Morning Ireland

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20/07/2012 09:13:21 David Carroll
Greeting from Stuttgart Germany, I am an avid listener to Morning Ireland and have been for years, I remember putting up a dish much to the annoyance of my neighbours just to get RTE radio, there is a loophole in the law here allowing "auslander" to have the right to listen to their own country's radio stations. love listening to Aine Lawlor, great style, just class. I have lived here since 1978, and love having a bit of both worlds.

04/05/2012 08:13:07 Davina Tapie
Born, bred and educated in Ireland, I left in 1989 to take up a good job in Paris, France. I met a Frenchman, and the rest is history, well, nearly! We have 4 children, and life is good. I get back to Ireland every year in the Spring and stay with family in Dublin and simply love the break. What I miss most about Ireland is the fresh air, the soft rain and the wind. Believe me, it's true. What I most noticed on my visit last month, is that despite the recession, the people have a great sense of "togetherness". The people haven't lost the friendliness and hospitality that is known to the Irish the world over. I would have dearly loved to bring my children up in Ireland, but that was not to be. So you make your bed and lie in it. Vive la France, Vive l'Irlande!

02/05/2012 04:55:37 Jeanette O'Donnell
I love listening to Morning Ireland each day as I travel into work. It's such a good program and keeps me in touch with what is going on at home. I can only get home to Ireland once a year, as Aer Lingus doesn't fly direct from the west coast anymore, but listening to Morning Ireland keeps things real for me. I moved to the US 20 years ago and have been living in San Francisco for most of that time. I didn't feel like I was forced to emigrate and felt that the world was open to me to go wherever I wanted. I will always remember the day I left as a major turning point in my life. My heart will always belong to Ireland, but I'm glad that I had the chance to see the world too. The sooner Aer Lingus realises that there are a lot of people on the west coast (Irish and non Irish) who would travel to Ireland if there were direct flights, the better. Flying home now is an awful task. It can take over 16 hours!!! From the States. Crazy.

27/04/2012 16:26:54 Mary Blondel Kelly
I am luckier than many, I guess, in that I survived the 80's recession and was never forced to emigrate. I packed in my job as a university lecturer and moved to Montpellier in the south of France in 1998....for a man! At the time he had set up a company doing contract analysis of drug residues in animal tissues. Initially I had hoped to find a job in pharmacy (my original qualification) but Montpellier is a popular place, and with 1,000 people moving into the region every month, jobs are not easily come by. I ended up doing a 2-year post graduate degree in Oenology (wine technology) which is taught in the faculty of Pharmacy. The link originates in the fact that prior to the 1950's it was the local chemist who would analyse wine in the making in the back of shop. I now lecture in wine analysis on that same degree and so far have put 10 batches of students through my hands. In the meanwhile, hubby abandoned the contract analysis game and we bought a vineyard. It's a blood sweat and tears kind of occupation which yields precious little financially but I think its fair to say we have no regrets. I'm lucky in that I visit Ireland regularly (staying with family in Dublin), though my life would be rendered a whole lot easier if only someone, anyone in the airline business, would just put on a direct flight from Monpellier to Dublin. The trip is a veritable trek and the amount of money I've lost through missed flight/train connections is just staggering. I am a passionate podcaster and download various RTÉ 1 programmes every day; each morning I tune in to Morning Ireland for the news and would like to thank the team for the quality of your broadcasting.

03/04/2012 03:25:24 Paul Maleady
I had to leave my wife and two children in Ireland to come and work over here in Kyrgyzstan. I am here since 2010 and probably will be here for some time. I am working in a gold mine, just 30 miles from the Chinese border and at an altitude of 15000ft above sea level. Temperatures here get down to -50C in winter and oxygen levels are 40% less then at sea level. I miss my wife and children every minute of every day, but thank God for skype. For most people like me, I lost all hope in Ireland seeing our great little country bankrupt and the Irish government loading the middle class to bail us out. I still think it will take years for Ireland to get back on its feet, in the meantime our young will keep leaving our shores.

