The Irish Homecoming: A first birthday celebration and the first St. Patrick’s Day at home

April Drew plans for a bright future as she settles back into Ireland

Hello New York. I hope things are shaping up nicely for the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. I know some of the parades are about to kick off this coming weekend so have fun. 

Unlike in Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day in New York is a month long celebration. In Ireland it’s literally the day of March 17 and possibly the night before. 

It will be our first St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland in nine years and our first as parents of two so it will be exciting. The parades in Ireland are extremely colorful and fun. 

Thousands of adults and children come out to parade through their towns, march with their dance classes, their local bands and their schools. Others spend months before designing and putting together floats that also participate in the bigger parades throughout the country, and more often than not a tractor or two will make an appearance. The parades are extremely kid friendly so we look forward to it all. 

John, my husband, works every second weekend, so we make it our business to see friends, plan weekends away or just spend quality time with the kids when he is off. The weekends he works I’m left doing it all -- cleaning, cooking, minding the babies (Colum, two and Sadie, one) but I can’t complain. It’s nice to have time with them when they are so small. 

Sadie turned one last week -- February 20. She was born on President’s Day in New York in 2012.  

The year has flown by.  Sadie has been an incredible baby.  She has a very placid way about her, takes everything in her stride and just fits in everywhere she goes. 

We had an afternoon tea party for her first birthday in the house the weekend before (when John was off) and Sadie thoroughly enjoyed the attention. It was special. 

The first three months of Sadie’s life are a blur.  In that time we packed up our home in Yonkers into boxes, packed the boxes into a 20 foot container (just about) and spent weeks saying goodbye to our friends. 

The following nine months involved settling into Ireland, getting jobs, a place to live and establishing a routine, and I can safely say we are at a great place in our lives. 

So now it’s time to look towards the future for the Mooney family. 

First up is vacations.  It’s that time of the year when people are planning for their summer holidays.

In Ireland companies give significantly more vacation time to their employees, so as it stands at the moment John will have 10 days off in June, a week in July, August and September and a few long weekends in between.  I work as a freelance sign language interpreter so I can take off when I wish. 

We won’t go abroad this year but we will get away. Our main vacation will be to Co. Roscommon. John, the kids and I, along with two other couples and their kids, have a deposit paid at a log cabin just outside Boyle for a week in June. 

I saw a program on television about an adventure park where the kids can enjoy some fun (and the adults too) and beside it are log cabins by a lake. There is plenty of room for barbequing and boats to hire to take out onto the lake. 

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