John Wyatt

“You have to remember how much Ireland has changed in the last couple of decades…they were still getting used to people coming in rather than going out!”

Ifirst moved to Ireland from Philadelphia in 1999. I was nine years old. I didn’t know anything about the country. When my parents asked my sister and I how we would feel about moving to Ireland, I asked if they spoke English there. My family moved a lot when I was growing up (eight times by 1998), so I was used to moving, and not having to learn another language was pretty much all I cared about.

It was different. School was strange – I remember suddenly being very far ahead in subjects like English and very far behind in subjects like Math (now “Maths”). It was the same recreationally - very far ahead in basketball and very far behind in soccer (now “football”). I made plenty of Irish friends, but the best friend I made was a Russian immigrant. Having to learn this new culture on the fly was a very powerful shared experience.

It was absolutely a monoculture. As non-Irish, we were more of a curiosity than anything else. I think a lot of people were surprised, after decades (really centuries) of migration, that people would choose to leave the United Sates and come to Ireland. I had a lot of kids in school ask me questions when I started like “Are you American?…Like from TV?” My Dad and the other expats that worked either inside of around the IFSC would get the DART into Connolly station in the morning and back out in the evening. There wasn’t really a whole lot of integration. That seemed to change a little bit more when the tech companies like Google set up in the mid 2000s.

In the meantime, Ireland still felt very much like a Catholic, nonglobalized, country. EVERYTHING closed on Sundays - and in the evening every other day of the week. Some staples and amenities were nice, although I think I only really noticed the small things as a kid. The bread was better. The butter was better. But you couldn’t find peanut butter anywhere! In 2001 we moved back to Philadelphia for my Dad’s work, but that was relatively temporary, as we’d be heading back to Dublin soon enough.

When we moved back to Ireland in 2003, after another two years in Philly, so much had changed. The old Irish “Punt” was gone with Euros in circulation, more American chains like Subway had stores in Dublin, and there was a giant Spire on O’Connell Street.

Starbucks started to pop up everywhere soon afterwards. It was a Big Deal when Dundrum Shopping Centre opened and had a 24 hour Tesco around 2007.

Cliffs of Moher

Ireland started to get more multicultural too. There was a huge wave of Eastern Europeans to Dublin after the EU expansion in 2004. With Ireland transitioning from the Celtic Tiger to the property boom, times were good, so while there was definitely some apprehension and mild racism towards the “new” immigrants, it was mitigated by the fact that no one was really struggling.

However, anti-Americanism was EVERYWHERE. The war in Iraq had just started. I think that Ireland has an (understandable) cultural sensitivity against unilateralism, which is evident in pro-Palestine and anti-Israel attitudes being higher here than almost anywhere else in the EU, and the war in Iraq was an example of that unilateral action. I also think that after being the “good guys” in WWII/the Cold War, it was viewed as very hypocritical for the United States to be proactively seeking conflict with other threats gone.

This did seem to be temporary though, as people’s attitudes changed overnight when Obama got elected in 2008. He was loved here during his presidency, probably more than any president since JFK, (see: Moneygall plaza). Ireland also had its own problems to worry about with the recession hitting around this time as well.

Personally, I think I had perfect timing to avoid the worst of the recession, as I was in college from 2008-2012, missing out on some

The butter was better." "The bread was better.

of the layoffs and hiring freezes. 2012 was also when I finally got my dual citizenship. It was a LONG process – due to accruing my years of residency prior to age 18, I had to wait until my parents submitted in 2008 and their application being successfully processed before submitting my own in 2010.

It still annoys me slightly to think about what should have been a one-year process taking four years, but you have to remember how much Ireland has changed in the last couple of decades. I think the first Immigration Act revisions since the Irish Republic was established happened in 1999. They were still getting used to people coming in rather than going out!

Now in 2020, American culture seems to be everywhere. People send me “SNL” links and can recite entire “Friends” episodes from memory. Irish friends who were only vaguely aware that “American” football existed a couple decades ago came up to me all through February 2018 congratulating me on the Eagles winning the Super Bowl. Outside of the (understandable) deeply suspicious looks I get when I give strangers directions and they hear my accent, there doesn’t seem to be much racism directed towards Americans outside of the fairly “normal” xenophobia you’d find pretty much anywhere in the world.

Unfortunately, I think that immigrants from poorer countries have a tougher time integrating here, as I think they’re viewed as more of a direct threat for the same jobs as working-class Irish people. I hope this changes, much like how Eastern Europeans are more broadly accepted here in Ireland now after some initial animosity.

I have so many Irish friends now – and an Irish wife! I would very “If you’d asked me a few years ago, I would have called myself more American than Irish, but now I don’t feel like either.” happily move back to the United States, and likewise I’d be happy to try living in other Schengen Zone areas if the right opportunity arose. If you’d asked me a few years ago, I would have called myself more “American” than Irish, but now I don’t feel like either. American-Irish seems appropriate. But I’m also happy here, and while I may not ever feel completely settled, I’m happy to call Ireland home.