I have not encountered any of the anti-immigrant abuse I experienced in the past, and it’s easier to make friends. I feel like I’m Irish – and so does my husband, says Gabby Malik Thompson
Former journalist and taxi driver Gabby, 62, and her husband Graham Thompson, also a former taxi driver turned YouTuber, 67, left their home in Essex for Ireland after the EU Referendum. Five years after Brexit day in 2020, the retired couple explain why they’ve never looked back.
When the Brexit vote came in, I cried for three days. I’m German and my husband, Graham, is British. It just felt like such a kick in the teeth. I thought, “Okay. If they don’t want me here, I don’t need them either.” We started thinking about moving away immediately.
We met in Essex in 2006 when we were working for the same taxi company. At the time, we were both in relationships with other people. It wasn’t until 2017 that we started dating. By the time we did, we knew we were like-minded – our shared passions are animals, nature and comedy.
We were also on the same page when it came to the EU Referendum. We went on marches together, we were vocal about it in our personal lives – I even had to dump a friend over voting ‘leave’ and expressing anti-immigrant sentiments.
When I was a small child, you had to have a passport to go to Austria from Germany and there would be some grumpy jobsworth at passport control. After the Schengen Agreement – a treaty that gave nations free movement within the EU – there was no one to stop you. I loved the sense of freedom that being an EU citizen gave you.
With Brexit looming, I’d read about people from other countries who were married to British people for 20 years suddenly having to apply for settled status and I wasn’t sure whether I’d need to do the same. We decided to have a bit of a shotgun wedding in 2019 and I applied for settled status just in case leaving didn’t work out.
We were adamant that if we were going to live anywhere, it would have to be in the EU. At first, we thought we might go to Germany, but it wasn’t the right fit. I realised my husband would have had a hell of a culture shock because he doesn’t really speak the language. And then I thought of Ireland. As an EU national, I could easily live and work there, and as a British Citizen, Graham could work and live there without restriction because of the Common Travel Area (CTA).
I’d met so many Irish people who told me I’d fit right in there. I’d also read fascinating things about how mystical and magical it is, so I always thought it must be brilliant, even though I’d never been.
We started looking for Irish properties right away. After a brief stint in Wales, which helped to break us into what would become a new rural chapter, Graham took the ferry over and started house hunting. It didn’t take long for us to fall in love with the country. We wound up buying the first house we viewed in a small village called Bunninadden in County of Sligo in 2022.
For a three-bedroom house on half an acre of land between two farms, we paid just under £70,000. There’s a meadow towards the back of our house, which our dog and five cats love. The local property tax, equivalent to council tax, is €103 a year – compared with more than £1,000, which is 10 times that amount in the UK. If we bought a house of this size with this amount of land in the UK, especially in Essex, it would have cost well more than £500,000.
A little while before we moved from the UK, we noticed that the shop shelves were becoming progressively empty. Fruit and veg would go bad a lot quicker than they used to. Food quality deteriorated noticeably. When we arrived in Ireland, we were amazed by the difference. It had fresh, high-quality food, full shelves, and a more abundant feel.
But it’s not just that. Every good thing you’ve heard about Ireland is true and more. Our neighbours are helpful and chatty – sometimes my husband goes to help them herd cattle.
The shops don’t try to make money out of you by selling you things you don’t need – in fact, some shopkeepers might even give you something. I had my shoes repaired the other day and realised I needed some laces – they refused to charge me extra and threw some in. My husband goes hiking and needed an enamel mug. The owner of a local emporium, Bonanza – who we’ve become quite friendly with – gave it to him for free.
Making friends here is so much easier. In the UK, I had a really hard time making friends. Here, I don’t. People are happy to pop in for tea or go to the pub together, regardless of how long they’ve known you. They follow up on plans and strike up conversations wherever you go.
I’ve encountered none of the anti-immigrant abuse I used to face from some customers as a cab driver in post-EU referendum England – I find Irish people are warmer and much more welcoming. All of our Irish friends think Brexit is utterly crazy, almost to the extent that it would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad.
That said, there are small drawbacks to this lifestyle. Not a single bus runs down this road, whereas before we could jump on a train and be in London in half an hour, which was handy for me because I used to do a lot of comedy and improv.
I feel like I’m Irish – and so does my husband. He’s even in the process of changing over to an Irish driving licence and we’ll both be eligible to apply for Irish passports in just over two years. Though we haven’t travelled abroad since we moved – except to travel to Northern Ireland for shopping, which is easy because of the CTA – I look forward to travel being easier for my husband, as my German passport already makes it easy to travel within the EU. For now though, we’re happy exploring more of Ireland.
If we can help it, we’ll never go back to England. I wouldn’t change a thing about our new lives.