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

Naturally this is Ireland so it may pour rain for the week, but that’s a risk we are willing to take. We are already looking forward to it. 

So that’s the vacation taken care of. We also have four weddings to attend, two in Cork, one in Clare and one in Cavan. They are spread out between July and October. 

And I’m also going to see Bon Jovi in Slane, Bruce Springsteen in Thomond Park in Limerick and Beyonce in Dublin, so it’s safe to say it will be an eventful few months for us. 

In the meantime we are on the house hunt. We hope to purchase our own home in the next few months. 

We’ve already seen a few potential properties.  Some need work, others are a little far from town and others are just horrible and not worth the asking price. It’s still a buyer’s market in Ireland so that is a bonus, although homes are selling quicker now in the last few months than they were in the past few years.

The only issue I’m having with this house hunting situation is the relaxed attitudes of the auctioneers.  We might be waiting a few weeks for a response to an email, and sometimes we don’t get a response at all. 

I was used to getting things done yesterday while living in New York.  I would send an email in the morning and I could be guaranteed by mid-afternoon, early-evening that I’d have a response. 

It’s frustrating in Ireland. If I follow up with a call it helps sometimes, but more often than not the relevant person is busy in which case a message is taken and, guess what, I never get a response.  It certainly weeds out the professionals from the cowboys in my opinion.

The ones who do respond I have the most respect for, but if I were a customer selling my home I’d be more than angry knowing I was paying these people money and they weren’t putting in the work to get my house sold. 

Anyway, we haven’t found our dream home yet.  We are torn between the possibility of a little house in the country with a little garden and sheep as our neighbors, to a house in a small village in a housing estate that costs a hell of a lot less but has very little garden space and humans as next door neighbors (which I also like). 

I’ve no doubt it will all work out it always does, so I’ll just go with the flow for the next few months and see where we end up. Watch this space. 

I’ve also taken on a big project by myself. I’ve decided to put all the great things I learned while working at the Irish Voice to good use. 

I’m going to launch Limerick’s first bridal magazine at the end of the year.  It’s a pretty ambitious undertaking in the current market, but after doing some solid research it’s clear that any girl who gets engaged in Limerick will purchase a magazine dedicated solely to weddings in her locality. 

I also spoke with some vendors and they seem to be keen to put a little money behind advertising their businesses, so hopefully it will be a success. I’m excited (and at times nervous) at the prospect of owning my own publication, even if it’s a small magazine. 

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