About Me

A little background on my migration experiences and education, and how I came to be interested in studying repeat emigration from Ireland to the S.F. Bay Area:

My name is Aimée Lyons. I am originally from Cork City, but left Ireland as a teenager to attend college in Canada. I completed an undergraduate degree in Law at the University of Kent at Canterbury in England before heading to Japan to work as a JET Programme English teacher. Three years later, I was made an offer I couldn't refuse to work at this little piece of heaven in the Maldives. Oddly, despite the beauty of the place, I found myself missing Japan and speaking Japanese so I made the decision to return to Japan, this time to teach French, English, Spanish and International Studies. After two years I moved from Japan to Bermuda, where I spent the next four years working, enjoying island life and studying, completing courses in Psychology at the University of Staffordshire and Equality and Discrimination at the University of Strathclyde by distance. I was also lucky enough to have the opportunity to intern as a journalist at Bermuda's national daily newspaper, doing everything from writing court reports to conducting vox pops on the streets to interviewing Hollywood directors.

As rewarding as this all was, however, I felt the need to return to a more rigorous academic environment (as well as to friends and family), and was delighted to be accepted to U.C.C.'s interdisciplinary Master's in Contemporary Migration and Diaspora Studies. I returned to Ireland in the summer of 2010 and began my studies shortly thereafter.

Throughout my years of travel, the San Francisco Bay Area has been one of the constants in my life, thanks to my aunt, Mary O'Donovan, a resident for more than fifteen years. All in all, I have probably spent close to six months in the S.F. Bay Area over the years, so when it came time for me to choose a location on which to focus my research into repeat emigration from Ireland to the U.S., it seemed like the natural choice. Historically, not much attention has been given to the West Coast Irish in comparison with the East, so I also look forward to the opportunity to contributing in however small a way to expanding this body of knowledge.

I absolutely welcome input from anybody with an interest or opinion on repeat emigration from Ireland to the U.S. whether you have an interest in participating in my research or not. I can be reached by email at: aimee.lyons@umail.ucc.ie.

Mise le meas,

Aimée.