‘After two years in the Emirates, we were able to get house we wanted’

FOR husband and wife Mark Byrne and Carmel Finnegan, a two-year stint in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) gave them the deposit for their new home.

The young couple, both primary teachers, married in 2014 and, during a honeymoon visit to Dubai, met a lot of Irish teachers working there. “We decided we would have a look into it,” said Mr Byrne.

When the couple met, Mr Byrne already owned a house, but they wanted something bigger for their life together. Ireland’s economy was only starting to turn around at the time and, he says: “We simply couldn’t do it with the salaries we were on and the amount coming out of our pay slips.”

In 2015, the couple took career breaks from Tenure National School, Co Louth, and headed off to Sharjah, the third-largest of the seven emirates in the UAE. He says their jobs paid about the same as in Ireland, but without deductions.

While the school was in a very remote area, he describes the experience as “brilliant”.

“Of the 20 English medium staff in the school, about 15 were Irish and we were all in the same boat,” he added.

As well as broadening their professional experience, the couple took full advantage of their new location to travel. Mr Byrne said: “We went to India and places we never intended going.”

They signed up for two years, and might have extended it for one more year, but the news that a baby was due persuaded them to come home, and their son Senan was born in August.

Mr Byrne admits that it “took a while to settle back in to school” but he has no regrets about taking the break. He said: “It was definitely a positive experience, it is definitely worth doing and now we have the house that we want.”