SOHO Solo West Cork

Blow in: living and working in West Cork

The following article was originally published in The Countryman magazine in the UK in 2006, and in the Southern Star, Co. Cork in 2007. I’m posting it here because it fits well with the SOHO Solo ethos, and will give people outside of West Cork a bit of insight into its appeal as somewhere to live and work. As always your experiences, thoughts and observations are more than welcome – just post them in the comments. All images and text © 2007 Calvin Jones, All Rights Reserved. (CJ)

Take the N71 west from Cork City and after a short drive you’ll cross an invisible line that defines the boundary of West Cork. This region, at the very southern tip of the island of Ireland, has a colourful and turbulent history. Co. Cork is known as “The Rebel County” to this day, and West Cork was always at the very heart of Ireland’s long struggle for independence from British rule.

The Irish are a vehemently patriotic people – none more so than the people of West Cork – and yet they are among the most open and welcoming people you could ever wish to meet.

When you take account of West Cork’s rugged, beautiful scenery; its vibrant towns and villages; its amiable, welcoming people and its rich cultural heritage it’s easy to see the region’s appeal both as a place to visit, and as a place to live. The area is a magnet for tourists and often has a deep and abiding impact on those who come here. Many return regularly, and some never leave.

I first visited West Cork in 1993. Coming from a rural village on the North Wales coast I was expecting rural Ireland to be similar to what I was used to back home, but as soon as I stepped off the bus onto the streets of Skibbereen I realised that there was something very different about West Cork. During my stint in the region I was captivated by the people and the raw, natural beauty of the place. Although I left after six months to return to Wales, West Cork never really left me, and I knew that one day I would return.

Now it’s 2007, and my family and I have been living in an old schoolhouse in rural West Cork for four years. We couldn’t be happier. It’s a fantastic place for the children, and we’ve been accepted into the local community with open arms. People are friendly and hospitable, and really appreciate it if you make an effort to get involved at a local level. Of course, there are challenges to overcome living in a rural environment. The transition to self employment isn’t always a smooth one, and earning a living can be difficult at first, but the quality of life here is amazing. Everything is much more relaxed than my memories of rural life in the UK.

I’m considered a “blow-in” here – a term that applies to anyone who has come into the area from the world outside. It applies as much to a person from Cork City as it does to those from the UK, Europe or further afield. If you’re not born and bred in West Cork, you’re a blow-in, and will always be… it’s that simple.

Far from being a slight, the term blow-in is simply a label that identifies you as different, and if anything I’ve found it applied in an endearing and complimentary manner. Locals seem to embrace the diversity and variety that blow-ins bring to the region, and different is usually seen as a positive thing.

Unsurprisingly, given the proximity and shared language, a large proportion of West Cork’s blow-ins hail from across the Irish Sea, with UK nationals making up over five percent of the West Cork population. That’s double Ireland’s national average.

“If you look at the demographic makeup of the region it’s not really typical of an Irish rural area. There are a lot more influences from different places that have been absorbed within the region,” said Ian Dempsey, Chief Executive of the West Cork Leader Co-Operative, a state organisation supporting community and enterprise development. “Over a long period of time people have been attracted to move to West Cork,” he said.

There’s little doubt that Ireland in general, and West Cork in particular, has a lot to offer as a place to live. In a quality of life survey The Economist Intelligence Unit conducted in 2005 Ireland ranked in 1^st place out of 111 countries worldwide, compared to the UK’s 29^th. West Cork Leader has conducted a similar study in an Irish context. “When you benchmark West Cork against a number of other counties, and against a national average, a very positive quality of life emerges for people living in West Cork,” confirmed Ian Dempsey.

That’s a theory borne out by talking to other blow-ins. Bridget Sheeran relocated to West Cork from south London in 1993. “I came to West Cork because of the beauty of the place, and because I wanted to bring my children up in an area where I could actually hear what they were saying,” she told me, “in other words where the traffic wasn’t so bad that even walking them to the park I couldn’t hear them.”

With family connections in Ireland the country was a natural choice when Bridget decided to relocate. But rather than following her family roots further north Bridget chose to settle in West Cork. Cleaner air, unpolluted water and a proximity to the sea all factored into her decision, but ultimately she just fell in love with the place.

“I love it in West Cork,” she said, describing some of the things that inspired her move. “Every day I’d see something that made me realise there was more than just us going about our daily business – you could see a bit of nature wherever you turned.”

