Sometimes, living in Ireland - struggling, coping, and fighting to belong - I forget how my relationship with this country, this land, and Irishness began. I am an Indian woman, born and raised in Canada. Ireland was nowhere on the horizon of my life as I was growing up.
We had a lot of hope and anticipation for my move to Ireland. My partner deeply loved his country and me. He couldn't wait to share the two, expecting that Ireland would feel as at home with me and I in Ireland as we did with each other. I expected to share an experience of colonial resistance with this nation that I never did with my own. I anticipated finally being embraced by a country knowing we had in common something that was core to us both - that piece which explained where we fit in this world, now reflected all around me by a nation. It was only logical to assume that here I would finally be at home, not the "other", dissident, odd one out. Unfortunately, we were all disappointed.