Two years ago Hannah Herron, “received the opportunity to do a study abroad program in Ireland for 6 weeks and fell in love with the country.” The 2017 NH alumni “learned about the history of Ireland and took language lessons in Irish,” during the two weeks. She explored cities, like, “Cork the second largest Irish city, the South West city of Kerry and, and the largest Irish city of Dublin.” 

     Herron chose to move 3,302 miles away because she has “always wanted to visit,” the places where both sides of her family are from, her mothers parents being from Sligo on the West Coast of Ireland and her father’s family being from what happens to be her favorite place to visit, Dingle in Kerry and Donegal. She is also very career driven as she is currently enrolled in an, “International Political Economy program at the University College of Dublin.” She has recently been, “offered a job working for a U.S. based startup as a media analyst.” 

     Throughout her stay, Herron has recognized that, “the biggest difference is the pace of life and work. There is a large emphasis on having a life outside of work. Many adults work full time and still participate in team sports.” One of the ways she has chosen to connect with more people is joining, “an Irish speaking Camogie team.” This sport is native to Ireland and is a, “mixture between lacrosse, field hockey, softball, baseball, and is played with a hurl and a sliotar.” 

     What Herron misses most besides her family is, “New York pizza and bagels!” According to the American girl “nothing can beat a piece of pizza from New York and Ireland does not have the same quality bagels,” which she is  sadly always in the mood for. 

     But where Ireland comes up short on pizza and bagels it makes up for in its many, “unique qualities.” One of her observations is that, “Ireland is pretty international so there are people from all over the world in Dublin, but the men dress a lot better than the men in Maryland… you would never see a guy wearing work boots and camo out and about!” 

     Along with their difference in fashion, Irish people use a lot of different sayings like “sure look it,” which means “what are you gonna do?” or the phrase “jumper and tracksuit bottoms,” used to refer to “sweatshirt and sweatpants.” They even have their own name for french fries and potato chips, “chips and crisps.” 

     She also enjoys the weather and the people of Ireland. Living on the Dublin bay Herron wakes up to “an amazing view of the water every morning,” when she takes her newly adopted dog, Thor, for walks. A misconception about Ireland is, “everyone says it only rains in Ireland, but that could not be further from the truth! It rains maybe once a week in the spring, summer, and fall. It is also not even cold.” 

     The people of Ireland are another thing on Herron’s list of lovable qualities about the country. She claims, “the people are so friendly and almost everyone wants to have a chat so it is easy to talk to people.” 

     Now an official citizen of Ireland, she believes coming to the country on a, “working holiday authorization is a great opportunity for students to get international work experience and travel on the weekends.” In order to make herself feel more involved in the community she has learned that, “it is so important to put yourself out there and just try new things.” 

     Even though she is far away from home Herron is “very close with family and gets to call them multiple times a week. There are so many cool things about Ireland,” she cannot wait to show them but, in the meantime, her dog Thor will keep her company.