THE GOOD LIFE
We meet the couples who escaped the city in search of a rural idyll
WEXFORD native Carmel Harrington, author of The Things I Should Have Told You, relocated to her home county in 2010 from Dublin after 20 years of city life, with her Dubliner husband, Roger, and seven-monthold daughter, Amelia.
“I was ready to come home, to be close to my parents and siblings. While I loved my life in Dublin, I always thought of Wexford as my home, and having children was a game-changer for me,” Carmel recalls. “For my husband, it was a bigger adjustment. He not only had the complications of a location move, but a new job to contend with too as he transferred in his role to Wexford. It was at times a stressful process for him.
“Roger, who works for the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, had applied for a transfer a few years before that when we got married, but was told there were no positions available in Wexford. So we decided to do some work on our Dublin home, as we were starting a family.
“Then out of the blue, after the extension was completed on our semi-D, he got a call to say a vacancy had arisen. Ironically, it was probably the fact that we had just renovated our home in Dublin that made it easier to sell in a market that was nose-diving at the time. We had an offer after first viewing.”
The family rented in Wexford at first, in a village close to Carmel’s childhood home. “Being able to drive to my parents’ house within five minutes, and seeing the relationship that our two children, Amelia and Nate, have with their grandparents is a joy to watch,” she says.
They bought a house in 2015, putting down roots in Screen village. “There’s no doubt that we got bigger bang for our buck in Wexford. We have a four-bedroom detached bungalow, with a huge garden. Our children attend Screen National School and it’s such a supportive and imaginative environment. Amelia and Nate are privileged to be educated there. We’re lucky that we live in a beautiful part of the world, close to the beach and forest. It really is postcard pretty and we’ve made great friends within our community.”
The pace of life, Carmel remarks, is much quieter, with less traffic and noise. “But Wexford has so much — a vibrant arts and culture scene; historic towns and great shopping. And it’s an easy commute to Dublin, which both my husband and I have to make on a regular basis.”
There are downsides. “We miss my husband’s family and our friends we left in Dublin, but I suspect they quite like the fact that they always have a bolthole to visit. Overall the move has been a positive and exciting one.”
Carmel’s advice is to rent first to get a feel for the area. “Get involved with your local community — the sooner you make friends, the better. And when things get stressful, as they will, remember all the reasons for the move in the first place.”