You Can’t Eat Scenery

After seven years of living in Ireland, we have made the decision to move back to the U.S for a change in scenery. We leave July 4th. With fifty states to choose from, we chose Florida. After many years of rain and unemployment; we have chosen the heat, sunshine, and jobs.

I have heard Ireland described as tragic and it is an apt description. A political cartoon recently showed two queues: one was for the dole and the second one was for the airport and emigration. That pretty much sums it up. It is sad when you have to leave your own country to find work like so many Irish men and women do and as my husband has done many times over the past thirty-five years.

Years ago, before we moved here, we were watching a program on Ireland – County Donegal to be exact, where the scenery is spectacular and they were commenting on the hemorrhage of young people that is emigration and I remarked: “I could never leave a country that was so beautiful.” My husband peered over the top of the paper he was reading and stated: “You can’t eat scenery.”

When we arrived, our boys were 3 1/2 years and 17 months and there were a lot of diapers and bottles around. Now they are ten and eight and moving back to the country of their birth.

There are so many things I love about Ireland. The peace and quiet of the countryside. Cows everywhere. The fact that it is light out until almost eleven in the summer. The Irish people and their hospitality which is without compare. The cup of tea that seems to solve everything. The scenery (yes). The Dingle Peninsula — bleak but beautiful. Tripping over castle ruins and artifacts — the country is loaded. And it is sooo old; there is Newgrange in County Meath, with its 5,000 year old passage tomb, the beehive huts in Dingle that date back to the 12th century, the magnificent Rock of Cashel, and cathedral ruins dating back to the 11th and 12th century in Tipperary. There is the elaborate, ornate illustrated gospels called the Book of Kells up at Trinity College in Dublin, about 1200 years old and found in a bog, well-preserved. There is the strong sense of heritage: the house we live in is 300 years old and our boys are the tenth generation of Brouders to live in it. Christmas is not just one day here, it is all week. The list goes on and on.

When we moved here, I was very homesick for about a week. Thought we made a mistake, wanted to go home. But I settled in, got a job and even got my Irish driver’s license and my sister-in-law used to say that I was more Irish than the Irish.

When I see the financial devastation this country has suffered, it breaks my heart. I understand how she is tragic. When I know firsthand the effects of unemployment, I get that you cannot eat the scenery. I am ready and excited to go back.

Time for the next adventure: America.