Miss Ireland 2013 has shot a short video about the things she misses most about her homeland when she’s away. Thousands of young people have left in the past decade or so, as the struggling economy limited the opportunities to build a successful career in Ireland.
Now Miss Ireland, Aoife Walsh from Tipperary, has produced a YouTube video listing out those typically ‘Irish’ things that are missed by many when away from home.
The pub when it’s really bangin’
Lucozade when you’re really hangin’
Pudding from Clonakilty
A general sense of feeling guilty.
These are the normal things that Irish people enjoy as part of their everyday lives according to Walsh. The Tipperary-born beauty begins her poem with the line:
If you’re away from Ireland
Away across the foam
Here are some of the things
That you might miss from home.
Walsh is well qualified to know what constitutes a normal day in Ireland. She has gained three degrees over the past few years to prove she has brains as well as beauty. Walsh has studied at the Universities of Limerick, Cork and Dublin and amassed three degrees along the way. Aside from her modelling, her ultimate goal is to become a teacher.
She really captures the mind-set of young Irish people in the video. With the comforts of home such as: “Mum’s lasagne and Irish stew” getting a mention, as well as the nervous, self-consciousness that many people from outside of Ireland will also be able to relate to: “A healthy heaping of self-doubt.”
There are even references to great Irish figures from the past such as Phil Lynott and WB Yeats, as well as a playful dig at her beauty queen rival, the Rose of Tralee.
The mood of the poem may be considered sombre as Irish people long for the familiarity and comforts of home. However, it does end on a positive note with the line:
“Your family, your friends and the craic
It’ll all be here when you get back!”
See the video below.