The Irish Homecoming - Pining for her old life and friends in New York but won’t be coming back anytime soon

After nine years in the Big Apple it’s hard to not look over our shoulders

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April, John, Colum and Sadie last weekend before attending a family wedding.

Photo by Handout

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I’ve nine years of New York memories etched into my brain and they are all wonderful. In fact I don’t think I can think of one bad time, at least none that have stayed with me anyway and it’s nice to tap into them often and be thankful for the time we had in New York. John and I often discuss the little things we experienced in America and it’s nice to share that together, I just don’t want to have this sad feeling now when I do talk about it. I haven’t asked John if he is feeling the same but I’ve no doubt his answer would be “Ah cop on April I love being home, I enjoyed my time over but sure haven’t we got everything we want here.” And he would be right. 

Our good friends Jason and Irma just had a beautiful baby boy whom they named Mason last week and as any parent knows the birth of a child is something so special. After leaving the hospital after meeting the little man for the first time I got emotional. I have such fond memories of the birth of our children in New York and whether I like it or not I’ll always have a very strong emotional attachment to the country for that very reason.

And in a few weeks my daughter will turn one. She will share her birthday with Ailbhe Doherty, the daughter of Orla and Eunan. Also that same week our friends Mary Brennan and Charlie Shields will celebrate the first birthday of their daughter Sarah. Orla, Mary and I went through our pregnancies together and that was a very special bonding time too. I miss them and am a little sad that Sadie won’t get to celebrate with her little friends.

There have also been a lot of goodbyes in the past few weeks. Goodbyes that are the product of the recession. Friends, relations and friends of friends have packed their bags and boarded planes bound for Canada and Australia. It’s been a sad month for many families and an exciting month for those about to begin a new adventure in unfamiliar territory. One girl I know from school went to Canada this past weekend in the hope to finding a new life. Her family (especially her 66-year-old mother) was devastated. Her dad died six months ago and her only other sibling works in London. But it was her time to try new things (she lost her marketing job in 2011 and didn’t have much luck finding anything since). She was beyond excited the night before she left and it brought me back to 2003 when I left my simple life in Ireland for bigger and better things in America and I don’t regret one bit of it.

But would I move back to New York in the morning if I could afford to live a comfortable life and provide all the necessary bits for my kids? The answer is no. Our lives are in Ireland now and it’s where our hearts are (even if my mind is sometimes 3,000 miles across the Atlantic). But it would be nice in an ideal world to visit New York as often as possible to keep up the romance I have with it.

One thing is for sure, when the kids get older, we have our own home (we are only renting at the moment) and we can save enough money to afford a fantastic holiday we will be back to the country that brought John and I together, that gifted us with two children and that provided us with nine wonderful years of great memories. So I guess I’ll see you in a few years, New York.

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