So long Ireland! Thanks for the memories
Posted: September 15, 2009 | Author: Doug | Filed under: General | 10 Comments »“Dublin is a state of mind.”
Today is my last day in Ireland. In fact, if you’re reading this, chances are we’re already on the plane back to Seattle going through the long flight home. It’s been 14 months since I moved to Ireland, and there’s too much to talk about or explain here. Living in the EU, in Ireland, and such really broke me out of modes of thinking that I was not aware I had. I quoted a certain line from the 1984 Dune movie in a previous post that I felt like quoting here again:
Duke Leto: I’ll miss the sea, but a person needs new experiences. They jar something deep inside, allowing him to grow. Without change, something sleeps inside us and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.
–Dune, 1984
And that is indeed what it did. It jarred a lot of ossified beliefs and humbled arrogant views I once held,1 and taught me how to survive in unpredictable situations. I had studied briefly in Vietnam years ago, but in that case, I only stayed two months, and made a lot of mistakes and burned bridges with a lot of people. Thankfully, now that I am quite a bit older and wiser, and staying longer, I went through more challenges and learned to overcome them. We had some external problems staying here, though most of the problems were mental and learning to live in a new country. I suspect many who move to a new country face these same challenges. It’s something human in us that gets upset and confused when uprooted and then settled in a different environment.
As for Dublin, the quote at the top of the post is something I once saw somewhere, though I can’t figure out who exactly said it. Please post if you know the answer. Dublin, the city, is a quite an interesting mix of modern, hip, European-culture, mixed with something of the “old country”. I didn’t get much opportunity to see the rest of Ireland, save for an interesting wedding I attended up near Slígo, so my experiences were focused almost exclusively on Dublin itself. In any case, Dublin is home to many famous writers over the centuries, including an idol of mine, Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo in Japan), and a lot of history.
It’s not a big city, almost totally devoid of of skyscrapers or sensible mass-transit (sorry guys, it’s true), and the weather is truly something you have to experience. Nowhere else, will you see rain, sun and wind in the span of an hour, almost daily. Everyone here knows you can’t plan for the weather. It’s like rolling the dice every time you step outside. My colleagues at work joked about “10 days allotted for summer” a lot, and it’s true. Ireland gets whatever is dumped on by the North Atlantic, and there’s no way around it.
With that said, I will miss Ireland and Irish people a lot. A young Irish college intern at work once told me that “Ireland is kip”, meaning it’s a mess, but in my year there, I saw many things that told me that Dublin is a special place, and quite a bit of stuff is happening under the surface. I promised myself I would come back in forty to fifty years so I could see just how much had changed, and I believe quite a bit will. Another co-worker told me that 10 years ago, there was no ethnic food, and the street we worked on was a real dodgy place to be, but now you can see a lot of interesting restaurants and businesses are opening up on Thomas Street now and people are coming in waves to Ireland, not leaving it. The very recent multi-ethnic character is a very positive sign I believe.
The future is bright, and I feel privileged to have been a part of it, however small.
Thank you Ireland for everything, and someday I’ll be back.
Until then, Éirinn go Brách.
1 It also deflated my belief in rediscovering my ancestry. It should be painfully obvious, but having ancestors from a certain country six generations ago doesn’t make you an honorary member of that country. The locals have heard it all hundreds of times before and aren’t impressed. In hindsight, I really don’t blame them. American naivety can be amusing at times, frightening at others.
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the 
Wow! Safe journeys, Doug. It seems this past year has just flown by, and yet also packed and full of growth. I remember reading a study that showed that those who’d worked abroad were more able to solve problems by “thinking out of the box” than those who hadn’t. So not only has your trip been great for yourself, but probably also good for your career in the long run!
Best wishes settling in at home again Doug and re-encountering your US friends and sangha. I hope to catch up with you in Seattle in the near future.
Hi Doug,
I’ve been to Dublin a couple of times, but my trips were in the early 90′s I think. Perhaps the first was in the late 80′s. I can’t remember. Anyway, yes, I’ve heard a lot about how it’s changed since then. And, like you, would love to go back in the few decades to see what it looks likes then!
