My First Byline!

One of my all time biggest dreams came true today when an article I wrote about life in Germany was published in The Irish Times, one of Ireland's main national papers and the paper I have always read. OK, so it was only in the online edition, but I am still pretty proud of myself. You can find my article here. 

I've written my perspective on how it feels to be an emigrant. The article came about as a result of the huge bout of emigration from Ireland since the collapse of the Celtic Tiger in 2008. At that stage I had been out of Ireland for five years. With all the focus on those who had emigrated in the bad times, whether pre or post economic boom, it began to seem to me that anyone who emigrated during the good times was not really considered an emigrant at all. Added to that was the fact that reporting seemed to concentrate on those who emigrated to English-speaking countries. So I wrote about my experience - emigrating when Ireland was at the top of her game, jobs galore, to a country in recession, where I had a good knowledge of the language but it was still far from perfect. 

This month I am in Germany twelve years. Spoiler alert...there's a happy end.