Thoughts on moving home from New York in a pandemic

After living in New York for 13 years, Aoife Butler from Keoghville, Brideswell, Athlone, moved home to South Roscommon last summer.

She explained that this involved "a week-long 6,000-mile planes, trains, automobiles and ferry experience" before making it back to Ireland. An Intellectual property attorney, she works for Atlantic IP services.

Aoife recently answered these questions for us about living with the pandemic and her move back to Ireland.

*Is the pandemic continuing to impact on your own life and work?

It continues to impact everyone's lives, though at this point I feel it's more indirect – most of the impact now is due to continuing government restrictions.

I had worked from home pre-Covid, so working from home now is not new.

Onboarding to a new company, however, largely from home was strange; but I am beyond grateful to have the opportunity to experience it, especially with so many out of work due to no fault of their own.

I do feel for school leavers, college graduates or anyone else starting their first job and having to do it from home. If you've been in the work force and change jobs, you at least know how things operate in the "normal" world and have a sense of what you need and how to go about asking for it and engaging with colleagues.

But for rookies it's a steep climb on top of what is already an anxious situation in their first job. For those in the workplace, if you have newcomers, please keep that in mind and reach out to them/check on them more than you would if they were at the desk or in the office next to you.

*You mentioned working for a new company - what have you been doing since you moved home?

When I emigrated 20 years ago it was in part because there was no demand for what I do - intellectual property wasn't the hot ticket it is now. So, I would never have imagined that I would have the opportunity to return to Ireland and become General Counsel for a company focused on patents, and with Roscommon roots that branch to all corners of the world, geographically and technologically.

I got push-back from a lot of companies and organisations when I first came home that my US experience had no place here, so I'm thrilled and grateful that the owners of Atlantic could see a bigger picture. I work with the most amazing team and every day we take corporate behemoths to task for stealing the inventions of others, including technologies that have become a part of all our lives, for example, OLED TVs, touchscreens on phones, power semiconductors in cars and wireless charging.

*How does the situation feel now compared to the early stages of the pandemic?

In the early stages the feeling was fear – for family, friends and myself; but being home alleviated a lot of that. The move home had been planned from 2019, and while Covid threw a serious spanner in the logistics works, it serendipitously affirmed the decision. Not having to worry and wonder how or if I would get home if anything went wrong here, or what would happen if I got the virus alone in New York, is a huge relief.

But the fear has been replaced with frustration and forlornness – seeing family and friends not being able to see their family and friends; seeing elderly people cut off in nursing homes; seeing mothers have to give birth alone; seeing businesses go under; seeing people lose loved ones to preventable non-Covid illnesses; seeing young people deprived of the development of essential social skills; hearing the so-called powers-that-be dictate from their ivory towers based on theory and conjecture in a vacuum and not based on or considering reality.

*What has been the toughest aspect of 2021 for you?

Two things, one Covid-related and one not! The first is not being able to engage with people, personally and professionally. One of the reasons for the move home was for a better quality of life, but I work more now because there's been nothing else to do for the first half of 2021 with the restrictions meaning no interactions with friends or business colleagues, no dining, no social activities, no events, no sports, no gym, no shopping beyond groceries, etc. I cannot imagine how this will be recorded in the history books.

Secondly, I absolutely chose to move back here, and with that accept all that comes with it; but, living and working as an adult in Ireland for the first time, it needs highlighting that the sheer level of asinine bureaucracy in this country is astounding. And the worst parts are that it doesn't accomplish the claimed intent, benefits no one in this country (including the government and the Exchequer), and in some instances harms people. Everyone deserves better, and I wonder when common sense and cop-on became unfashionable?

*What are your hopes for the rest of this year?

That we will get back to living our lives, get back to doing things we love with people we love, those who want to work can work, those who want to travel can travel, schools and universities operate in-person, and that, although without a doubt more a pipe-dream that a hope, the Government, Minister for Health, and HSE will wake up and do something about the lack of healthcare system in this country that has been highlighted for decades, and not wait until the next crisis hits and then put the responsibility to support the lack of a system on the people of this country who more than pay for proper healthcare through taxes and insurance.