Irish abroad

‘Is a year studying abroad of sufficient value to justify the cost?’

If taking an undergraduate business degree in Ireland, your daughter will be in a highly internationalised setting. But there’s no substitute for studying abroad

‘Leaving Ireland is a rupture. Life splits into the before and the after’

Irishman in Tasmania: ‘I don’t want to fly back seeking something that no longer exists’

From Navan to Valencia: ‘They refer to the Irish here as the Latins of the north’

Wild Geese: Martin Hayes is a lawyer in the Spanish city

I never thought I wanted to live in Australia and now I’m struggling to leave

Many Irish people idolise Australian life - it represents escape into another version of yourself

Here in Mexico there is a brilliant, if bemusing, grá for all things Irish

The bemusing grá for Ireland has made me romanticise home and balance on the tightrope of remote patriotism

A Dubliner in South Africa: ‘I often leave the keys in the car. I couldn’t do that in Dublin’

Wild Geese: Annie Williams runs Kingfisher Creek Safari Lodge in Hoedspruit, South Africa

A Kerryman in California: My first boss told me ‘nothing changes here’ – turns out he was right

Like Tony Soprano, America believes it is the good guy. Yet it spends billions policing its own citizens, where deaths on its streets remain routine

‘My husband would have been in ICU two days earlier if we had enough petrol’: Irish woman on Sri Lanka fuel crisis

Petrol shortages: ‘I told them I was in early labour and asked would they give me extra. They did’

‘When people think of Spain, they think of the costas, but it’s another world here’

Expats stick to an Irish schedule: My kids go to bed at eight, their peers at 10 or 11

‘As an Irish person speaking Norwegian, you can sound like a very sick dog’

Wild Geese: Dublin-born accountant David Norton lives in Larvik, Norway

I live in the ‘most boring’ part of Australia. But a recent violent incident got me thinking

As an outsider I have the freedom to care about a place without belonging

‘I think I’ll go’: She left for a ‘jaunt’ to Australia and didn’t return for 40 years

‘I’d go to Darwin for lunch and Singapore for dinner’: Cliodhna Rae on a career golden age of air travel, and an ‘accidental’ business

‘It’s strange to say to Irish people that you miss the bad weather’

Wild Geese: Nick O’Conor, Nice

When my first child was born the distance from Ireland became a physical ache

When in your 20s, you don’t think about the repercussions of building a life 17,000 km from home

After 35 years in Boston, has my Irishness been flattened out?

After a week in Ireland I return to Boston wondering, have I lost my verbal dexterity?

Grieving abroad: ‘Every Irish emigrant expects and dreads the phone call they know will come’

For emigrants the death of a loved one in Ireland is compounded. Three Irish abroad tell their stories

I tell my eyes not to search out daffodils, but the Irish seasons still live inside me

‘Was that an earthquake?’ In Ireland, buildings have the decency to stay put

‘We can’t all live on a small island’: How Ireland pushed my generation to emigrate

I left in 1983 on a little trip to New Jersy. Forty-two years later and I’m still here

Going to Prague? Avoid taxis, try the Vietnamese food and other tips from an Irish local

As Republic of Ireland football fans travel for the play-off What are the pubs to drink in and places to see according to a Limerick native

Turning plastic waste into design furniture in the heart of Africa

Wild Geese: Evanna Lyons, Tanzania

Why a tiny tropical island treats St Patrick’s Day as a national holiday

Montserrat’s March 17th mixes an Irish celebration with honouring African history and a failed slave rebellion against the British

Raising children abroad: ‘Their Irish identity is an anchor, the only portable home they have’

‘Did you know Irish for potatoes is spuds?’ In Vietnam, I began to teach my son about Ireland

‘In Dublin people say they’re exhausted. Danes look down on idea of always being busy’

‘In Dublin people say they’re exhausted, the Danes look down on the idea of always being busy’

St Patrick’s Day abroad: From Pennsylvania to Perth, readers share their photos

Irish people around the world wore green, watched parades and danced a jig

Seán Burke, Irish comedian in London: ‘My accent goes a long way when I’m on stage’

Irish comedian in London: Even if the jokes are good, if you look nervous people can tell you aren’t believing in yourself'

An Irishwoman in New York: ‘You can be who you want here if you learn to climb the ladder’

‘There is something otherworldly about this place,’ says Irish-language advocate Vivienne Sayers O’Callaghan

‘Irish people don’t take themselves too seriously’: What emigrants miss about home

From Sydney mornings to no immersion worries, here’s what emigrants miss and love about life abroad

Intravenous foods and medicines: ‘A long way from milking cows or walking the crops’

Wild Geese: Declan O’Brien, London

‘For many, growing up queer in Ireland was a trauma almost – they ran away’

Derek Murphy in London hopes Queer Irish Film & Television UK can help people ‘dip their toes back into Irishness’

Irish director in London: ‘You find yourself connected to Irish people, there’s a familiarity’

Ronan Corrigan aims to base his second feature film back home in his native Derry and in Co Donegal

St Patrick’s Day Quiz 2026: 50 questions to test your Irishology

Expert on all things Irish? You could be in with a chance to win this great prize

St Patrick’s Day: Irish abroad how are you celebrating? Send us your photos

From parades to shamrock lapels, where and how are you celebrating your Irishness?

An Irish architect in Berlin: ‘Freedom people here have to be themselves gave me courage’

Irish creatives abroad: Jennifer O’Donnell moved to Germany 11 years ago

Have you experienced anti-Irish sentiment abroad in recent years? Tell us your story

An Irish worker in the UK, whose boss repeatedly shouted the word ‘potato’ at her, has won an employment tribunal case

Irish in Britain: A full month after my birth, my parents changed my name

Would a Laura by any other name feel more sure of herself? Possibly. But names are personal and political

I’ve lived in Dublin, London and Limerick but this city is the most convenient and functional

Everything here is planned, rigid, augmented right down to the fixed annual schedule of government-endorsed fun

We left Ireland for a rambling palazzo in Italy and a life of simple pleasures

Emotion and passion are not clichéd slogans here but the bounding heartbeat of daily life

Carlowman in France: ‘Having kids makes you think about the kind of world you want’

Eamon O’Hara founded European network Ecolise, which supports community climate change projects

‘I’ve no idea when I’ll get home from my trip’: The Irish stuck in Middle East transit

Irish woman on way to Philippines spent night sheltering in bathtub as windows of hotel shook

What does it mean to be of Ireland?

Ireland is distilled into an essence at this time of year, from Shamrock shakes to emerald green rivers

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