February 2011 was Ireland’s last General Election, coming on
the back of the Financial Crisis, IMF and our Government’s meltdown, and in
this election, we saw the collapse of Ireland’s dominant political party, the
Soldiers of Destiny were blitzed in a sweep of National anger in that election,
Ireland was at a very low ebb.
For me personally, it marks a point in time also, where I
faced my own crisis like so many Irish people at the time, a business brought
to its knees with all the financial and personal strain that that brings, I
faced the reality of having to look abroad for work and an income, and so a few
months later, I boarded a plane at Shannon, Dubai bound, via Manchester and on
to Kandahar, Afghanistan to 53 degree heat in the weeks after Osama Bin Laden
had been taken out by the US. Was this going to work?
Well, I sit here in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania today five years
on from that last General Election In Ireland, heading into my final week of
the ex-patriate life, yes, I’m going home next week and it feels damn good.
That journey has taken me from dusty Kandahar to mountains
of Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan Province, on to Helmand for a short few months, to
Riyadh in Saudi Arabia in 2012, where I lived until October 2014, with all its
oddities and peculiarities, and had the opportunity to visit the wider Middle
East region, to places like modern Dubai, the oasis of Al Ain, Abu Dhabi,
Jeddah by the Red Sea, Doha, Abha, Dammam, Bahrain, Amman and Petra in Jordan,
and Istanbul. The last stage of this period spent in Accra, Ghana and finally
here by the Indian Ocean in Dar es Salaam.
I can already feel the excitement and emotion of taking that
last flight next Friday from Dar to Abu Dhabi and arriving in Dublin on my
birthday, and in time to vote again just like five years ago.
In that period, there has been tough times, sad times, lonely
times, times when I missed my loved ones and watched my sons grow at a
distance, missed birthdays, nights out, work colleagues, friends and
neighbours, even a missed Christmas Day spent in Riyadh. There has also been
some good days, days when you discover you had reserves of strength, days when
you rediscover lost confidence and get excited and passionate about your work
again, a particular day when I stood at Dubai airport misty eyed and emotional
to welcome my two young sons who had flown on their own for hours from Dublin
to spend a week the old man in the UAE.
I have met and made new friends and colleagues, many of them
Irish like myself, who took to the airport in the same way to work abroad in
this remarkable period in Ireland’s history, we have even lost some of them too
sadly.
Thankfully, I return with the financial issues now resolved,
I did not get into property, or lose money on shares, I simply had a small
business connected to the Construction Industry that got caught in a perfect storm,
like so many others. I also return to a different life, and know that it will
take time to adjust back to Ireland, to a new life again and a new job. I look
forward so much to Sunday lunches, walks on the beach, Friday nights with the
Late Late, open fires, cycling with the lads, the odd gig, a decent pint of
Guinness and even the mundanity of making breakfast for hungry young men while
discussing the latest U-Tube hit or video game villain ! It’s all Good and I
can’t wait to get back……..