26/03/2012 12:52:51 Christy Wilson
I met an Aussie girl in Sydney while on a working/holiday visa. We lived in Sydney for a while, then back in Kildare for a while. Going against the Celtic Tiger, we decided to start our family in Australia. I worked for an American technology company in Leixlip and could see my job heading to Eastern Europe, India or China at some point. We lived outside Canberra for 8 years and now live in Townsville NQ. Housing and living seem more affordable. A single income managed well goes a long way. My experience is that my rural Kildare upbringing matched with Irish humor and a willingness to assimilate has worked wonders. We have three children now. Two little Australian Irishmen & one Australian Irishwoman. Each have the NQ twang.

23/03/2012 11:22:30 Rosaleen Crotty
My experience I feel has been more postive than many. I left Ireland for America in January 1987. After 21 very happy years (for the most part), I moved back to Europe in 2008. I now live by Lake Konstanz on the German side. The other side, an easy cycle away is Switzerland. When I arrived in New York in 1987, I was alone and had no family in the U.S.but I had one contact from school who was VERY helpful and I quickly hooked up with the Irish network - I went into pubs and churchs in Irish neighbourhoods. How else to connect with the Irish! And of course I read the Irish American newspapers. The only 'pain' for me back in NY of the late 80s was not being able to easily connect with home. I recall I called home every 2 weeks, I would put the alarm on for 30 minutes. When the alarm rang, I finished the call. And that was $30,00 worth of love, and hard earned money right there. The biggest difference for me now is the ease of communication. I can Skype/email, everything for a lot less money. Being away doesn´t feel so separate at all now. Being born, or perhaps more specifically, being raised in Ireland is a great good fortune. For all our imperfections, we really are not a bad lot (well some of us anyway -- I am listening to the finding of THE TRIBUNAL as I write). I suggest the experience of being Irish is enhanced by travelling to other places. Nothing new there I am sure! Re voting. I feel there is a lot to be said about no taxation without representation. And the reverse holds true too I believe. But I think perhaps a situation could evolve where Irish people the world over could vote in the Irish presidential elections. Thank you for this format and giving us the opportunity to speak. I will enjoy reading what others say.

20/03/2012 21:06:46 Joanne
I have read some of your stories online and I think: wow, lots of good ones. What about the young Irish families who have moved to Sydney like us? We arrived in Sydney in 2009. Like so many people we could see the jobs slide, my husband was in construction and I had been made redundant from my job. We had a child of 4 and 16 month old baby, we built our dream house in Ireland, put every penny we earned into it but, to keep this house, we had to move. Now everyone thinks we got out but no one knows the struggle we have been through, lots of very low moments. My husband was not able to get a job for nearly 10 months. He would ring ads and get told the job was gone. We thought it very strange so we asked my cousin to ring back as he was Australian and guess what? - job still open. Having to pay very very high rent, daycare, and everything else they charge here does not leave us with much money even though we are now working full time. On top of this pressure we are trying to keep our house at home but with all these taxes and rent not covering mortgage, add insurance on top, we feel like we are drowning. We get no help from anybody, no tax breaks in Ireland. We struggle everyday. So anyone with a young family moving to Sydney, think long and hard as you could find yourself like us - busy fools getting no-where.

200/03/2012 13:35:59 Sarah Moore
Born and bred a proud yellow belly, I now find myself resident of South West London since Jan 2010. By vocation I am a nurse and when I qualified from the University of Limerick in 2008 things were starting to go down the tube. My best friend, Catherine, and I spent the summer in the US on a J1 visa but by the time we returned to graduate in September 2008 the job situation in the HSE had changes dramatically. I decided to take whatever job I could and continued my studies to improve my chances of getting a job. Another year and another qualification earned but still no decent job opportunity in my beloved Eire. Time to look further afield and lots of recruitment companies advertised nursing positions in the UK. I was bowled over by the offers I received from different NHS hospitals. For the first time I could pick and choose where I worked. I settled on a London suburb close to Gatwick airport and close to extended family who had themselves left Ireland to seek employment in the 1950s. Life, it must be said, goes in cycles. Saying goodbye to my Mam at Dublin airport was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Not knowing when I would be back, not knowing what lay ahead was challenging but I am happy to report that emigrating to London has surpassed all my expectations. At 25, I am now a Junior Ward Sister completing a Masters of Science paid for by my hospital, a situation I could never see myself in at home. I have met a wonderful (English) man who I have set up home with and I am very happy. Homesickness can strike when you least expect it but with Facebook and Skype friends and family are never far away. Sometimes my heart longs for home but I count my blessings and remind myself how much better my life is for having made this move.

