An American in Dublin: ‘People are like, okay, maybe she has notions, but she doesn’t know any better’

Musician Joanna Mattrey moved to Ireland in 2024

Hosanna Boulter

Tue Oct 20 2026 - 06:00 • 4 MIN READ

“We can live a lot better in Dublin than we could in Brooklyn,” says Joanna Mattrey (39), who moved from New York to Dublin in 2024.

Mattrey and her Irish husband, James, decided to move to his hometown after their daughter was born. “I knew no one in this country aside from my in-laws. Then I moved here with a six-month-old. It was very dramatic.”

The couple met through a dating website in New York in 2018. Her husband had graduated in architecture in 2009, right in the middle of the financial crash, which virtually paused all development and building.

“There was a massive movement of Irish architects to New York, because in some ways New York is recession-proof.”

James moved to the city with a lot of his peers. “He had a much different immigrant story than I did. He moved over with a whole support system. He even had some family, with an uncle in the city.”

From the start of their relationship, he was very upfront about his intention to move back to Ireland, she says. Early in their relationship, he even told Mattrey that he thought they should break up because of this, she recalls. However, the couple stayed together, with Mattrey open to one day moving to Ireland.

“I never thought I would leave New York,” she says. Growing up in upstate New York, Mattrey felt like “somewhat of a black sheep, certainly within my own family”. Her father was originally from Lebanon but had to flee in the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War. The family settled in upstate New York and have been there ever since.

“I did grow up in a very kind of religious, conservative home. My family has a lot of people who might be supporting Trump, for instance.”

Mattrey began her career as a musician and composer in upstate New York before moving to Boston to train at the New England Conservatory of Music. In her late 20s she settled in New York city, where she felt accepted.

“Brooklyn particularly is the kind of place where kind of whoever you are or however you are, you can find a community to belong to.”

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They did not take the decision to move to Ireland lightly. But after their daughter was born, Mattrey realised how difficult it was to be a mother and a performing musician in the city.

“Among the music community in New York city, I know very few who could pull off being a parent, even if they wanted to.”

A lack of affordable healthcare and the exorbitant price of a good college education were some of her biggest concerns about raising her daughter in the US.

“Having a daughter and just being a parent in general lowers the tolerance for the kind of suffering to which you are willing to subject your own child.” Having a daughter made her worried about the repression of women’s rights in certain US states.

There were other reasons for moving to Ireland, aside from her husband’s nationality. Once deciding factor was that Dublin felt like a place where there were strong work opportunities for the viola player. She plays a lot for the National Opera and recently had a show at the Dublin Fringe Festival. She often plays with ensembles in Europe, so being close to the airport is also essential for her work. “I was in two countries last week and am going to Germany this week.”

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Two years in to life in Dublin, finding friends and building her own community is an ongoing process, she says. She admitted to feeling quite isolated after they first moved over. Because their daughter was so young, Mattrey was not able to get out and meet many new people.

But more recently Mattrey says she has had more opportunities to socialise, which has helped her to realise that people in New York make friends very differently than they do in Ireland.

In the northeast of the US, people will tell you their whole life story the first time they meet, she says. In Ireland it might be years before people feel close enough to tell you some of the things going on in their inner landscape.

She found the slower Irish process of making friends confusing in the beginning. Her usual approach of being quite upfront and sharing a lot was possibly working against her, she says.

More recently she feels people have got used to her a bit more. “I think in some ways I get a free pass because I am an outsider. They are like, ‘Okay, maybe she has notions, but you know she does not know any better because she is from New York.’”

Most of her family in Lebanon had to leave following Israel’s invasion in October 2024. Fundamentally, however challenging parts of the move to Ireland has been, she feels very lucky that she could move out of choice.

We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com or send us two lines about yourself using the form below

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