‘We went to the Manorhamilton Agricultural Show. That was an eye-opener’

Nick Maertens and his wife Cyrelle, from Belgium, spent years fantasising about living somewhere ruralNick Maertens walks with his dog Juliette in Gleann, Sooey, Co Sligo. Photograph: Brian Farrell Belgian Nick Maertens moved with his wife and daughter to Sligo earlier this year after becoming besotted by the landscapes of Ireland and the UK.“We started to go to Scotland on holiday years ago and we fell a little bit in love with the nature. We then went to England, Wales and Ireland. We travelled around a lot,” says the 36-year-old.Maertens and his wife Cyrelle spent years fantasising about moving to somewhere more rural for a slower and less stressful pace of life. The climate here benefits their daughter Marielle, who has multiple sclerosis. Last January, while walking in the woods near their home in Ypres, they decided it was time to make their move. There was nothing in particular pushing them to leave Belgium; they were happy there and are proud of the place. But they wanted a new adventure.READ MOREThe couple chose to move to Ireland as it is in the EU and therefore was the easiest country to move to. Cyrelle, a trained vet, works remotely part-time for a Belgian university. But Maertens needed to find a new job for the move. He worked in food production after studying chemical engineering at university but had wanted to make a career pivot for a while. The move to Ireland gave him the push he needed to look for a new job. At first the couple looked at moving close to a city to be within a commutable distance of any job Maertens found. “It’s a really aggressive housing market. The east of the country was not an option as it was too expensive,” he says. “We would send emails and never get any response ... probably because we are not from Ireland and they have like 100 other emails.”The couple found a “perfect” house with a surrounding field in Tipperary. However, it fell through last minute and Maertens had to urgently travel to Ireland to view several other houses.“I found a house here in Sligo and I thought it was perfect. It’s in a magnificent valley and we are two kilometres from the ocean. We went swimming and nobody was there.”'Our neighbours are super helpful,' says Nick Maertens, who lives in Sligo with his wife Cyrelle, daughter Marielle and dog Juliette. Photograph: Brian Farrell The house needed some work, so they rented a property nearby for a few months.Maertens has been struck since living here by how friendly and talkative Irish people are.“People are a lot friendlier and more open. They love to talk on the phone and write emails. They are very open and helpful. Our neighbours are super helpful; that’s a big difference,” he says. Another cultural difference he observes is that you need to pick up the phone if you want something done in Ireland. “In Belgium you can send an email. In Ireland you always have to call,” he says.After a few months here Maertens secured a job with the Community of Lough Arrow Social Project, which provides community services across east Sligo, looking after their finances and transportation.Since arriving, he has been working to establish a toy library, where people can come in and borrow up to five toys for four weeks.“It works like a normal book library. We have been focusing on that. We have got a lot of toys, a lot of donations, and we are opening on October 10th, so that’s doing something for the community.”[ ‘Friends who visit me in Ireland ask why are you complaining? The weather here is amazing’Opens in new window ]Working in Ireland has been a pleasant surprise for Maertens, who says the work culture is very different to that in Belgium. In general, he feels the Irish work culture is more sociable and less pressured. “On my first day at around 10.30 I heard somebody say: ‘Tea is ready,’ and we had tea time. It’s very nice. I’m a big fan of that.”Having grown up in a city, Maertens has been fascinated by some of the calendar events of rural life. “We went to the Manorhamilton Agricultural Show. That was an eye-opener. Seeing two guys trying to shave a sheep as fast as possible, then you know you are in a different country.”While he and his family have adapted to many Irish practices, they are sticking to the Belgian custom of travelling by bike. “You don’t get a lot of people riding their bikes here. I get it, you have a lot of hills and bad weather. We bought a big cargo bike. We get a lot of looks. People get very excited if they see my wife or me passing by with that bike.”Maertens hopes his family’s move will prove a long-term success.“If you call me again in 20 years, I really do hope that I will be still here in Ireland.”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