18/03/2012 13:02:02 James Burns
I am an Irish migrant to Perth, Western Australia and I have been living and working here happily for twenty years. I am delighted and sad at the same time that so many young irish feel the need to leave our land people from all over the island and relocate here. I am delighted because our young people bring an energy which is unique and which adds to the Australian character which already is Irish Centric. However I am also sad because on a lot of occasions was no choice but for these young people to leave Ireland because there was no other option. . having said that I feel I need to warn young people and young families coming to Perth that not everyone will be glad to see you and some people may actually be hostile to you . A job advertised last week for a bricklayer emphasised that they did not want to to employ an Irish person. Our local media in Perth laughed it off but the mask had slipped and it is apparent that in this society large scale Irish immigration is seen as a threat to the englishness of this state of Western Australia. I issue this advise not to deter anyone but to issue a reality check. Just remember if you are coming that there will be a huge diaspora of Irish people and their descendants who will assist you in every way possible.

18/03/2012 11:15:59 Greta Kelly
I was dragged to Singapore, kicking and screaming because I didn't want to leave my beloved Clonakilty - West Cork. My husband's company ( An all Irish Company) was setting up an office here. Well we are now here six months and I'm slowly getting used to it. We are both past the half century age wise. We have lived in Germany and France. Singapore is very different. Very hot, very humid, very crowded, very materialistic. The opposite to West Cork! But after searching for months I have found my niche. It's a highly organised, clean, safe place to live. The best thing is - it's so central to places I never dreamt I would/could visit! Have been to Tokyo, Hongkong, Sydney, Tasmania, Auckland, Indonesia. Going to Vietnam in a few weeks time. In spite of all this I can't wait to get home. We have things in Ireland that no amount of money can buy. Family, friends, community, culture, seasons, a beautiful countryside, and the thing I value and miss most - Irish humour! Laughing over nothing!

16/03/2012 16:19:21 Seamus Byrne
Living in Boston for 18 years. Left Ireland when unemployment was over 18%, the great thing about here is that you can change careers if you show the aptitude to learn new things. I was a waiter, now I work in a bank something I don't think I could ever do in Ireland. The main thing I miss in Ireland is the sarcasm and wit which is sadly lacking over here. I love listening to on Sunday Sport on Radio One every week. Its great..

16/03/2012 16:11:48 Jacqueline Jones
I'm currently living in South America, in Georgetown, Guyana. I left Ireland in 1974 to work in London. I met my 'honorary Irishman' Welsh husband there. We spent 15 years in Brussels and then had postings in Fiji (5 Years), Ghana West Africa (3 years) Papua New Guinea (4 years) and have done 18 months of our possible 4 years here. While it all sounds very idyllic, it wasn't and isn't - developing countries are not exactly easy to live in. However the one thing that has never let me down is my being Irish...I've been 'adopted' in all the above countries. The words 'I'm Irish' open doors. Other nationalities welcome us straight away. In fact I remember going into Zimbabwe and was put first in line in the Immigration queue while my husband and other Brits were at the end! He did get his own back going through Vietnamese Immigration years later when the Border guard in Saigon kept saying 'Eire' was not on his approved list and refused to let me enter for some hours! But I digress... Having spent some much needed R and R in Savannah Georgia last week I have to say that celebrating St Patrick's Day is much different outside Ireland, unless things have changed. Savannah has the 2nd largest parade in USA, after Chicago, as it has a strong Irish heritage. But I have to say I've never seen so many 'cod' Irish or 'Hollywood' Irish as I usually call them, in all our travels. The Darby O'Gill variety. Good luck to them. I tasted my first and last corned beef and cabbage In a pub in Oz one 17th March...typical Irish fare apparently...does anyone in Ireland eat this? At St Patrick's night parties on various continents the non Irish are easily recognisable...they're the ones dressed in GREEN! To sum up, my favourite memory of being Irish took place in Suva, Fiji. Having lived there for 5 years, we went back for a Regional conference staying at the same hotel that we had stayed in some 15 years earlier to take up our posting. The waiter recognised me, obviously couldn't remember my name and greeted me with the words''Welcome back Mrs Ireland...did you have a nice holiday!'' ps..I'm going back to Savannah next year to drown the shamrock!

