‘Cork is like Wellington – people distinguish themselves as not being from the bigger city’

New Zealand lawyer Fintan Walsh: ‘In my circle there’s an idea that if you stay and don’t leave to have adventures, you have kind of failed’New Zealander Fintan Walsh in Cork city, where he lives with his partner. Photograph: Daragh McSweeney/Provision Fintan Walsh (30) does not feel that he experienced any kind of culture shock when he moved to Ireland from his native New Zealand last year. He feels the Kiwi and Irish senses of humour are very similar. After living here for 18 months, he believes these similarities come from both Ireland and New Zealand sitting next to economically bigger nations. The UK and Australia frequently draw people to move there from their smaller neighbours. “Australia is so much bigger,” says Walsh. “They have so much more money and people are always moving there.” READ MOREIreland played a big part in Walsh’s childhood. He is from Rotorua on New Zealand’s North Island. In the 1970s his dad, his grandmother and great-aunt Betty emigrated to New Zealand from Ringsend in Dublin. “From talking with Betty and Dad, growing up in Ringsend at that time was quite difficult. They lived in a council house and had some distant relatives and friends who had moved to New Zealand.”Walsh’s grandmother figure was his great-aunt Betty, as his grandmother died not long after the family moved. Growing up, he knew Betty was Irish. But now, having lived in Dublin, he recognises that she was a “proper Dub”.“I remember one time when I was young, I went to visit her and she said, ‘What do you know about Oliver Cromwell?’. She was so funny. She adored Ireland. She would always be playing rebel songs like The Men Behind the Wire.”When he was 16, Walsh spent a summer in Ireland with a host family after winning an essay competition run by the Irish Embassy in New Zealand. By the end of that summer, he had decided that one day he would move here. [ ‘I arrived in Arizona to 48-degree heat; being Irish, I decided to go for a cycle’Opens in new window ]In the meantime, he studied law at university and qualified as a solicitor, spending four years working in New Zealand before moving to Dublin aged 28. With so many young people leaving New Zealand, he was one of the last in his peer group to move abroad.“I was feeling like I’m the only one still here. I don’t know if this is a universal experience, but in my circle the idea that if you stay in New Zealand and don’t leave to have adventures and seek your fortune elsewhere, you have kind of failed in a sense.”Walsh got a job at a law firm in Dublin and then moved into a house share he found on a Facebook group for New Zealanders in Ireland. Coincidentally, the house share was in Ringsend. “Ringsend, I think, has completely changed. I have had conversations with my dad about it. I think that goes for Ireland in general. So much of it has kind of transformed since the 1970s.”Walsh feels he got very lucky with finding friends and community. His housemates embraced him and introduced him to their social circle. “It was exactly what you want when you are moving to a new city.”He feels that his career has really benefited from his decision to move. In the legal field, Ireland is prospering from being the only English-speaking country in the EU since Brexit. “There’s a huge amount of opportunities,” he says.New Zealander Fintan Walsh in Cork city, where he lives with his partner. Photograph: Daragh McSweeney/Provision Today, Walsh admits he had a very rose-tinted view of Ireland before he moved over. He had never experienced an Irish winter, having only previously been here during the summer. He arrived in mid-winter and colleagues told him that even for Irish standards, he had moved over during a particularly cold one. “I remember I was catching a bus into town in my first week and people were getting off the bus and slipping on the ice on the footpaths,” he recalls.He describes the vision of Ireland that his great-aunt Betty painted as “rolling green fields and people having craic all the time in lovely pubs, a very picturesque kind of fairytale”. Such a view of Ireland is, in his opinion, very common for the Irish diaspora. However, the reality of things like public transport and bureaucracy quickly shattered such notions. Despite this, he still believes that Ireland is an “amazing place” and sees himself staying here long-term. He met his now-girlfriend on a dating app not long after arriving. She is a doctor and a year into their relationship, she was told her next posting for completing her training would be in Cork. When Walsh heard the news, his automatic reaction was to think, “looks like I will be moving to Cork”.The couple have since settled into life in Cork city. He compares Cork to Wellington back in New Zealand, which is the country’s third-biggest city where he lived for a few years. “It’s very hipster, all kind of cool bars and cafes, and people in Wellington like to distinguish themselves as being not from the bigger city, Auckland.”Walsh says he has been enjoying Cork’s slower pace of life but that he is often back up in Dublin for work, so he is still able to see his friends there. The couple also enjoy hosting their friends in Cork, where, thanks to lower rents in the Leeside city, they can afford a flat with a spare bedroom. We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past 10 years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com or send us two lines about yourself using the form below. IN THIS SECTION