THOMAS McLOUGHLIN from Garavogue in Sligo left Ireland in 1972 due to a lack of work and moved to London, where he worked in construction. He married and had two children, but was later divorced.
Having given up work two years ago due to a back problem, he found himself living in a one-bedroom flat provided by a housing association, with little social interaction, and he became “lonely and fed up”.
He returned to Ireland after his brother died in 2009 to be closer to his remaining family.
The 56-year-old applied for disability allowance and was refused social welfare in November that year on the basis that he did not meet the habitual residence condition.
Mr McLoughlin says he had no money, which led to him sleeping rough on a number of occasions.
He sought assistance from the St Vincent de Paul and struggled to get a medical card in order to pay for necessary medication.
An appeal to the chief appeals officer in Dublin was eventually upheld on April 1st, 2010, and a payment was made in May, almost seven months after he first applied.
He says the experience left him bitter and frustrated: “I think if a person wants to come back to their own country that they should be able to.
“Living in England, I was an immigrant, but I feel more like an immigrant here than I did there because of the way they treat you. The way that you’re treated by these people that you have to go and see, to try to work your life out with, I feel very bitter towards them.
“I would have stayed if I’d have got the work but there was none,” he said, claiming that, had he stayed in Ireland instead of emigrating, he would have been costing the State money, as he would have been claiming social welfare. Instead, he said, he was sending money home to Ireland early during his tenure in England.