The Irish Homecoming - settling into new jobs and a lot of unpacking

Arrival of crate symbolized end of family's life in New York

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Colum and Sadie Mooney wearing their 4th July gear

Photo by April Drew

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I hear the rev of an engine before I see it. In the distance it sounds like the driver is struggling to get it up the hill. I slow down to below 20 miles an hour.

If my instincts are correct, approximately a mile down the road I’m about to meet a man driving a truck, and attached to the back of that truck is the last part of our lives in New York.

And yes, I’m right. There he is, pulled in off the bohereen which in the past week has become a familiar sight.

We moved to the Limerick countryside, and now struggling to get around the country bends was our container full of all our stuff from New York. The same container that took John, my husband, and seven of his friends a full Saturday afternoon to pack before it set sail across the Atlantic for our new home in Ireland. That was seven weeks ago and today it’s finally here.

As soon as the container came into my line of vision a lump formed in my throat. I was surprised.

Why was I tearing up? I was beyond excited to get everything into our new house so such emotion was strange.

People have told me since it was a very natural reaction to have. I suppose the container and all of its contents symbolizes the end of our New York life for good. A sad thought!

I was quick to compose myself as I had to hop out of my car to ask the driver of the truck to follow me back up the bohereen to our new abode.  

As I mentioned in previous articles, it was next to impossible to find an unfurnished home in Limerick. The house we finally got is just beautiful. We call it South Fork.

It’s pretty big, way too big for John, our 19-month old son Colum, Sadie, (four-months) and I, but it’s beautiful, so until we buy a house in a year or two we will live like kings and enjoy the peace and tranquility that country life brings.

The nearest house is about a quarter of a mile down the road. All we can see from the back of the house is rolling green hills, cows grazing, horses running and birds flying.

There isn’t a sound to be heard, it’s truly breathtaking. And a little scary at night when John goes to work (he started the night shift in his company -- they make contact lenses -- this week.)
Neither John nor I grew up in the country, so it’s all very new and exciting for us Mooneys. It may not suit us.

We said we will give it a year, and if we like the countryside we will then look at possibly buying a house there. We are only 12 minutes to town, John’s job is 14 minutes away and the kids’ day care is about the same distance.

We are only five minutes off the motorway which leads to Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Tipperary, and Kerry so everything is really at our fingertips.

Colum is in his element running around the back garden.  Sadie is just content anywhere.

John rallied up the troops for the unloading of the container. His good friend Tony Collins, a returned immigrant himself, brought along his two teenage nephews, Sean and Kieran, to help with the heavy work, and John’s two cousins also showed up for the unload. It only took a little over an hour to get everything out of the container and into the proper rooms in the house.

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