South Africa has never been known as a traditional destination for Irish emigrants, but the country is home to 30,000 Irish passport holders, according to the Embassy in Pretoria.

Our immigration to South Africa is not a well-known history, but the country's colourful past is littered with stories of Irish people who have made their way to these shores to escape poverty or the law or to preach the word of God.

Unsurprisingly, missionaries and military men were in the vanguard of each wave of new arrivals; many of the latter became notorious locally for blazing a trail of corruption across the country.

A book published in 2011 called Masked Raiders: Irish Banditry in Southern Africa recounts their exploits after arriving as foot soldiers of Britain's colonial forces.

Many deserted their posts and caused havoc in mid-1890s South Africa, plundering the world’s richest supplies of diamonds and gold at the time, which were then transported by coach and horses to distant ports for export.

“For Irish soldiers based at Fort Napier, Pietermaritzburg, the temptation of this fabulous wealth proved irresistible: they deserted by the score and, as members of the criminal ‘Irish Brigade’, embarked on a spree of bank, safe and highway robberies,” the publishers write in the book’s preamble.

The Irish bandits are mostly gone, but Ireland’s Ambassador to South Africa, Liam MacGabhann, says there are still many missionaries in the country. “I’d say there are between 200 and 300 nuns and priests still living and working across the country. Many of them would have come up to 40 years ago and are happy to stay here.”

The more recent Irish arrivals have very different reasons for leaving home, ranging from a love of the African outdoors to Ireland’s economic difficulties.

Niamh Gantley from Galway, for example, arrived in Cape Town three years ago to be with her partner, John Gallagher, an Irishman of South African descent who was employed in construction in Ireland until the work dried up in 2007.

Today she is married, has a young daughter and is expecting a second child next March. She is relatively content here but says she hopes to move back home at some stage, to be closer to family and friends.

“South Africa is stunningly beautiful, and the people are very nice, but we come from big families, so I think in a few years, when things get better economically, we’ll head back home,” she says.

Adjusting to South Africa has its difficulties, she says, but the quality of the outdoor life gives those longing for home many distractions. “South Africa has its problems with crime, which has much higher levels of it than we would be used to back home, but every country has its own particular difficulties, so that doesn’t bother me too much.

“What I miss about home is the craic and the sense of humour, and being able to go to a local pub knowing you’ll bump into someone you know,” she says.

The African way

One of the big issues Gantley faces at the moment is getting her work permit sorted out, as, even though she is a nurse, getting registered as a nursing professional has been a slow process.

“It’s the African way,” she says. “Everything happens slowly here. Hopefully I will be able to sit an exam soon that will speed the process up, but getting work visas sorted out can be a problem for foreigners, as the government is strict.”

Securing a work permit for South Africa is no easy task. Given the high unemployment – official figures put it at about 25 per cent, but many believe it is closer to 40 per cent – more often than not one has to have exceptional skills that are lacking locally or be willing to create employment opportunities to get the nod from the department of home affairs.

Gantley knows quite a few Irish people in Cape Town, she says; many of them work in the medical profession, doing HIV research or teaching at universities.

“I’ve also met a lot of Irish people through the Irish South African Association, although the diaspora is only beginning over here in a cultural sense.”

The Irish South African Association was established in 1999 by a group of Irish people long resident in South Africa. It has chapters in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, the country’s three largest cities.

Maureen Sharp, nee Quirke, the association’s current vice-president, arrived in South Africa in 1982 on holidays and was so impressed by the natural beauty that she never left. “I liked it so much I just rang my brother and told him to sell my house,” she says. “The Irish here come from all walks of life. I’d say between the three chapters we have over 1,000 paid-up members, with the majority members of the one in Johannesburg.”

In terms of social events, Sharp says they do not have set nights to do things but get together when opportunities present themselves. “For instance, we are going to do a wine-tasting night, using wines produced by vineyards owned by Irish people, of which there are quite a few.”

Business Ireland

Another Irish organisation to launch in South Africa in the past couple of years is the Business Ireland Association, which has 500 Irish members.

It was established to cater for Irish entrepreneurs who want to take advantage of opportunities around the country and wider region, according to Paul O’Riordan, who is chief executive of Synexa Life Sciences.

“Our members are people looking to stay in South Africa long term who want to set up businesses, and they work in a variety of sectors, from finance and the hospitality industry to farming and telecommunications,” he says.

One of these is entrepreneurs is Frankie Hannigan from Drogheda. He and his British wife first encountered South Africa when they got married on a wine farm in 2005 in Wellington, a small town in the Western Cape province.

They fell in love with the place instantly, and after trying for 18 months to convince his then employer, Melcrum, to allow him to open a Cape Town office for it, Hannigan’s wish was granted.

“I couldn’t believe a place like this existed,” he says about the weather and landscape. “We got here in January 2008, just before the wheels came off the bus economically back home. I stayed with the company until 2012 and then went out on my own.”

Hannigan, who lives with his family at Hout Bay, on the Cape Peninsula, opened his events-management agency, called 4Leaf, shortly after his departure from Melcrum. He has been building his business ever since.

As a foreigner, however, he finds that South Africa is not an easy place to set up a business, as you “have to earn your stripes” before people will take you seriously. “The foreign accent does not work in your favour, and the business culture here is to live for the moment, which is the opposite to Ireland, which is a society where you build relationships.”