16/03/2012 Darby O'Gill
Has anyone there in RTÉ bothered to check in with anyone from down under? The Irish here are quietly going about there mainly prosperous existence in the only western economy that escaped the credit crunch. No bull...coming coming from us, just straight talk. Perhaps our quiet humility and achievements are unworthy of getting a mention. We are the first on the planet to celebrate st Pats. Kiss my ass America !!. I moved to Oz to get my big break leaving my green card Donelly visa and poor wages behind. There are none of the whip rounds here for Paddies struggling to pay medical expenses resulting from accidents in uninsured building sites. America has demonstrated in recent years through its foreign policy how unworthy she is to stand among the nations of the earth.Thank God I did not become another one of those brain dead revolutionaries who believes in going to war.

16/03/2012 13:13:57 Eoin Burke
Originally from Cork, I have been in Chicago for 12 years now. I was originally sponsored by Morgan Stanley for my H1B. I hated that job (software developer). I left them once I got married (6 years later). I'm now a business developer (ok, a sales guy) for an energy retrofit company, ...it's great job. With regard to home, you don't miss what you had until it's gone. For me that includes : family, windsurfing in Brandon Bay Kerry, quality dairy products, hitch-hiking, and a good sloppy curry chips on a Saturday night by the fountain on Patrick St. Cork. Have a wife and two kids now living happily in the Lincoln Square neighborhood.

16/03/2012 10:31:07 James Morris
As an exile who gave all my working life in Ireland, I find not having a vote is a loss that diminshes my nationality and for good measure as a permanent resident in Canada I do not qualify for a vote so I'm seriously disinfranchised.

16/03/2012 08:02:12 Andrew Maxwell
RTE Radio One coming in loud and clear(ish) in west London in the car. Essential listening, please keep broadcasting on LW 252.

16/03/2012 07:36:01 Christy MacHale
First of all may I say how good it is to have Áine back in action again, and I wish her all the best with her continuing treatment, which I hope (as do we all, I'm sure) will result in a complete recovery. The main point of my writing is to say that I'm deeply offended by Eamon Gilmore's proposal to create a sort of apartheid between Irish citizens living abroad, by granting voting rights in presidential elections only to persons who were born in Ireland. Such a move would create de facto a two-tier citizenship: as an Irish citizen born overseas I would find this profoundly unwelcome, insulting and discriminatory. My passport says that I'm an Irish citizen: I've always been proud to regard myself as such, and have no desire to be a second-class citizen. Rights for all or rights for none, Mr Gilmore.

15/03/2012 Donal O'Conghaile
I am a 23-year-old Irish guy who has "made it" in America. I graduated from TCD in 2010 with a degree in Business Studies and French. I got good results and good prospects, but I struggled to find a job in Ireland. For a period of 9 months, I did interview after interview, often getting to the final round but never getting thatelusive job offer. There was a lot of high-level competition for these graduate jobs, and as I was on the interview circuit, I kept meeting the same people going for the same jobs - everyone was having a tough time.I eventually got fed up and decided to pursue a dream I've had for a long time - I moved to New York. I paid almost 2000 euro for flights + J1 12-month graduate visa and flew to JFK on March 17th 2011 (what a day to arrive). My parents thought I was mad - because I had no job leads, no place to live and had no friends in NYC. All I had was my determination.I quickly secured great accommodation in Queens, a paid internship in Manhattan for The Economist magazine and a loving relationship and network of friends. I very much landed on my feet. Now my 12-month J1 visa is almost up and I face a big worry. The internet start-up that I currently work for is sponsoring me for a H1B visa, but this won't be issued by the US government until October. This means I have to go home this month, leaving me wondering what will happen to my career and my relationship. I've set up a life here in America but it is now in jeopardy because of the complicated and difficult United States immigration laws. I feel immensely proud of what I've achieved during my year in New York, and I share my knowledge and experience with others. But I feel like it is ending prematurely.

