‘Seville is still a lot cheaper than Ireland. You can still buy a coffee for €1.80’

Wild Geese: Gráinne Walsh, Seville

Sun Nov 01 2026 - 06:00 • 4 MIN READ

Like many Wild Geese featured in this column over the years, the decision to build a life abroad often involves an intervention from Cupid.

When Kerry-born Gráinne Walsh went to Seville to study at the Universidad de Sevilla on an Erasmus programme in 1996, she found love in the form of a local man, Alfonso. Thirty years on the couple have raised a family of four children and are enjoying all the attractions of living in the historic southern Spanish city.

Walsh’s first spell in Seville was part of a wider international business and languages degree at DCU. She fell in love with the city straight away.

“I came in mid-September and loved the blue skies and warm weather. A bottle of decent wine cost 350 pesetas (about €2). You could go out at 11pm when you would be coming home from the pub at home.”

Walsh returned to Dublin to finish her degree, but Alfonso soon followed to ask for her hand in marriage.

“I was only 20 at the time; he was 27. I let my heart rule my head. I said yes, but on one condition. I needed to travel before I settled down. I went off travelling the world on a student travel deal from Usit. I rang him from Ayers Rock on a mobile phone the size of a brick, saying, “Don’t panic. I have not found a local man and I’ll be back soon.”

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Walsh was keen to secure a professional role in Seville so she researched companies with Irish links. She found a marketing position at a local brewer, Cruzcampo, then a subsidiary of Guinness, and later purchased by Heineken.

“My name Gráinne was unpronounceable. They ended up calling me Walsh. I went on to positions in HR and corporate relations. I had the best job in the house and enjoyed every day.

“Cruzcampo is an institution locally, a company where people stay for life and I spent almost 20 years there. Working there was a great experience for me but, by 2017, I had a hankering to do something else.”

Walsh undertook a master’s in coaching and, by 2019, felt confident to strike out on her own. Covid soon struck, but she was able to secure coaching business online and also found a part-time academic position as an associate professor at Universidad Loyola, where she lectures on business degree programmes.

Today, her work also involves leadership training programmes for corporates. A core part of her work involves teaching participants soft skills such as assertiveness, empathy and emotional intelligence. Among her multinational clients is Navantia, the owners of Harland & Wolff shipbuilders, and her work takes her to Britain and Ireland as well as the rest of Spain.

Walsh says the workplace culture in Spain has traditionally been very macho and less progressive than in Ireland but this is beginning to change.

“Spanish women have faced significant challenges. In the corporate world, they have been trying to juggle balls, being the perfect professional while also being a good wife and mother. Fortunately, thanks to Covid, there’s more acceptance of remote working and work-life balance and things are starting to improve.”

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Life in Seville is good, and Walsh says it has been a safe city to raise their children who are aged 16-22. She loves its traditions, especially around holy week at Easter and says April is a beautiful time to visit when Seville’s famous orange trees blossom.

“For me it’s a perfect-sized city. Its big but not too big. You can walk around it safely. It’s small enough to be spontaneous. You can say to someone that you will meet them in 15 minutes.

“The tourist boom, though, means that locals now have to do the unthinkable and make reservations in their favourite restaurants.”

The significant increase in tourism in recent years has also been accompanied with concern about rising property prices, with locals often priced out of the market. Mirroring other parts of Spain, this has added fuel to the social unrest as a result of big cost of living increases in recent years.

“Inflation has definitely hit in, but it is still a lot cheaper than Ireland. You can still buy a coffee for €1.80.”

The family live in a town house on the edge of the city centre, featuring the essential ingredients of air conditioning and a pool in the back garden to escape Seville’s hot summers. Weekends are often spent down at the coast in Huelva.

People in Seville are either Huelva beachgoers or Cadiz beach goers, she says. While they are both on the Atlantic, Huelva has a more relaxed family vibe, while Cadiz attracts young surfers and those seeking a livelier night scene.

“Social life is outdoors 10 months of the year. We like to sail and we have a boat in Huelva, which is our floating house.”

Walsh misses the easy hospitable and warm personality of the Irish but has no intention of returning home.

“I do miss the green fields of Ireland. We did an extended house exchange with my parents when the kids were very young and spent some time in Cahersiveen.

“I worried about what would happen if I fell in love with the Irish lifestyle. Two weeks into the grey skies and pouring rain of south Kerry, that decision about where we would live became a lot easier.”

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