Have a safe trip home mate and all the best,
Marcus
Go néiri an bothar leat
There has been a lot of change in Ireland due to the boom years. You have to wonder if it will be sustained now the bubble has burst. Although outside of Dublin Ireland has a very different character. I’m not sure Ireland is 100% comfortable with it’s new internationalism. (We changed our citizenship laws in the face of it)
A grandparent is enough to claim citizenship. Being famous is enough to be claimed as Irish. The most interesting (and a bit surprising) lately is Muhammad Ali.
Safe Journey.
Hi Everyone, replying from Seattle this time. Journey was hideously long and tiring, but we got here and safely to sleep. I am awake at 1:45 am due to jet lag, but otherwise well.
Arunlikhati: That’s what prompted me to make the move in the first place. Very similar advice by people I knew at work who prodded me, plus my own desire to get out of West-Coast based thinking for a change.
Kyoshin Looking forward to seeing you in Seattle. Hope your flight is a safe one and not so tiring! Send me an email if you can with your plans and we’d be happy to meet you. Wife was wondering when you’d come.
Marcus Yeah, people we know who moved to Dublin in the 90′s swear by the massive changes that have undergone it. Wish I could have been there to see the contrast.
ロバート As the resident “Irish expert”, I was really glad you chimed in. I would argue that the changes and growth I saw in the last year alone, in spite of the bad economy this year, are a sign of resilience and growth. I got that impression from the same co-workers (all non-Dubliners) I talked to in the post. Things certainly slow down, and at the moment unemployment is getting pretty high, but I think things will adjust and the changes are irreversible. I sound pretty optomistic, but that’s my impression.
As for the backlash, my wife and her friends (Japanese who married Irish and lived there a long time), have experienced plenty of that backlash both in and out of Dublin, but compared to stories of other places in the EU like Belgium from these same ladies, it’s not nearly as bad. The West Coast has a long history of immigration, but the EU not so much (save a few places), so I think this is a new chapter for them.
Also, for the Dublin vs. Ireland comment, I know what you mean. I’ve heard all the jokes about Dublin since most of my co-workers are non-Dubliners, but also few deny that Co. Dublin has one-quarter to a third of Ireland’s population, so I bet changes there will gradually make there way out. No joke, once while driving in a remote part of the Co. Sligo area (for said wedding), we frequently saw Chinese restaurants right in the middle of really small towns that probably existed for centuries and never had any such thing. Small change, but fast-forward 50 years and we’ll see what happens.
In any case, glad to have been there, and to have experienced all this first-hand, among other things. Thanks for the poem too. I actually nkow that one well (in English, not Irish), as my mother used to tell me that one.
Welcome back, I remember coming back to the US from abroad and the culture shock that ensued. Be gentle with yourself and be cautious venturing out into the fray of public places right away.
robby
I’m so happy to hear of your family’s safe journey home and and to pass along one last toast….
There are good ships, and there are wood ships, the ships that sail the sea.
But the best ships are friendships, and may they always be.
Hi Robby, thanks for the kind words and advice. You are right: the is a bit of culture shock coming back. Though it is getting a little better.
Hi Jackieo, loved that little witticisms.
welcome back! I enjoyed reading your post and am glad to hear your reflections about living abroad and how it changes your views and your own sense of self. I also think that it’s great that you could bring your family and little girl. even though she’s small, i think it widens the views of children to have this kind of different exposure.
i agree with another post-er above, that you guys will need to give yourselves some adjustment time to get settled again.
cheers!
Hi Maggie,
Yeah, suffice to say I learned a lot, so it was a great experience living abroad, and like you said, it was great to be able to share it with the little one.
As for getting back, yeah, it’s been a culture shock already, even back at the office. Takes some getting used to the pace again, and unlearning some Irish speaking-habits I picked up. One fellow already commented my accent sounds a bit different. ;p