Within the greater than 20 years since his arrival in Eire, Huw Rees has absolutely assimilated into the area people: he joined a male choir and a cricket membership, and enjoys common hill strolling.
Regardless of his love for his adopted nation, there’s nonetheless one state of affairs through which his emotions for his dwelling nation of Wales trump these for Eire.
“The one time I wouldn’t be 100 per cent up for Eire is that if they play Wales in rugby. I haven’t misplaced that, I haven’t misplaced that Welsh identification,” he laughs.
Born in Swansea, Rees moved to Carrig-on-Bannow in Co Wexford in 2000, regardless of being “completely petrified” of uprooting his complete life.
He had met his future companion Margaret, an Irish girl, seven years earlier on a cruise between the 2 international locations on New 12 months’s Eve in 1993.
“We have been at a bar. It was massively crowded. I’m fairly tall and she or he’s quick. She was standing there in entrance of me eager to get served. The barman wasn’t seeing her, so he came to visit to our finish and requested who was subsequent, pointing at me. I stated: ‘This girl has been right here earlier than me. She’s been ready a very long time, chances are you’ll serve her first’.”
“She came to visit to thank me. She was over on a visit along with her household. We simply received speaking that method. After I received dwelling, I had her handle in my pocket, her cellphone quantity. After a few weeks of buzzing and hawing, I made a decision I’d as effectively see if I may renew the connection. So I did and it was good.”
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The long-distance association was totally different, he says, nevertheless it felt like they have been in a position to ease into the connection.
“If I used to be off for weekends, I’d go over on a day journey or weekend journey and she or he would do the identical. It was shocking actually how usually you’ll really get collectively,” he says.
“It was like opening the door to a complete new world. I turned enthusiastic about Wales and its historical past
Finally, they determined to make issues extra everlasting. They’d initially thought of transferring to Fishguard, a coastal city in Pembrokeshire, the place Rees lived and labored in a constructing suppliers.
Nevertheless, Margaret had two younger kids on the time, and so they realised it will be simpler for Rees to relocate to Eire as an alternative.
“It was greater than a tradition shock; it was a wake-up name. You had obligations now, as a result of Margaret had two younger kids. I used to be having fun with the brand new life experiences. I used to be 38. It was an enormous transfer at that age; I used to be settled at that stage of life, so it was like beginning off over again,” he says.
Regardless of the change in life circumstances, he says the transfer was the “making of me, actually”.
The relocation spurred what he now describes as love for historical past. He didn’t know an excessive amount of in regards to the nation through which he lived, and he sought to collect extra data.
“I’d be asking questions of individuals about Eire and having discussions about it, and they might then ask me questions on Wales. It dawned on me then that I had a superficial data [of Wales]. It was not as deep as I assumed it was,” he says.
Searching for to enhance that data, he started to analysis his dwelling nation.
“It was like opening the door to a complete new world. I turned enthusiastic about Wales and its historical past and was immensely pleased with how Wales had managed to retain its identification and the Welsh folks had maintained their tradition and language and never change into a western area of England.”
By means of this analysis he has found there are numerous similarities between the 2 nations. The largest similarity, he says, is the sense of group amongst folks.
“I’m residing in rural Wexford, and I’m from a rural a part of Wales. There are numerous farming communities, there are numerous connections together with your neighbours. The parish is an enormous factor in Eire. The GAA in Eire in each little village is just like the rugby golf equipment in Wales,” he says.
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Nevertheless, the identification of the international locations is kind of totally different, he says.
“We’ve developed in a different way. As a result of the Normans have been in Wales, and the Saxons, after which we have been annexed by England, I feel Eire is a extra assured nation in its independence,” he says.
“Wales has but to develop that confidence. I feel there are some classes that Wales can study.”
He started to submit a few of the attention-grabbing information he realized about his dwelling nation on a Fb web page known as ‘The Historical past of Wales’, which now has greater than 180,000 likes.
Each particular day there’s a material. They differ, it’s such an eclectic mixture of them, it may very well be sporting, it may very well be historic
“It’s type of mind-boggling,” he says of the web page’s recognition. “And so they’re from all around the world. Predominantly Wales and Britain, however there are some in Eire, United States and throughout, even Pakistan.”
A writer approached him, thinking about turning his social media web page right into a e-book. Wales On This Day is co-written together with his sister Sian Kilcoyne, and it shares attention-grabbing date-related tales and information.
“Each particular day there’s a material. They differ, it’s such an eclectic mixture of them, it may very well be sporting, it may very well be historic, a sure sporting occasion, a cultural occasion. Issues like the primary phrases spoken on Coronation Road [were by] a Welsh actor. After which the massive historic occasions are included too,” he says.
Writing the e-book is “one thing that was sudden”, and one which “leads us into a brand new form of world actually, with publishing”.
At 60 years previous, he’s “seeing the gates of retirement” and desires to make use of that point in retirement to proceed to make use of his writing to pursue his love of each Eire and Wales.
“Writing is one thing I’d positively prefer to develop. I’ve numerous concepts I’d prefer to develop, particularly. There are numerous Welsh-Irish connections traditionally, in order that’s one thing I’d actually prefer to spend a while getting concerned with.”
We wish to hear from individuals who have moved to Eire up to now 10 years. To become involved, e mail newtotheparish@irishtimes.com or tweet @newtotheparish
