Ever since I retired from teaching with the New York City Public Schools, I’ve thought about returning to my native Ireland for the remainder of my life. Through the years, I have enjoyed summer visits, and dance and writing workshops there.
I looked at cottages near Galway, ancient city of The Tribes. I thought about Dublin, with its
literary tradition, and Ireland as home to writers – from Swift to Yeats and Joyce. I dreamed of a space where I could write and invite friends to join me in the adoration of heather and newborn lambs in spring.
I thought I had a cottage a few years ago. In her will my mother left me the house in Mayo that the family bought in the 1960’s. It was considered an improvement over the house where I was born. My parents had left our old cottage with its thatched roof and whitewashed stonewalls to live in a gray house with a slate roof, a few fields away. After Dad’s death, Mom left the gray house behind and moved to London.
But when I went back to claim my inheritance, the neighbor’s calves rose up from their straw beds by the fireplace and let me know that they had squatter’s rights.
“Forget it,” the lawyer said. “You’d be throwing good money after bad, battling to get property back after twelve years of abandonment. ’Tis an old law.”
Well, the old law depressed me for a while, but I wasn’t going to let it dampen my enthusiasm for retiring to the land of my birth.
So, last November, after being awarded a two-week writer’s residency at the Heinrich Böll cottage on Achill Island, I decided to stay in Ireland for a couple of winter months, to see again what it felt like to take country walks in the cold rain and listen to the wind. I needed to find out if I could exchange my life west of the Hudson for a home west of the Shannon. Friends and writing buddies said they’d miss me, but they promised to visit.
When I left the idyllic writers’ residence on the sheltered side of Achill, I stayed with my friend Anne on the Atlantic side. Here, the winds roared in from the sea and moaned down the chimney. The rain teemed down while Mick, the cat, sat in his cozy spot on the windowsill. Occasionally, he’d twitch as the howl of the wind increased, his head moving rapidly from side to side when he spied an airborne feather or wisps of dead grass flying past the window. When the rain stopped suddenly, the sun glistened on the bushes in the wild garden. When the rain returned, Anne’s living room darkened again. The orange glow of the peat fire was reflected in the windowpane where it appeared to burn by the gray, garden rock.
My fire-gazing reverie was interrupted by the voice of a radio announcer: “An elderly woman sixty-two was found…” Elderly?
“I may be in my sixties but I’m not elderly,” I said as I braved flooded roads where trees rose up out of rivers, and stonewalls appeared down the middle of newly formed lakes. I picked a good time to “test the waters,” I thought when I finally reached my sister Bridie’s home near Shannon.
I hosted a dinner party, went to the theater and danced at a céilí. A friendly bus driver said, “No rush,” when I searched for change, and a well-mannered youth stood to give me a seat on the train. But I was feeling… well, elderly.
My dance students in New York e-mailed asking when I was “coming home.” The head of the North American branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann asked if I’d be available to teach a dance class at the spring convention in New Jersey. I jumped at the chance.
When I returned, the city gleamed its youthful welcome. I didn’t get a seat in the subway, but the lights put a spring in my step.
When my dance students embraced me in a group hug, I said, “I’m h-o-m-e.”
26 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Nelliegrace | Aug 08, 2010, 08:44 PM EDT
She lived my dream - but I would have stayed in Ireland.
Sheilah | Aug 02, 2010, 02:36 PM EDT
GRMA a Mhaíre, for staying in NYC. Your many friends and students of language, dancing , writing, etc. need you right here. Le meas, Sheila
Woodkern | Aug 02, 2010, 12:24 PM EDT
Go maith, a Mháire. An bhfeicfimid ag gClub Leabhar thú? Tá dhá chóip den leabhar agam go foill!
bootees | Jul 29, 2010, 10:58 AM EDT
I think it is a very interesting article and I admire the writing skills . I also think it is a very rational article as the writer is not swayed from making a rational decision that return is not for her. It is her personal choice and she has given things a fair test.Well done lots of courage shown
irishwxman | Jul 27, 2010, 04:25 PM EDT
Great story. very coincidental, as I have plans to retire in Ireland too.
hunter933 | Jul 27, 2010, 10:51 AM EDT
So true. Whenever I don't get a seat on a bus or a train, I feel so young.
Colliegirl | Jul 27, 2010, 12:30 AM EDT
Lovely writing. It makes me want to go to Ireland for a long visit. Home is my little house in the country in Delaware. But Ireland, ah, it calls...
formuls | Jul 26, 2010, 08:34 AM EDT
Nice article Maura, but people in NYC treat people 60 and older as "old" also. I am offered a seat on the subway, very often. If I make eye contact, I am guaranteed a seat, so I don't make contact. I am 64.
michaelidaho | Jul 25, 2010, 07:48 PM EDT
Gee, this was a real insightful article - someone who prefers New York because of its winter weather and because people do not offer her a seat on the subway.
GeorgeDillon | Jul 25, 2010, 04:43 PM EDT
Comet, it's complete nonsense for you to claim that posters are "blaming a small group for bigger issues in society." Mass Immigration to Ireland does not constitute a "small group". There were at least a million immigrants in the past decade--no one knows for sure because the government is too incompetent and/or corrupt to keep records. That's like 70 million immigrants into the US in the last ten years. Note how Americans are complaining about immigration right now, even though the number is only a fraction of what Ireland is enduring. And unlike the US, Ireland has no history of immigration at these huge numbers--it's the greatest and most catastrophic demographic change in the long history of the country. Bruce Morrison, the distinguished former Congressman, put it correctly a year or two back when he pointed out that Ireland has the highest rate of immigration IN THE WORLD. It's really weird that you don't think that's a "big issue" or a proper subject for discussion. Don't try to stifle free speech--you're not a fascist, are you?
dermotryan | Jul 25, 2010, 04:24 PM EDT
You should have come to live in Kinsale, home to writers and artists on the Irish Riviera !!
beachline | Jul 25, 2010, 02:34 PM EDT
Thank you Maura for such an uplifting article. For the past two years I have dreamed about living in Ireland. Although I am retired the Euro/Dollar exchange is what keeps me from making the move. You have rekindled my dream, perhaps I will just do it.
