Return of the Wild Geese: Emigrants come back as recovery continues

With the CSO reporting the highest number of returning Irish nationals since 2007, lifting the country's population above five million for the first time in 170 years, Joyce Fegan caught up with some ex-pats to ask why they have stayed away and explore their views on the country they left behind.

The Gollogley family in Hong Kong on Paddy's Day in 2019. Louth man Gavin Gollogley has what he describes as a "multinational family".

They’re coming home. In April 2021, for the first time since 1851, the population in what's now the Republic of Ireland was estimated to have passed the five million mark. Part of this story has to do with returning Irish nationals.

According to CSO findings last month, 65,200 people immigrated to Ireland in the year to April 2021, 30,200 of whom were returning Irish nationals, the highest number of returning Irish nationals since 2007.