I looked for many stories online about people and their Dual Citizenship adventures. Mine will be close to all of their stories. The reason I decided to blog about this was to keep my inspiration alive, and to remind myself as well, that once I put my mind to something, I will stop at nothing till it's completion.
Once upon a time (I always wanted to start a story like that), there lived a boy who's dream was to see Ireland. I loved my grandmother very much. Hannah Francis McDonnell (nee Sugrue). She was a beautiful woman. Old and wise, and a wise ass as well. I loved her dry wit, her force-feeding of anyone that came into her home, the three floor walk-up to her flat, our long good byes, her chocolate chip cookies, her butterscotch candies and ALWAYS her ability to look past the craziness that was me!
When it was time for me to sleep at night, we shared a hide-a-way couch bed in her spare bedroom. We laid down and said our prayers, and she would always carry on a bit longer than I would. I know I asked her one night to count for me in Irish. Other nights, she would give me the "Our Father" and the "Hail Mary" - all in Irish.
This developed a strong pride in my "roots" of sorts. Later i would learn basic "hello" and "good bye", "how are you", "fine thanks" etc...some of which I still know to this day (December 14, 2009 - the day after my mother's 62nd birthday, and my 7th month of sobriety).
Since High School I had always wanted to go to Ireland. I said, it would be great to move there. I didn't know that one day i was going to work hard at making it a reality, how hard it would be, or anything else that involves the whole process.
I filled out my first Dual-Citizenship by decent (FBR) application in 1999. Again in 2003, and finally sent it in around October of 2008 (upping the cost almost $120 by waiting the years I did)...Getting all the right docs in order was joyous :) more to follow!!
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