right’. He is a very proud Dubliner from the northside. He is a Gaeilgeoir and very supportive of me playing camogie. He’s also involved with the GAA and he plays football. We exchanged info that night in The Cobblestone. And then we just talked every day since then.”
In Na Gaeil Aeracha, everyone is so nice. They’re always checking in, we hang out. We are all friends. I was really surprised at how easy it was to integrate
Earle was working remotely and she found the cheapest flights she could and visited every other month. In November 2022, a year into their relationship, Domhnall took her on a trip to the Hill of Tara.
“He gave me a silver Fáinne because he was teaching me Irish. All this was in Irish, he said ‘Oh, I have another Fáinne for you. And then he got down and proposed to me as Gaeilge, and it was just lovely.”
They had a civil ceremony in June 2023, she moved to Dublin in August, and they had a big wedding in October.
Earle has adapted well to living here. The weather is fine, “because I’m used to negative 40 degrees [Fahrenheit], where it’s so cold, you could die from frostbite if you go outside”.
“Not having a car was crazy, but I’ve gotten used to it,” she says. “I’m used to biking around. Thank God for the Bike to Work scheme. What a lifesaver that is. It’s really nice to have public transportation, trains all over the country. We don’t have that in America. Here, it’s pretty easy to go to the north or the south or wherever, by train.
“Everything is a lot slower, and people are more respectful of your time, and your time off from work. I really like the work-life balance in Ireland. When I’m off of work, I don’t really get texts, I don’t have to be available 24/7. At my last job, I was a law librarian at a legal firm. I was working probably 45 to 50 hours a week, on top of, I should be checking my email regularly even through the weekends.”
It’s also been easy to find her tribe socially. “It’s way more welcoming than I thought it was going to be,” Earle says.
She’s a member of Na Gaeil Aeracha, an LGBTQ+ inclusive GAA team (she’s bisexual) that practices in the Phoenix Park.
“Joining my camogie team was the easiest thing,” she says. “They were so welcoming. I was 36, I had never played camogie, ever in my life, and they just accepted me with open arms. It was really easy to integrate. Way easier than Minnesota: if you don’t know someone from when you were born, it’s really hard to become friends with people there.
“In Na Gaeil Aeracha, everyone is so nice. They’re always checking in, we hang out. We are all friends. I was really surprised at how easy it was to integrate.
“We had a match two weeks ago. It started raining, my hurl broke and it was the greatest thing ever: they just ran out with a new one. And I went right back in. I think it’s the greatest game in the world. That All-Ireland match a couple of weeks ago was ... like, there’s nothing that can beat hurling. It’s just the absolute best. The skill that’s involved. Actually playing it, and knowing how fast you have to run. My God, it’s just fantastic. I feel so alive playing camogie. I feel Irish when I play it. I feel like Cú Chulainn!”
Settling in, “learning Irish has really connected me with a lot of people. The Gaeilgeoirí community is fantastic, and super welcoming”.
“They’re just so happy that you’re learning the language,” Earle says. “I’m also on the Irish language subcommittee of the GAA club.
“Domhnall played a little hurling and football when he was younger. He saw me playing camogie and said, ‘oh I really want to get back into the GAA again’. Now he’s playing football with a local GAA club in Portobello. His team’s going to be playing against my club’s men’s football team sometime soon. I said, ‘I can’t be rooting for you! I’m sorry!’”
It is, she says, all part of trying to integrate into the community she’s living in. “I don’t want to impose. That’s why I’m learning the language and the culture. I want to be very respectful and mindful of the land and the surroundings and the people that I meet,” she says.
Earle did not assume Irish people would be very conservative, and she’s found “everybody I’ve talked to has been pretty open-minded about things. I’m coming from America, where we literally just overturned Roe v Wade”.
But it’s not all sweetness and light. “The one thing that’s really surprising is how awful Dublin Bus is. I cannot get over how terrible the service is,” she says.
And while prices are mostly okay, housing is the big challenge. They’re renting in Harold’s Cross, but would prefer to move closer to his family on the northside. She mentions affordable houses coming up nearby, at very unaffordable prices. “It’s so expensive.”
She’s delighted to be working as an assistant librarian with Trinity College. “This job is like a dream come true,” she says. Initially “finding a job here was difficult. I was unemployed for quite a while. I didn’t even get emails back after interviews” for library or law-related jobs.
Her family are thrilled she’s moved to Ireland. “My oldest sister came over for our wedding. She had never been out of the country before. She fell in love with Ireland and can’t wait to come back,” Earle says.
“My dad is texting me all the time for updates. The fact that I was able to move is such a blessing and such a dream come true. I came from a very, very poor family and somehow I’ve gotten here.”
Right now, she says, here is the happiest she has ever been in her life. “It ‘s funny. I had been seeing a therapist in America, and I did my last session with her right after I moved. And she said, ‘you know, I think all you needed was just to get out of the country’,” she laughs.
We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past 10 years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com or tweet @newtotheparish
