Friends come and go all the time in Doha, but not a lot come back! So this week when a buddy that left the sandy dunes of Doha for the lush fields of Cork made her way back to Doha, for a holiday I was super excited. Not many people come to Doha on a…
Well, what do you know, it seems the Irish property market has come full circle. Ten years ago the advice was buy, buy, buy, why?, because the prices were going up. The quicker you bought, the quicker you could flip it and buy two more and so on until just like Jacks magic beans you’ll…
It’s probably ingrained in us Irish and maybe even more-so that any other nationality, that we are prone to suffering from a small bit of negativity. We lean towards the down side. We highlight the pitfalls, point out the inefficiencies and harp on about the negative in like, any situation. We loved to go on about Christmas starting…
It was only when a good friend of mine recently flew back to Ireland for her citizenship ceremony that I came round to the idea that being granted citizenship in a country, particularly Ireland of course, is a pretty big deal. Up to then I ashamedly looked with cynicism at highlights of ceremony on the…
Not an avid cinema goer per se, but this week I was looking forward to seeing The Girl on the Train. Having read the book I felt confident that there was little likelihood that it would be banned like the last movie on my must watch wish list, The Danish Girl. I was prepared for…
It’s true that social media and the internet are allowing people to feel more connected to the world than ever before. Moreover, we are able to stream our news to ensure that we receive exactly the information and news we want. If you don’t want to hear to hear the about Trump v Sanity don’t…
Only weeks to go before having a baby in the Middle East and along with the baby, reality starts kicking hard. Having a baby abroad is all very well and sounds like a great adventure at first but as the due date draws nearer so too does the reality that you’re thousands of miles from…
Spending summer away from Doha and slipping back into life in Ireland offers a perspective which is impossible to achieve without having the experience of living life in two very different countries. Every summer when I come back to Ireland I notice various changes, a nudge here, a dart there, many only obvious when being…
This week the results of the leaving cert came out and it transported me back to a moment I’ll always remember, those tentative hours morning standing in the school gym awaiting the little brown envelope that would determine my future. The hope was that I’d get course I’d listed on my CAO form, that would…
It was the balm. Coming home every summer and seeing how others were suffering and suffering, I could console myself that emigration five years ago was indeed the right answer, it soothed all homesickness and sentimentality towards leaving Ireland. There were many options open to economic sufferers back in 2009; Declare oneself bankrupt, close your…
thereluctantemigrant 