How it began

Off we go!  I figured it would be best to tell you a little about myself and how I've gotten into this situation with moving to Ireland. Let me start by saying that me moving to Ireland is not a definite thing quite yet, but I'm very hopeful.

I've wanted to move to Ireland for many, many years. My grandfather was born in Castlederg, Co. Tyrone and moved to the United States in 1916 with his father. Growing up, I was always aware of my ties to Ireland through my grandfather. Around 2005, my brother had told me that we were eligible for Irish citizenship because of our grandfather being born in Ireland. It wasn't until 2007 that I finally got around to getting everything together (which my brother thankfully did all of the groundwork) and applying myself. The process took exactly one year, but in 2008 I was an actual Irish citizen. Once I had the paperwork showing this, I was able, and did, apply for an Irish passport. Of course, having these two documents meant I could easily work in Ireland.

For several years I had dreamt of moving to Ireland. I had planned to try to make this move once my daughter turned 18, which would be in 2017. Most recently, I've had desires to move to England, Scotland or Wales as well.

Well, back on December 6th of this year, I was let go from my job. I worked as a banquet manager for a hotel. I've done this for several years at different hotels, including the 5 Star Umstead Hotel & Spa in Cary, NC.  Unfortunately, right now, there are no openings in this line of work where I live in North Carolina (a suburb of Raleigh).  So, I've decided to start looking overseas. I began by applying to and sending my CV to hotels in England, Scotland and Wales, not even thinking of Ireland (I have to say here that I was really hoping for something in Wales, as I do love what I've seen of that part of the UK). But then it hit me like a hammer....Ireland. It seems like a no brainer for an Irish citizen to apply for a job in Ireland. So, this is what I did. I've sent my CV to several hotels in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Shortly after sending my CV to a job recruitment agency in Dublin for a position at a 5 Star hotel, I received a call. I spoke to the representative of the agency for quite some time while parked in front of a Red Box machine at my local Walgreens. John, the agent, decided to go ahead and push my CV through to the hotel for the next step, which is a phone interview. I have this interview scheduled for January 7th. I am super excited about this, but at the same time I'm very nervous. This is a big step to take, especially when less than a month ago, I was not planning such a drastic life change.

So, that's the story in a nutshell.
My next post will be about how I've started to plan the move and dispose of "stuff".