{"id":320172,"date":"2025-08-05T15:45:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T15:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/320172\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T15:45:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T15:45:24","slug":"america-is-me-me-me-me-ireland-still-has-that-community-feeling-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/320172\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018America is me-me-me-me. Ireland still has that community feeling\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A while into what sounds like a busy retirement in Hudson Valley, upstate New York<\/a>, Barrie Peterson and Bea Conner decided four years ago they would like to emigrate, as Peterson puts it, \u201cyearning for a safer, less cruel place to spend my final years\u201d. He had worked in nonprofit leadership, career counselling, taught business ethics (\u201cnot always an oxymoron!\u201d); she\u2019s a playwright, actor and director, after retiring from teaching special education. <\/p>\n

But where to go? They considered France, but language was a barrier, and Scotland, where they had some connections. \u201cBut the royals still have their claws into it, and I\u2019m a republican,\u201d says Peterson. \u201cBrexit seems to be dragging it down. The independence movement has unfortunately faltered.\u201d <\/p>\n

In autumn 2023 they spent a month driving around Ireland, and loved it. They finally fixed on \u201cthe sunnier, or less cloudy, southeast\u201d. They fancied a country cottage, \u201cbut the L-roads convinced us we didn\u2019t want to be driving. That put us into a town,\u201d says Peterson. They moved to Clonmel<\/a> in June 2024 and bought a small house in town \u201cfor half what I got for my modest house in the Hudson Valley\u201d. <\/p>\n

They slid right into the community there, getting involved, making friends volunteering. \u201cAnd we love it,\u201d he says. \u201cOur house is within two blocks of a butcher, a produce person, wonderful bakery, appliance store, dry-goods, pizza parlour, pub. It\u2019s all right there. It has worked out wonderfully, and the longer we\u2019re here, the happier we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0A US animal lawyer in Wexford: \u2018There\u2019s a real social cost here: if you\u2019re not fun, you\u2019re gonna pay\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Emigrating meant leaving friends and family, a factor Peterson points out in a note he shares with friends thinking of leaving the US. He has two brothers with families in the midwest; she has a daughter and four grandchildren, a son and a favourite niece (in Boston, who has visited twice). They stay in touch via video-calls, and visits back.<\/p>\n

They have Stamp Zero visas, which can be renewed four times, to ultimately become residents, on the path towards citizenship. <\/p>\n

The visa stipulates you cannot spend more than 90 days outside Ireland, \u201cwhich is reasonable,\u201d says Peterson. \u201cThe government wants you to be committed to Ireland, not be a tourist. And we\u2019re not tourists. We\u2019re living here. We\u2019re loving it. The visa requires about \u20ac50,000 income, a couple of hundred thousand [euro] in assets, private health insurance, a clean criminal record, a doctor saying you\u2019re not deathly ill.\u201d<\/p>\n

They met the requirements with ordinary pensions and social security. \u201cWe\u2019re not rich\u201d, but \u201ccomfortably middle class.\u201d As retired immigrants, they can\u2019t earn money nor access Irish benefits. All the same, they were surprised by energy credits and other pluses for non-income-taxpayers, including the prescriptions cap of \u20ac80 per month. Medications are a third of US prices. When Conner had a medical issue, \u201cexcellent\u201d ambulance and hospital care \u201ccost \u20ac100. In the States, you could add two zeros to that,\u201d says Peterson.<\/p>\n

At a Clonmel storytelling event recently, Peterson spoke about real, human interactions with locals, businesses and cultural leaders, and being blessed by a \u201cwelcome sociability, intelligence, generosity\u201d. The owner of the hotel where they first stayed gave them lifts, the plumber introduced him to the Workman\u2019s Boat Club. He describes great service and expertise from local shops and tradespeople at reasonable prices; helpful garda\u00ed, the OPW, medics. <\/p>\n

Has Peterson an overly romantic, rose-tinted view of Ireland? \u201cI reported what I had experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only two things have disappointed. \u201cBus service at night is absent. If we want to go to Cashel or Waterford for a show, you can\u2019t do it at night. And a lot of nonprofit groups use Facebook instead of websites. Information about a local chorus or theatrical group is on Facebook … I think a website would be more friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peterson, who is 80, speculates about Ireland\u2019s friendliness. \u201cPerhaps hundreds of years of foreign domination produces a general kindness to your neighbour in the face of larger factors beyond control. Or, despite the recent loss of credibility of Catholic Church leaders covering up abuses, there exists a foundation of charity, forgiveness, kindness. With millennia of pagan, Celtic and pre-Christian nature appreciation, values are deep-baked. These live in pilgrimages, sacred wells, Gaelic myths and holidays.\u201d <\/p>\n

They both have some Irish background, from centuries ago, \u201ctoo far back to claim citizenship!\u201d. Peterson has Swedish and Ulster-Scots ancestry, including McCauleys, Presbyterians from Dunbartonshire who initially moved to Ulster. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0From LA to Dublin: \u2018When people see my name, they expect a granny from Tipperary\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Conner\u2019s great-great-great grandfather Michael Conner, son of William Conner and Rosa Byrne, emigrated from Carlow and served during the American Revolution around 1775-1776. \u201cHe pops up in Louisiana in 1798, marrying Victoria Prineau,\u201d a French-Canadian, says Conner. She hopes to find out more about him.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s African-American, and Peterson observes \u201cwe weren\u2019t anticipating any bias, or people looking at us strangely as a couple. We haven\u2019t had one bit of that. That\u2019s not a surprise. We had a positive view of Ireland\u2019s kindness and pluralistic attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other good things: \u201cThe Irish have such wonderful humour, in every interaction making jokes and kind of being sarcastic as a form of showing they like you. The GAA, what a wonderful asset to the whole island. It\u2019s voluntary, it\u2019s organic. Holy mackerel. In the States the big sports are totally commercialised,\u201d says Peterson. <\/p>\n

Conner \u201cgrew up in the city, where everything is closed in. Here\u2019s these wide open spaces. Even when it\u2019s raining and cloudy, it still has that beauty. Then the people, who are more concerned about community. It\u2019s what I grew up with. We lived in Brooklyn\u201d with a mix of nationalities in their apartment building, playing together.<\/p>\n

Conner says they didn\u2019t leave the US because of Donald Trump<\/a>, who wasn\u2019t in power while they formed their plans. \u201cWe wanted a different life. We wanted the lifestyle that fitted us. The cruel stuff started after we moved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peterson is involved in Clonmel community chorus. Conner joined the dragonboat team of breast cancer survivors. \u201cI felt so much warmth, compassion, support, understanding,\u201d she says. \u201cTo welcome a stranger you don\u2019t even know. Especially when I tell them I can\u2019t swim! They said, we can\u2019t either! Compassion is one thing that used to be in America that\u2019s no longer there. It\u2019s me-me-me-me. Ireland still has that community feeling and emotion and attachment.\u201d<\/p>\n

We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com<\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A while into what sounds like a busy retirement in Hudson Valley, upstate New York, Barrie Peterson and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[116113,32,89038,4447,61665,41590,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-320172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-clonmel","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-emigration","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-to-the-parish","13":"tag-tipperary","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114976936660997506","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}