15/03/2012 Colette Ni Reamonn Ioannidou
What does 'Irish abroad' mean for your programme? Does it concern only young folk forced to go abroad to send money back home at a time of economic hardship, as we did when we were young? Because if this is so, then there's no point in writing. However, as one of the Irish abroad whose life has been an on-going struggle regardless of the fact that I am far away, and who recently managed to get two books published in hard form and on Amazon ("To Live or Not to Live" and To Die or Not To Die"), I think I exemplify the spirit that has kept Ireland and the Irish going under all kinds of adversity. It's called endurance under fire. I'm 68 years young and, as my publisher often says, have more energy than any of them in the office. I'm busy working to promote my books on an old computer that is really not up to the job, but I can't afford (being a pensioner) to buy a state of the art model anythime soon. A few books being bought in Ireland - where they are not yet on sale as demand has to be established - might aid my megre income. My stories deal with my two islands, Ireland and Cyprus (as well as other countries).

15/03/2012 Denis Cullen
I listen online when at home and abroad, but during the day when driving I listen on the wonderful 252 LW band! In fact, when I bought my current car the first thing I checked was the broadcasting range of the car radio and that it was able to capture 252 LW. It was, thank God, and so the decision was made (much more important than the 2 litre fuel injection engine and leather upholstery!).RTE Radio 1 on 252 LW provides a daily boost of informed political debate, a wonderful standard of news broadcasting, and light hearted entertainment..in short, a great lifeline (sorry Joe!).It does concern me though that, as our technology develops, LW broadcasting on car radios will become increasingly obsolete and national radio broadcasting will succumb to the 'more pure' DAB broadcasting option...well there we go...progress I suppose! I think a better option will be to return 'home' to enjoy the RTÉ sounds as they should be heard...here's hoping! With my thanks to all at RTÉ and all that it provides. Best wishes, Denis Cullen, Liverpool

15/03/2012 Seamus Whooley
Living on the Costa del Sol and love listening in between 09.00 and 10.00am to get a balanced view of Irish and world affairs. Great quality radio listening.

15/03/2012 Colin Murphy
I have been living in Madrid Spain for six years. I have a Spanish wife, a two year old boy and another on the way. I´m well settled here and have a great mix of Spanish and international friends. My lifestyle is in Spain, but my work is worldwide. I´m the managing director of a small Irish company called Torcana which has spent the last three years specializing in distressed property. We are Irish in name but we mostly operate overseas and market property to investors all over the world. In 2011 for example, more than 50% of our buyers were American and most of them were purchasing properties in Florida. I work from a home office in Madrid and am probably on the road 4-5 days per month. It´s a nice balance and one that probably wouldn´t have been possible 5 years ago. Cloud computing and internet telephony has completely revolutionized the way small companies can operate. The Irish government rightly champions the smart economy, tech startups and the old reliables of food, tourism and manufacturing. But the ordinary budding entrepreneurs out there shouldn´t get too fixated on these headlines. It is cheaper than ever to create a company and go out and find a global audience for yourself, all from the comfort of your home in Dublin, Limerick, Madrid or wherever. That wasn´t possible in the dark days of the 1980s. I was in Dublin recently and held meetings with 17 companies, mostly to check out what the property market is like in Ireland. All seemed to be working hard and I got a sense of optimism that things would be better this year than last year. I don´t think many of these companies had really thought about targeting international audiences for their products and services though. Most were hoping for more Irish customers, which struck me as very strange. We are rightly viewed as a small, friendly, open economy, but I think there are a lot of niches outside of the old reliables mentioned above that still aren´t outward looking enough. This is a great time to set up a new business and go out and find an audience. In my experience, people love doing business with the Irish and the tools available to find these customers have never been more widespread or easier to use.