Saying a sad farewell to America but longing to stay here

Why does the US discriminate against bright, young Irish?

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Eoghan is being forced to leave his job and life in New York and return a Dublin with no future for him

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Irish Voice intern Eoin Brennan is returning to Ireland because his J visa is up, and so are his options for staying legally here, at least for now.  But with jobs virtually non-existent in Ireland, he won’t be home for long, and laments the fact that strict U.S. visa laws prevent him from building a future here.

This week I will return to Ireland following my one year stay in New York, on the J-1 graduate visa, which allowed me to work in the U.S. for one year following my graduation from university in Ireland. I have spent the year working at the Irish Voice.

The past year has been an incredible one for me, with challenges and rewards greater than any I had encountered at home. I have faced low points here and moved past them to reach some of my best moments. I have learned in the way that New York City insists, quickly and intensely.

In my life I have lived in three different cities and countries, in seven different homes and in the past five years I have packed up my belongings and moved from one place to another 10 times.

I’m not exactly nomadic, but I’ve done my fair share of clearing out rooms and packing up suitcases in the last while.  It never bothers me though, and I’ve always enjoyed it in a way.

However, the moving was always done with a solid base beneath me; a community and place I called home, an indisputable fact which meant that any sort of temporary relocation carried no real sense of displacement. In my mind I was just moving around a bit, home would always be there and I’d always be back.

However, now that I face the prospect of returning to Dublin following my year in New York I feel that solid base getting unsteady underfoot, a fear of displacement growing rapidly within me. I am almost certain I will not reamin there for very long.

Although I have only been gone from Ireland for a little over a year, the place I remember as home has rapidly changed since I left.

The places and landmarks are all the same, albeit with a few more boarded up businesses dotting the landscape.
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