A qualified midwife and homeopath, Bridget had little difficulty finding work in the area. But for many blow-ins earning a living is one of the main challenges in moving into a rural area like West Cork. For the most part you have to bring your own means of existence with you. “In the past local employment wasn’t an option, it simply wasn’t there,” agrees Ian Dempsey. “That’s the reason why a lot of people would have been involved in setting up their own enterprises in food, tourism, crafts, services or whatever.”

Certainly the fellow blow-ins I spoke to while researching this article were an entrepreneurial bunch: all self employed and running their own businesses. But it’s not all about being wildly successful and making money either – in fact it tends to be the opposite. Most move here to get away from the rat race, and have no desire to re-create a rat-race of their own. They are happy to earn a reasonable living doing something they enjoy.

“You have to redefine your definition of success and happiness,” said Andy Reynolds, a songwriter, producer and artist manager who worked in London recording studios for ten years before moving his song-writing, track-laying and mixing studio to the coastal town of Bantry in West Cork. “If you’re looking to relocate then you have to do it for the right reasons, not because you think it’s going to be wildly successful in the materialistic sense,” he warned. Andy is learning Irish, and his children attend the local Gaelscoil.

Jud Weidner, a graphic designer originally from Newcastle believes that diversification is the key to making a comfortable living, particularly with competition in service-based industries increasing in the region. Jud moved to Ireland in 1980, and to West Cork in 1989, when he and his West Cork wife renovated her family home in Bantry. They added an office from which Jud now runs three businesses – his graphics design firm, a company providing custom designed bereavement stationary and a digital media company.

Jud doesn’t miss the northeast of England. “When I go back I like it. The place has improved dramatically from what I left behind. It’s lovely now… but after a couple of days you say to yourself ‘I want to be back home’!”

Judy Wotton also subscribes to the theory of diversification. She keeps goats and produces Ardagh Castle goat’s cheese, which she sells at the local farmers and country markets in Skibbereen and through other local outlets. She also rents out a holiday cottage in the summer and runs a small boarding kennels for cats and dogs. “It’s no good keeping all your eggs in one basket,” maintains Judy, who first discovered West Cork in 1995. “I came over on holiday with a friend, and went back thinking that West Cork felt more like home than Devon did.” Two years later she moved here and now considers West Cork home. “There’s some sort of magnetism to it isn’t there? When I go back to England I get homesick. Having only been here eight years that’s quite extraordinary!”

Garden designer and landscaper Adrian Marshal moved to West Cork just over a year ago with his wife and 10 year old daughter. Originally from Gloucester he lived in the USA for twenty years before returning to the UK in 1991 to live in Somerset. “I was never completely happy back in the UK,” he said. “I’d lived in the country in Oregon, and now we were living in the town. Buying property in the country in the UK is prohibitive, and suburbia just didn’t do it for me. In Ireland it’s quite the opposite: it’s cheaper to live in the country than in the towns, and that suited me down to the ground.”

Adrian feels he’s found a place where he belongs here. “When I moved to the States I had culture shock and was traumatised for quite a while. When I moved back to England I would say exactly the same thing happened. Moving here I’ve felt none of that.” One of the couple’s grown up children has just followed their lead and moved to West Cork, and the other two have expressed their intention to do the same at some stage in the future. “I think that speaks volumes,” said Adrian.

After years travelling the world crewing private yachts, Eoin and Amanda Roe decided to settle down. At first they thought of Devon, where Eoin’s from, but then visited a friend who’d moved to West Cork. They now live in the idyllic village of Ballydehob about six miles west of Skibbereen with their two-year-old twins.

“The people are some of the friendliest and most accepting I’ve ever met in my life,” said Eoin, who enjoys the sense of space, freedom and community that are part and parcel of West Cork life. “There’s a sense of community still which is definitely dying in a lot of rural England.”

Most of the blow-ins I’ve spoken to have carved out a comfortable niche for themselves in West Cork, and have achieved a happy working equilibrium that allows them to take advantage of the wonderful quality of life the region offers. But it’s by no means a one way street – blow-ins contribute a great deal to West Cork, both in terms of enterprise development and at a community level.

“Most people who come here have made a choice to come to West Cork. An extension of that is wanting to contribute to activities and undertakings that reinforce the attractiveness of the region as a place to live and work in,” confirms Ian Dempsey. “If you look at the typical range of artistic, cultural, historical and heritage type initiatives in the region a lot of them are underpinned by people who have come in from elsewhere.”

Perhaps it’s no accident then that when West Cork Leader was searching for a symbol to promote their regional branding initiative they chose the fuchsia. This vibrant and ubiquitous shrub has come to embody the positive characteristics of West Cork. And yet the fuchsia is not indigenous to the region: it too is a blow in!

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