I had been an emigrant before, back in the late 1980s. I had left Ireland, a down-trodden, depressing, recession filled country for the bright lights and employment opportunities of London.
It was an amazing and vibrant time. I was one of almost nine million souls working and living in London, part of a truly multicultured cosmopolitan society, where I had my first real taste of freedom, the underground, Chinese and Indian food. I was hooked.
Even then, as young and naive as I was, I could spot an Irish person walking opposite me on Oxford Street. Was it the awful woolly jumper they wore or the pale translucent skin, or the watery blue eyes? Was it the way they walked and carried themselves, eyes down with a defeated, haunted air? Being an Irish person in England in the 1980s could be difficult and dare I say it, shameful.
Roll on 23 years later. I’d been back living in Ireland for 13 years. My husband and I had stable, pensionable jobs, two young children, family close by, and a nice home. But we were bored. “Is this it?” I thought to myself on my two-hour commute to work every day.
The incessant rain, the ever-increasing taxes, the doom and gloom, the dreaded recession again... It felt worse than the 80s. We packed up that same year, and moved to the most non-Irish region we could think of: the Middle East.
It is so different here to what we are used to from home. There are mosques on every corner instead of churches. The call to prayer wakes you up in the middle of the night, or makes you jump when you’re doing your food shopping in the local mall. There are no road markings or street names, just roundabouts and landmarks to identify your house.
And there’s sand absolutely everywhere. It’s no fun driving in a sand storm, I’ve learned, and after a nasty chest infection I’ll never go out for a walk in a sand storm again either.
The expat community is helpful and friendly. Everyone is missing their families, so we look out for one another. In some ways, it’s like living in a small Irish village. Everyone knows you, or knows of you, and it’s no coincidence our best friends are Irish. Our children still hear everyday Irish phrases and banter from us all.
Abu Dhabi has been our home for three years now and will probably be our home for the next five. It’s fun and different, and even though we live in the middle of the desert, our water bills are still cheaper than the ones at home!
For the Irish expats living over here, there’s not a woolly jumper in sight, but plenty of shorts and flip flops. The big difference between them and the Irish in London in the 80s and 90s is in how they walk, with their heads held high, eyes looking straight at you, a firm handshake, and proud to be Irish.
