The O'Sullivan story
Some leave out of economic necessity. Some leave for opportunity. Some leave in the hope of a better life. I followed my heart.
My name is Morgan O’Sullivan, and I am a native of Blackrock, Cork. I am one of 6 children with 3 sisters and 2 brothers, and yet I am the only one overseas. How is it that I find myself living and working in South Florida? This is my Irish-American story.
As a student at UCC back in Cork, I found university life terrific. We had the months of June through early October off every year. These long summers afforded the opportunity for adventure and travel and a chance to see the world. 85-90% of college students would travel and work for their summers back then. The most popular spots to visit were London, Nantucket, Boston, New York, and Ocean City. It makes my story all the more remarkable as I ended up completely off what was considered the beaten track.
I went to Miami.
In January 1999, “American Work Experience”, hosted a summer camp recruitment drive in the student center of UCC. I was painfully shy and quiet. The kind of person who would sit quietly at the back of the lecture hall, and slip in and out of classes without anyone really noticing. However, I had a core group of friends, and as we were walking out the UCC gates towards the city center, one of them said: “Would anyone fancy going to America?” It was a moment that would change my life.
I was recruited to work in a Summer Camp in a place called Boca Raton in South Florida. I had never even heard of it. I later learned that I was only recruited because my friend, who was there with me, had made such a positive impression. At the start of June, I ventured to the US, expecting to work at a typical American Summer Camp in log cabins, with no air conditioning, in the middle of nowhere. Little did I know that I would be working at a camp on the beautiful campus of Lynn University while staying in the university dorm rooms. I had the most amazing 9 weeks immersed in American culture and experiences. It was such a positive experience that I would return to Lynn University the summer that I completed my degree and also during my Masters. It was during this summer that I would ultimately meet a girl, Jenny.
America has always had a mystical connection for the Irish. While generations in the past went during the famine and during times of economic hardship, it was always a place that filled you with awe and wonder. To me, America was the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, the White House, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hollywood sign. During the time immediately after working in the summer camp, I would purchase an Amtrak pass and venture to see as much of the country as I could. One summer I managed to do a full loop of the country in 15 days, getting off the train by day and sleeping on the train by night!
The internet and instant communications were in their infancy in the early 2000s, and Jenny and I had become good friends. Despite the distance between us, we said that we would “give things a go” and see where the road would lead us. We would use AOL Instant Messenger to text chat every evening, with her coming home from college and me just about to head to bed. For anyone who has seen “You’ve Got Mail”, we were like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan with the AOL chime ringing after each response. After multiple trips traded back and forth, a time came when a decision needed to be made. One of us would need to cross the Atlantic to give things a real go. The initial plan was that I would venture Stateside, where I would stay for a year, and, all going well, we would return to Ireland to do a year there.
I moved to Florida on September 15, 2004. Jenny and I would get engaged on top of the Empire State Building in March, and we would marry in Boca Raton in July 2005. With an engagement and a marriage and so much going on, we decided it would be too rushed to travel home to Ireland immediately and decided to give it another year. Challenges in the economy and job market ultimately led us to remain in Florida, and we purchased our first house in July of 2006. Unfortunately, the economic crash in 2008 put a damper on our plans to return home.
We have built the most amazing life together and gone on incredible adventures, and there is no one I would rather be on this adventure with.
What seems like yesterday is now over twenty years ago. Time truly goes by in a flash. We now have the 3 most amazing children. We have raised them in the belief that they are both Irish and American and that they are citizens of both. Caitlin was born in 2009, Sean in 2011, and Molly in 2015. All have dual passports! One of the great things about Jenny is that she embraced my Irish culture and heritage from day one and has ensured that the children have learned that they truly have the best of both places. While Saint Patrick’s Day is a big month for us, not a day of the year goes by without some form of strong linkage to home coming up. Whether it is Barry's Tea, the dinner being dished up, or talk of the different matches back home, Ireland is never too far away. The children have a broader vocabulary than traditional Americans, as they can talk about the binmen, the cinema, the boot of the car, and much more. The advent of FaceTime and the iPhone ensures that we all have access to grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins at the touch of the button. I still get homesick, and I truly believe that people never really get over that. However, I do believe that they learn to deal and cope with it in a better way.
I have always sought to keep and build upon my Irish identity. As the years went by, I started writing short pieces for Irish Central and the Echo in Cork about the various presidential elections. I also branched out to start doing a little writing about Liverpool FC. My passion for American politics was always there. I can remember getting up in the middle of the night back in Ireland to watch Presidential Debates and election nights. I still work at Lynn University, and I was fortunate to have been able to work during a Presidential debate at the university in 2012. In the years since, I have gone on to become a member of the Ad Hoc Committee to Protect the Good Friday Agreement, a member of VotingRights.ie (an organization looking for the voting rights for Irish citizens living abroad, of which I am a former chair), and I am currently the Vice Chair of Irish America 250. At Lynn University, I work in the financial aid office and was afforded the opportunity to gain my doctorate in 2018. I have had the opportunity to speak and present on a local, state, regional and national level and I work with some of the most amazing people.
I came to America on an H-1 B visa in 2004. I would graduate to become a permanent resident after getting married, and in 2019, I became a US Citizen. Do I feel any different? I still keep a deep connection with home. But sometimes it can be hard. When I go home, I often feel that I am viewed as the Yank, and when I am in America, I feel that I am viewed as the Irishman! I am blessed to have met the woman of my dreams in Jenny and to have had the opportunity to do so many things. I still yearn for home, but appreciate and value all that I have and all that I have achieved here. I am Irish. I will always be Irish. But now, I am American too.