Emigration’s not all hard work. It’s an adventure, too

IN the late 1980s, like many Irish people, I emigrated to London.

There was a recession then, too: the empty shops and drizzle sometimes made it look like Dublin was preparing to be bulldozed. The empty expressions on the faces of the people gave the impression that no one would mind.

Yet even in those faraway, black-and-white times, moving to another country was not the big deal it had been. Ryanair had made air travel affordable to my generation. I was back, visiting for a weekend, within weeks of having left, while my expectation of emigration was different to that of Irish people of, say, ten years previously.