I hired Nick Hoffman, a University of Michigan graduate, as staff writer and police beat and court reporter for the Hastings Banner and Reminder in the mid-1990s. Nick stuck it out under me for about two years, but in 1995 decided he would leave the United States because he already qualified to be a citizen of Ireland.
He’s been “over there” for two decades now, so I thought I’d interview him about his experiences.
What was the biggest reason for leaving the U.S. for Ireland, besides loving Ireland?
Originally, I just came to Ireland in May 1995 for an extended vacation. I didn’t mean to stay here or to stay away from the US. I just wanted to live in Dublin for a summer, rent a place to stay, work a job waiting tables or something and have an experience of what life here was like. I planned to return to the States at the end of the summer. I wound up staying longer as one opportunity led to another. But I kept expecting to return to the U.S. at some stage. It took a few years before I actually made the decision to stay in Ireland indefinitely. Now I’ve been living in Ireland for 21 years, as of last May.
I’ve always loved Ireland, of course. My mom is from Dublin originally, and my family had a strong connection with that city as I was growing up. We kept in contact with relatives in Dublin and came here to visit them every few years. But I wanted to have an experience here outside the traditional two-week family vacation. I wanted the chance to wander around Dublin on my own, have time to soak up the place (especially parts of the city off the “tourist trail”), make friends, make own my way in the city and really experience life here. I was probably influenced by the film “The Commitments” which had come out a few years before and which is set in Dublin. It made life here look like fun!
About the time that I started daydreaming about a long visit to Dublin, I was working in Hastings, (of course) and considering moving jobs. The vacation time in the U.S. is not very generous (usually 10 days?), so I thought it made sense to save up my money, then quit the job I had, come to Ireland for the summer, and then return to Michigan again afterwards and find another job. I was 24 at the time, and I figured that if I didn’t make the Irish trip then, I might not have the chance to do it later. (If I started a family, etc.)
So I came over and got a job waiting tables in a hamburger restaurant. (I am a dual citizen (U.S. and Irish), so working permits or visas, etc., were not a problem for me.) Then I worked in a shop selling futons. I worked one awful night cleaning dishes and pots and pans in a busy, fancy Dublin restaurant. (It was the hardest, worst job I’ve had.) Eventually I was lucky enough to get a job with a large Irish financial company to work in their pensions division. I was hired on a one-year contract, so I revised my plans. Instead of staying just for the summer, I decided to stay for the year, see out my contract and then head back to Michigan.
I had no experience in finance or pensions, but the company trained me. After a few months, the company had a competition for temporary staff like me to apply for “permanent” positions. I didn’t apply, as I planned to head home to Michigan when my contract ended. I also thought the company would rather hire an Irish person rather than an American “blow in.” But my team leader came to me and talked me into applying for one of the posts. I applied just before the deadline, and soon after, she told me I’d gotten one.
So, I changed my plans again. Instead of heading home to Michigan after a year, I figured I’d stay in Dublin for two years. The social life in the company was great, I liked my job well enough, and I was travelling to different parts of Europe on short vacations. Over time, my two-year plan changed to three years and then four years…
At that point, I decided I needed to make a decision on whether not I would stay in Ireland indefinitely or return to the U.S. I drew up a list of the pros and cons of staying and returning. One thing that really struck me was that I would have a lot more free time in Ireland. In the U.S., a 40-hour work week (or more) is typical. At the company I was working for in Dublin, I was working a 34-hour week. That was pretty standard here at the time. I also realized that I had twice as much time off in Ireland (including vacation days and public holidays) as I would have in the US. There are a lot more public holidays in Ireland. And if I returned to the U.S., I would be looking at starting a new job with 10 days vacation. The bare minimum for vacation time here in Ireland is 20 days. (Which is low compared to Germany and other European countries.) It’s not that I mind hard work, but I do value my free time. It’s a consideration of the old question — are you working to live, or living to work?
Another factor I considered was that I might not necessarily wind up living in Michigan if I returned to the U.S. I could wind up living in another state. That would mean traveling and using my vacation time to visit my family in Michigan when I could. I was living in Dublin then, so I could fly to Chicago directly, then get a connection home. Between this and the vacation time, I felt I would be able to visit home as much as if I was living in the U.S. outside of Michigan.
How do you feel about what’s been happening in the U.S.?
I’m disheartened when I see all the political wrangling and deadlock going on between the Democrats and Republicans. These things seem to have become so extreme and heated in recent years. I don’t think it’s necessary or healthy for the country. I might be mistaken, but things seemed to be a bit more restrained when I was growing up. There’s lots of other bad news that comes out about the U.S. (shootings, racism, jobs lost, Flint water, etc.). But I try to remember that it’s big country and the negative news is only a small part of what is going on there.
How do your friends and neighbors view the U.S.?
The Irish love the U.S. Part of this is the American culture. The Irish follow the American news, watch American TV shows, etc. At the moment they are avidly following the election contest between Trump and Clinton. I’m often asked about it. Also, there is a great tradition over many years of Irish people emigrating to the U.S. So many Irish people have family there. They love to go to the U.S. for vacations. Also, many of them head to the U.S. when they are young to work summer jobs and experience American life (much like I did going the other way). They tend to focus their attention on the east and west coasts (New York, Boston, Florida, California), as well as Chicago.
Do you miss America, other than a few friends?
I really missed America when I was first over here, a bit homesick. Then I went through a period of a few years where I didn’t miss it so much, apart from friends and family. I think that’s because I was a young person busy with building my life over here. I find that as I’m getting older, though, I miss it more. I wish I could get over there more often to visit. I’d love to go over for a month a year, not that I can! I want to show my wife and daughter places that are meaningful to me and the places I love in Michigan. I also find I miss little things: American food, driving on American roads, playing euchre, going to American football/hockey/baseball games (though I did go to London last year to see the Lions play in Wembley). That said, things are easier now in this respect than they used to be. It is easy to keep in touch with friends and family online. Over the Internet I can read U.S. newspapers and magazines and watch football games. And two barbecue restaurants have even opened here in Cork, a 10-minute walk from my house.
Do you ever think about returning?
I do occasionally. But I have a family of my own here now. I married a woman from Cork, a city in the south, and I moved there in 2007. We have a daughter who is in her second year of school. I wouldn’t choose to uproot us all just to be back in the U.S. We are settled, life is pleasant here, I have a good job (in the Irish Civil Service), etc. That said, I do have this idea that we might move to the U.S. for a short period of time — maybe a year — when our daughter is older, to give her a chance to experience life there. Maybe we would live for the year in Michigan or Wisconsin, where my brother lives. I’d also love to spend a month in New York City at some stage. We’ll see. For now we’ll have to content ourselves with flying over to the US to visit my family for a couple of weeks every year.
PHOTO: Nick Hoffman took this selfie at Wembley Stadium, where he watched the Detroit Lions get pulverized by the Kansas City Chiefs about a year ago.
