Transylvanian-born Columbia Hillen swapped the mountains of Maramures for the hills of Donegal, and she hasn’t looked back since.
After growing up in the small town of Viseu de Sus in the Maramures region of northern Romania, where “nature was literally at our door”, Hillen went to study journalism and communications at the University of Bucharest. It was here that she met and fell in love Seán Hillen from Belfast, who is now her husband.
Together the entrepreneurial young couple founded their own newspaper, Bucharest Business Week, also later initiating St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
“For a couple you either make it or break it, working together and being together. But it has helped us very much. We are different but we have a lot in common.”
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But Ireland was always calling them. During a trip home one year to visit his mother, Seán had a few days to spare and paid an impromptu visit to a site in Donegal, never having been to the county before. “He just called me and said, ‘I think I’ve found the place for us’,” she recalls.
In 2010, craving a change from the fast-paced lifestyle of busy Bucharest, the couple made the transition to country living and moved to Donegal, where they continue to work as writers. Their home, which they share with sheepdogs Lugh and Sióg, is in Bloody Foreland in the heart of the Gaeltacht.
“I believe that places also have energies, like we have, and sometimes it’s a matter of matching with you. It feels that my energy really matches with this part of Donegal.”
Since moving here, she has embarked on a mission to embrace the Irish language. Although not yet fluent, she attends lessons and is keen to incorporate a few phrases into her day-to-day life. “It’s just so different from all the other languages,” says Hillen, adding that it has been difficult for her to learn so far. “But the locals have been very helpful.”
Singing the Wild Atlantic Way’s praises, Hillen, who has at this stage travelled around a great deal of the country, insists that “this northwest corner” of the island is superior. “I haven’t found something to match this beauty in any other part of Ireland.”
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By way of example, she describes the breathtaking 360-degree view at the top of Bloody Foreland, with Tory Island in one direction, Arranmore off in the distance and “Glenveagh National Park with all the Seven Sisters” mountains outstretched below.
The landscape of her hometown was not unlike this, although one thing Ireland is lacking are the deep forests of Romania. “Here the ocean sort of compensates for the lack of a forest,” she says, laughing.
“I know it’s strange to say but in many ways I remember growing up in the mountains and when you’d close your eyes and listen to the wind going through the leaves, it was like ocean waves ... There are ways in which you can remember things from home.”
Hillen likens the Romanian people and culture to the Irish as well. “The genes and the traditions [of Transylvania] are much more Celtic in many ways.”
“When I heard the Irish fiddle playing for the first time, I felt it was actually the music of Maramures. Automatically I connected with something.”
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“I’ve noticed there are a lot of similarities in the nature of people.” Remote living, she feels, “makes people very kind and hospitable and also much more quiet and thoughtful, and it takes a while to get to know someone”, characteristics she also noticed in neighbours in her homeland.
“We are very interested in culture, just like the Irish in terms of poetry and literature and music,” she says. Her favourite writer is the late author John O’Donohue. O’Donohue’s book Anam Cara, which translates as “soul friend” has a special meaning for Hillen, whose home and herbalism business share the same name.
“I love the concept of a soul friend. It’s more than just another person, it could be a place. I felt so at home from the beginning here. I think this is a soul friend for us so that’s why we named our home Anam Cara.”
One difference she notes is the positive attitude of Irish people in spite of historic hardship. “I was 18 when communism fell so I grew up during communism, with queuing for food and rations for bread ... It was a tough time.”
“What I like about the Irish people, you have managed to be much better at being more joyful and optimistic about the good times now. We are still beginning to learn to smile. Still pessimistic and worried that things will not be okay.”
Before meeting her husband, she had been drawn to learning more about the history of the North – so much so that she wrote about the Troubles for her thesis at journalism school in Bucharest.
Although settling in Donegal has been an overwhelmingly positive experience for the couple, she admits that it was initially “difficult to find something to give us income and actually allow us to live here”.
“Lack of infrastructure and investment in the appropriate areas such as eco and cultural tourism has kept northwest Donegal deprived of wonderful opportunities ... It sometimes seems this little corner of Ireland is overlooked by the Government in terms of support, when in fact, it’s one that needs help the most.”
Drawing on their shared passion for writing, Hillen and her husband decided to host an annual retreat for fellow writers – Ireland Writing Retreat. Hillen studied digital marketing and business management at Atlantic Technological University in Letterkenny to better equip her for this challenge. The international retreat, now in its 10th year, has attracted people from the US and Australia to Scotland and India and beyond to the couple’s little corner of the world.
Growing up, Hillen’s grandmother first introduced her to the world of herbalism. “I grew up with that kind of a culture where whenever you had an issue, you go to plants for that.” At one of her writer’s retreats a few years ago, she got talking to a participant who worked in the field – a conversation that reignited her passion for plants and led her to pursue a career in herbalism herself.
She quickly enrolled at the Plant Medical School in Wexford and will graduate later this year as a medical herbalist after five years of study. She has created a herb garden on the grounds of her home in Donegal.
“It was wonderful to discover, and I’m not exaggerating because I made a whole list of them, that there’s over 100 medicinal plants growing around my small house.”
Hillen’s parents, both retired geologists, have paid a few visits to her since she made the move. “As geologists they loved Donegal because there were a lot of rocks ... they loved Doe Castle and Glenveagh Castle too.”
Although she travels back to Romania each summer, Hillen has fallen in love with her new home. Describing it as “almost like a Tír na nÓg” she says that “Donegal will always be home for me”.
We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in recent years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com or tweet @newtotheparish
