‘I arrived in Arizona to 48-degree heat; being Irish, I decided to go for a cycle’

Kildare journalist Aoife Kane: ‘We were kind of pinching ourselves at the US supreme court thinking, how did we get here?’Aoife Kane Hiking on Piestewa Peak in Scottsdale, Arizona When Aoife Kane arrived in Washington for a summer internship in 2024 as part of her final-year journalism degree at Dublin City University (DCU), her timing was impeccable.“Trump was almost assassinated and Biden stepped down. It was a mad time to be in the US,” she says, referring to events during the presidential race in in July of that year. There was more luck on her side. Kane was working alongside students from Arizona State University (ASU), and through these connections was offered a scholarship do her masters in investigative journalism. She’s currently in her final semester. The move to Phoenix, Arizona was a much bigger change than she expected. “When I initially arrived it was about 48 degrees Celsius ... I said, I’ll go out and see a bit of the city.”READ MOREKane didn’t yet have a car so rented a bike. “I was the only person on the street not in a car ... I almost fainted ... the level of heat was insane.“I had never understood why people here wouldn’t go outside or would only be in their cars ... but I get it now.”Kane is from Caragh in Co Kildare, a village not far from the Curragh Plains and the Bog of Allen. But Arizona’s vast and dramatic landscape took her by surprise. It’s the “polar opposite” of Ireland with “enormous red rock formation and big canyons, kind of like the moon”.The huge scale of the university stands in contrast to the cosy surrounds of the Glasnevin campus (which Kane heaps praise upon). Arizona State University is one of the largest universities in the US by enrolment, with more than 200,000 students from 173 countries. More than half of these are doing their course online. The number of opportunities and the level of resources (thanks to large donations) is “insane”, says Kane, who has gone on reporting jobs on the border with Mexico, Texas, Alaska and Hawaii as part of her course. One investigative story, headlined Arizona scholarship non-profit paid millions to leaders’ own companies, was edited by Len Downie Jr, who was a news editor at the Washington Post during the Watergate scandal in 1974. “It’s just unreal to think one of the editors in Watergate is editing our small investigative story. But the opportunities have been fantastic.”This summer Kane had the chance to intern with Fox News in Washington. Although the conservative news network is derided by many in Ireland over its close ties with Donald Trump, Kane opened herself up to the experience. “I think all these different opportunities make you a better journalist and open your mind ... I just embraced it and met a lot of fantastic people.”She was impressed by the size of its operation and technical innovation. “There’s some great reporters there. ... obviously there’s a side to network news in the US that can be problematic on either side but I feel very lucky to get that opportunity.”Kane was glad to meet a fellow Irish intern at Fox. “We were kind of pinching ourselves. We were in the US supreme court one day. There was a couple of Americans, me, and him from Galway. We were like, ‘how did we get here?’”Aoife Kane in the Cannon Rotunda in Washington But in Phoenix the encounters with Irish people are much fewer than on the east coast. Although Arizona’s foreign-born population numbers one million, less than 2,000 of these are Irish-born. However, Kane notes how there is a cohort of Irish working for Intel in the area. “The Irish people are few and far between ... it’s not somewhere they naturally gravitate towards”. Kane leant into the Irish communities that do exist to get her early stories, including a feature video on the Brian Boru hurling and football club, which led to a Thanksgiving invite.This rarity has made the encounters all the more sweet. The day before Kane spoke to The Irish Times, she had hiked up a canyon and jumped into the creek below to swim. “We were shouting up to the people on the top, they were hesitating to jump ... and two lads at the top were like, ‘Are you Irish?’” It turned out one was from Howth and the other was from Roscommon. “Once again, in the middle of a canyon in Arizona, where you wouldn’t expect to find two Irish lads.”Although many people she has met in Arizona have visited Ireland or want to visit (“There’s a lot of Enya fans who want to see her castle, it’s gas”), Aoife has had to dispel one myth. “One thing a lot of people asked was do we speak Irish or do we speak English. A lot of people thought English was my second language and that if I was speaking to my family it would be in Irish.”While Aoife misses family, and a decent pint of Guinness, one welcome connection to home is to be found in a cuppa. “I’ve actually found somewhere I can get Barry’s tea bags,” she says with delight. Are you Irish and living in another country? Would you like to share your experience in writing or by interview? You can use the form below, or email abroad@irishtimes.com. Irish Times Abroad submission guidelines here. Follow us on Instagram to keep up with the latestSign up to The Irish Times Abroad newsletter for Irish-connected people around the world. IN THIS SECTION