Cause That’s How It Is Where We’re From

Home. It means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Home could be where you were born and raised. It could be the house you grew up in as a kid but one thing that is usually associated with the word home is safety and freedom to be yourself. That one place where you can park all your problems at the door for 5 minutes and just relax. Wherever home may actually be for you, it is the place where you don’t fear judgement. Where you can belt out Sigrid at the top of your lungs and someone may come to make sure the pets aren’t murdering one another but won’t laugh too hard as you really try to hold a tune. The people you share your home with may be your siblings, your parents, your friends or maybe your fur babies or it could be so much bigger than that. Home doesn’t necessarily imply a house or a specific building. The wonderful thing about home is that you can make a person your home and be happy and content in their presence. Silence is easy and whether you’re half a world away from your house or just relaxing on the couch, time with this person is the epitome of bliss (#goals). Maybe your home is a city where you feel you just fit in and the people around you move at the same pace as you do. Maybe you are a wanderer, happy to call so many beautiful places on this earth home; maybe it’s Malaga in the summer for downtime, New York in the winter for work. Home is genuinely wherever you make it, so make it count.

One place I think I will always count as home is the West of Ireland, especially the beating heart of Galway city. Being born in Galway and spending so much time in the West on family holidays over so many years strengthened my affinity for the Wild Atlantic coast. Especially Salthill, Barna and Spiddal and nothing beats standing on the very edge of the Cliffs of Moher looking out on the ocean on a clear day. Inside the city of Galway itself, I love the Corrib side walk from the courthouse to the city’s West End and if you can get dinner in Riordan’s and a cheeky drink in the Roisín Dubh, it’s even better. The city is a place where I feel like I could almost guess the exact location of the next crack in the pavement. Thankfully, Galway isn’t the only place I feel at home. There’s a few places I’ve been where I feel like I’ve walked the streets a thousand times before on my first visit. Shout out to Cork City, you bunch of sounders ❤ and a few smaller spots in and around Dublin City where I can catch my breath, like Phoenix Park, Malahide, and St. Stephen’s Green to name a few. Wide open spaces and beaches, yes please.

Of course, there are those lucky people who can call the whole world home and bounce from country to country, enjoying the best that the world has to offer. The globetrotters are that small group of people who would be happy as long as they have a roof over their heads. They could sleep on a bed of nails as long as they have their essentials with them, whatever those essentials may be. Some people need their specific shampoo and others need their hair dryer/straightener or life cannot continue. I envy the globetrotters though; not only can they afford all their travels but they rarely get homesick and see so much of the world. They always have the best stories to tell if you don’t mind listening to “Well, this one time when I was in India/Columbia/Amsterdam”. Someday, when money is less of an issue, I’ll make my own stories but, for now, I’m happy to listen to others’.

But I haven’t even mentioned my hometown, strange that…. In my opinion, my hometown suits some people but not others. I am one of the others, I think. I was never really one for nights out over the weekend and I rarely found places in my hometown that kept me entertained so I stayed at home. I studied hard and found a place to call home elsewhere. However, I’m not saying that my hometown is unpleasant, boring or unwelcoming. It has a spectacular history and it is always a great feeling to step off the train after traveling for long periods of time and be welcomed by a place that is so familiar. I will always refer to my hometown as my hometown but to me it is simply where I am from, not where I intend to stay. My hometown has shaped how I deal with people and my public personality (not always in the best way) but I am, and will remain, fiercely loyal to the people who grew up there too and support those who know the struggles of being branded a “culchie” or a “bogger” based solely on where we got our start in life. Sorry darlings, as much as I love the cities of Ireland, not everyone can fit inside the ever expanding limits of Dublin and the other cities. People from my hometown are not lesser because we come from the middle of the country. We are raised with hard work and grit embedded into the core of our very beings because we come from a place where those qualities are required to move on and succeed elsewhere. We are the result of being born and bred in the very middle of Irish culture, which is diversifying on a daily basis, and we learned how to innately diversify with life. I’m not saying it’s perfect, it has its flaws like many things in life, but don’t use words like culchie as an insult against me or anyone who grew up in “the sticks”. To call one person a culchie is to call everyone where they’re from the exact same thing. Besides, it’s not an insult anymore. Yes, I am one; I get that believe me, but so are so many other amazing people. Some people may not get that but that’s how it is where we’re from. Okay?