Growing up in London I used to wonder why my parents left the beautiful Island of Ireland and moved to London. Even though I enjoyed growing up in the UK, I will always remember spending the summer holidays in Ireland with my brother and sister and all of our many cousins, running around in the fields, feeding the Billy goat and horse riding.
I look back and laugh how we used to leave our grandparent’s house at 9am and only returning to eat, than straight off out the door again! We wouldn’t return until it was dark, not before mum and dad would have to come looking for us first!! There was certainly a lot more freedom over here which is every Child’s dream.
More than two and a half years ago I decided to return to my motherland and moved to Cork. After spending most of my life in England, I thought it would be a nice change and I don’t regret it one bit!
Even though the country is in a bad place right now, I love the beautiful scenery, the fact that Cork city is small but not too small, I also love that you can never feel lonely as people genuinely love to have a chat with strangers, something that is considered weird in London. I often joke about the underground and that you could walk onto a tube naked and not one person would look at you!
When people think of Ireland, they think of it as a beautiful place with friendly people. It is the people of Ireland who have helped market this country, they are its USP. As much as the government try to destroy this ideology, they will never succeed.
Whether I stay in Ireland, return to England, or travel further afield, I will always think of Ireland as a great place with great people.
Mary Quille works in PR with Fuzion Communications