Ireland: Heaven or Hell?

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Ireland: Heaven or Hell?

May 16, 2008

After recently returning to Ireland, two Irish undocumented immigrants who lived in New York, one for 10 years, the other for seven, are adjusting to their new lives in a country that has changed dramatically in a short few years. APRIL DREW reports.

Home Not Where Her Heart is

SAMANTHA Melia, 32, and Tom Woodlock, 37, were leading lights in the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) when they were resident in New York. They left for home after the immigration reform bill failed. Their experiences have been very different after returning.

“I feel like an outsider looking in,” says Melia who currently lives in Meath with her husband of three years, Liam.

“Sometimes I feel like an anthropologist on Mars studying these people,” she said. “I’ve an immigrant personality if there is such thing, so it’s very difficult to be here in Ireland when I would love more than anything to be living in New York.”

Despite their love for New York and everything it has to offer, being undocumented wasn’t an option any longer for Melia.

“I was beginning to feel so beaten down with everything. I knew it was time to do something about it,” she said.

Having to shelve her degree in psychology for the best part of eight years, Melia said she became increasingly frustrated with the lack of job prospects due to her undocumented status while living in the U.S.

“Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being a waitress. It’s a well paid job in New York, but I went to college and I sacrificed a lot for my education,” she said.

Melia was content to continue working as a waitress and put her life “on hold” as long as there was hope of getting legal status, but as soon as a comprehensive immigration bill failed to pass the Senate last year, she said she was “shattered.”

“I knew in my heart that our next hope was after the election,” she says.

That fact, plus her age, prompted Melia to make a decision about her future.

“I am coming up to my 33rd birthday this July and I said to myself, this is not how I want to spend my thirties, so that is basically why I came home.”

Since moving back to Ireland eight weeks ago, Melia, who currently lives with her husband in his mother’s home in Ashbourne, Co. Meath, said life has been extremely difficult. Liam has not yet been able to secure a job.

“Liam was making great money in New York, in fact he was turning down jobs,” she said. “Now, he has nothing. I don’t know about the rest of Ireland, but there are no construction jobs in Dublin.”

Melia just last week obtained a job managing a hotel in Dublin.

“Work is impossible to come by. There are no jobs. And I’ve sent out over 70 CVs (résumés) and I haven’t gotten one positive response,” she said.

Although it’s not in her field, Melia said her new job does have its perks. “It’s a Monday to Friday job and we do get holiday pay, so that is a plus,” she said looking on the bright side.

On the matter of money, Melia said she brings home €425 ($658) a week.

“This money lasts about 25 minutes,” she said. “I just bought a shampoo, conditioner and a moisturizer in Penney’s and it cost me €22. That is about 6% of my wages. It’s ridiculous.”

For the moment, the Melias are constantly dipping into their savings to survive. Because they have lived outside of the European Union for more than five consecutive years they are ineligible for the dole (social security).

“We have to be here for 18 months before we can get anything from the government. Can you believe that?” she said frustrated.

The weather is another thing that Melia is finding difficult to get accustomed to.

“The weather is a disaster, and even though there has been sunshine the past few days its not the same sunshine as we used to get in New York,” she says.

On the positive side, Melia said it is nice to be around family for certain occasions.

“It was my grandmother’s 85th birthday last weekend so it was great to be there for that,” she said. “And I do enjoy Ireland for its coolness. It’s got a lot of cute cappuccino shops and has become very European. Ireland is very groovy and Dublin is mega cool.”

She also said it was comforting to be able to walk into bank and open a bank account without any difficulties, or walk into the Garda (police) station and pick up a driver’s license application form.

“These are things that we couldn’t do in New York and were constantly worried about,” she says.

Melia said more than anything she would like to enjoy being in Ireland, but it’s just so difficult.

“We have an Irish accent but we are not Irish people,” she said. “It’s difficult because we don’t want to be here, but there is a lot of guilt with that because our families want us here.”

Melia warns anyone who is thinking about relocating back to Ireland, undocumented or documented, to be clear about their decision and, if possible, “have a job lined up before you come back, especially if you are coming back to the construction industry,” she advises.

If Melia could turn back time would she have stayed longer in New York and stuck it out until the next possibility for immigration reform?

“No,” she said. “Although it’s very difficult for us here I think we made the right decisions. I’m in my thirties and want to set down roots and start a family, so being illegal in America wasn’t an option for us anymore despite the love we have for the country.”

Realizing that Ireland isn’t for them either, the Melias have opted to move across the world to Australia where she hopes some day to be able to fulfill her dreams.

“I want to live in a house with a swimming pool and where we can have a BBQ and play at the beach with our children and enjoy the sunshine. That was my American dream but now that dream is superimposed into Australia,” she says.

The Melias are currently in the middle of applying for residency visas for Australia and hope to be living there in six months.

“If we had a choice it would be New York, but we don’t so Australia is the next best thing,” she said.

Big Tom Has No Regrets

TOM Woodlock, or known to his friends and customers in the Heritage Bar on McLean Avenue in Yonkers where he worked for several years as Big Tom, told the Irish Voice on Monday that although Ireland has changed dramatically since he left it 10 years ago, he is ultimately happy with his decision and has no regrets.

Woodlock has been back in Tipperary, his home county, for three months.

“My sister Nuala was getting married in March and I knew no matter what I wasn’t going to miss it, so last year I made a promise that with a green card or a container I was going home, and here I am,” he said.

Woodlock said that although he truly loved his time in New York and if he had been documented there is a strong possibility he would still be there, he loves Ireland and all it has to offer a returning immigrant.

“There is something on every weekend, be it a football or hurling game or a party. I think I’m busier here than I was in New York,” he laughs.

Woodlock, who rents a four-bedroom house with his wife Sonia outside the town of Twomileborris, works two jobs, one in a hotel bar and the other doing security in a building site.

“I got a job straight away so it’s been all go ever since,” he said.

For Woodlock, the biggest adjustment he has had to make to date is getting used to the fact that money is not as easy to make in Ireland.

“In New York you have the cash flow to do what you want with, and here it’s a lot, lot less,” he said. “But the quality of life in Ireland is much better and there are a lot of things that can be done relatively inexpensively too if you look for them.

“If you can get it into your head from the start that you are not going to make the same money here as you did in New York then you’ll settle in much quicker.”

And remember, says Woodlock, “we didn’t grow up with much money.”

For Woodlock, the idea of having family surrounding him on a regular basis is very comforting.

“My mother is sick at the moment and for me to be able to be here for her is so important,” said Woodlock. “I wouldn’t change that for the world.”

Woodlock said he is glad to have the “noose around his neck” removed. Being undocumented was getting harder and harder, he said.

“Life was changing a lot over in New York. My driving license was about to run out and things in general were getting stricter for the undocumented, so even though I really miss my friends — and it saddens me that I don’t know when I’ll see them again — I am very glad that I made the decision to come back home,” he said. “Ireland is a great country and I’m making the most of it.”

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