WoundedKnee | Jul 25, 2010, 02:32 PM EDT
comet15: "I notice a lot of anti immigrant sentimnet in a lot of comments on these pages" ------ That's weird, I haven't seen any. I have however seen quite a few analyses of the damage that the Irish government policy of settling Ireland with huge numbers of foreigners has done to that country. You appear to be ignorant of this, so perhaps I should point out that these sentiments reflect public opinion in Ireland, where all surveys show some 70% of the people oppose the crazy Fianna Fail policy of Mass Immigration.
comet15 | Jul 25, 2010, 12:45 PM EDT
Nice article - and upbeat. Many people try to return and realise it's just not for them as they have a great life elsewhere. I notice a lot of anti immigrant sentimnet in a lot of comments on these pages - blaming a small group for bigger issues in society. I hope this is not a reflection of the overall readership at Irish Central.
adrienrain | Jul 25, 2010, 11:59 AM EDT
It is all said in that best of Irish proverbs: Contentment is Wealth. And the secret is to know it..........
mcdolan | Jul 25, 2010, 11:47 AM EDT
Well, Maura Mulligan, it's been 23 years since I saw you last (you danced at my wedding in Park Slope). You (tried to) teach me Irish and children's songs to get the Irish into my head. I've lived in Ireland now for the last 13 years and I adapted very quickly. When I'm back in New York/New Jersey for family events, I enjoy the hussle and bussle, the theatre, the life of the city. But I am sooo glad to be getting on the plane and back to my adopted home where I enjoy so much artistic and creative freedom, being involved in many community and voluntary groups. I am sorry I didn't know you where in Achill (one of my favourite spots)or I would have driven over to see you. In any event, I am glad for you that you've found happiness on the other side of this getting-smaller-every-day pond. And, by the way, I'm 61 years young. Good luck, health and happiness to you. Le gra, Maire Treasa ni Choileain bean Ui Dhubhlan.
jennyjane | Jul 25, 2010, 11:35 AM EDT
I wish I had her opportunity... I would still be in that Atlantic seaside cottage, listening to the wind and rain and happy as a clam.
JAMESDCARROLL | Jul 25, 2010, 10:18 AM EDT
Why?
Bellaghy | Jul 24, 2010, 08:01 PM EDT
I enjoyed the prose of this story besides the happy ending. (...the winds moaned down the chimney and whisps of dead leaves) I wonder what else she wrote while in the Boll house?
jacersisityourself | Jul 24, 2010, 07:30 PM EDT
I had the opposite experience to Maura’s. Working as a student in the US during summer student days, I disliked the experience so much that I’ve not been back since. I've even received a wedding invitation to NYC that I will decline. Most Irish who’ve immigrated to America over the last decades come from the West of Ireland (ICentral’s Niall O’Dowd, by his own admission once an illegal immigrant, is a prime example) and certainly other rural areas too. There is this image of their ancient forebears having made it good in America, sending money back home etc., that they feel they too are going to make it good if they emigrate there. It doesn’t really work out like that for most. I know Irish and Irish-Americans trapped in poverty in the USA. I’ve never had a desire to go back to the US and ‘make it there’. Yet, I have many friends there and I will go back to visit them.
antoman | Jul 24, 2010, 05:56 PM EDT
First off I think she should have paid a visit to Cork,if not live there awhile.Also from reading her romantic ramble it soulds like she was here at the time of the flooding.So its probably a good job she did'nt come to Cork as there was no water here for 12 days.This resulted in the women smelling like horses and the men were made grumpy cause the women refused to fetch water.
Mairin67 | Jul 24, 2010, 04:42 PM EDT
I think GeorgeDavis' point can be applied here in the US as well. Illegals here are reaping all the benefits that we work so hard for. I think in general, given my mothers experience, the Irish government has given her more benefits and support as a senior person. They actually offered it to her, not like in the US where you are clueless about a lot of things you are entitled to until you stumble on it yourself and then have to fight for it.
murphy66 | Jul 24, 2010, 04:24 PM EDT
After time in America, life in Ireland would be a crushing bore.
GeorgeDavis | Jul 24, 2010, 02:46 PM EDT
Good article. A point the author might have mentioned is one I have heard from several Irish who went "home" after many years abroad. That is that the Irish government puts no structures in place to facilitate their homecoming and reintegration into the country. This is in contrast to the foreign migrants and so-called asylunm seekers, who have various government organizations set up to look after their needs, even though these people are not Irish. The fact is that the Irish state takes better care of an illiterate Latvian, Romanian etc. than it does of one of its own citizens who has decided to return to his/her ancestral homeland and share the skills & experience they have garnered abroad.
DouglasBates22 | Jul 24, 2010, 11:41 AM EDT
Well, maybe the old adage is true that "you can never go back home again." Humans being the way they are tend to remember only the good times and not the hardships.
Mairin67 | Jul 24, 2010, 09:05 AM EDT
So many I have known have tried to go back and settle and for various reasons, end up returning to the US. My mother is on her second attempt at living back in her hometown and it has now become just during the summer months. She spends the winter in the US which most people think is nuts given the cold, snowy winters we have. For her, I think it really has to do with city versus country and where she has become more accustomed to.