Paperjam: Please, introduce yourselves.

Maria Kelly: I’m Maria, president of the Irish club since January 2025.

Fiona Cuskelly: I’m Fiona, secretary of the club also since January. I’ve been involved for a year and half… and I’ve been in Luxembourg for two years.

And Maria, how long have you been in Luxembourg?

MK: I’ve been attached to Luxembourg since 1999. With my job, I had postings in other areas of Europe, so I can’t say I’ve permanently lived here since then, because I’ve been in and out--but home has been Luxembourg for the last 26 years.

So, tell us about the Irish club.

MK: The club is celebrating this year its 40th anniversary. The initiative, 40 years ago, was to do a St Patrick’s Day event because it wasn’t being celebrated in Luxembourg. And that was the start of the Irish club. Since then, it’s continued with St Patrick’s Day events, as well as other events and charity fundraising. [Editor’s note: the club has raised money for, among others, the Cancer Foundation (via Relay for Life), the Dublin Simon Community, Stëmm vun der Strooss, the Ilula Orphan Program and ThinkPinkLux.]

We have 69 paid memberships, but that is, in actual fact, 24 single people and 45 families. So the exact number is hard to estimate because there are couples and children. They’re mostly Irish but there are some Luxembourgers, some British, German--

FC: What we call the “wannabe Irish” [laughs]. But regardless of your nationality, Irish expats are very welcoming because we know what it’s like to have that experience [of seeking a home away from home]--like the expectation that, everywhere you go, there’s an Irish pub. There’s an Irishness that is just generally very welcoming. So we’re not exclusive to Irish people. Just people who appreciate Irishness.

MK: Even if the Irish pub abroad isn’t actually owned or run by Irish [people], as Fiona said, there’s an Irish concept of hospitality and that’s what these pubs represent.

FC: So the club is a combination of fundraiser events to support charities and events that are purely social, which is how I first got involved myself. There’s a new holiday in Ireland for St Brigid’s Day in February. I had just arrived and discovered that there was an Irish club here and they were celebrating it. So we’re also a place for newcomers to get to know people who have been here longer, to understand how Luxembourg works.

We all know St Patrick’s Day… but what’s St Brigid’s Day?

MK: The idea behind the holiday was, in actual fact, that the government of Ireland decided three years ago that they wanted to offer people an extra bank holiday to thank them for their fortitude during covid-19. It was decided that they would choose a saint and make it fixed in the calendar. As we have St Patrick, it was decided to take a female saint. So, St Brigid.

FC: It celebrates the feminine, what we call Mná na hÉireann, which is “Irish women.” We tend to mark that for that day, both for women and men: to celebrate Irish women. At the moment, the Irish ambassador is female, and she’s very supportive of this event, which is really nice.

It’s in February, you said?

MK: The feast day is 1 February but the public holiday is the first Monday in February. For the club, it’s the first big event of the year.

Then what’s next on the calendar?

MK: St Patrick’s Day. Then we’ll do a walk: this year it’s in June, a guided walk in the plant gardens in Kirchberg. Then we’ll be looking at a charity walk in autumn, which we haven’t yet decided… and a commemorative event in October in collaboration with the Irish embassy in the Abbey Neimënster to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the club.

FC: And the last couple of years we’ve also done a poetry reading evening with a locally based poet who’s Irish, Terry Adams. We collaborate with an Irish musician as well.

MK: And then at Christmastime we always do a meet-up at the Christmas market.

How big is the Irish community in Luxembourg?

MK: According to Statec, there are approximately 2,500 Irish citizens in Luxembourg, working mainly in the areas of finance and the European institutions.

FC: I would say there’s also a lot of teachers. There’s a big community of educators from Ireland.

2,500… is that a lot?

MK: I don’t know, actually. In one way, it’s not a lot of people, but given the size of Luxembourg--

FC: It doesn’t take a lot of Irish people to make our presence felt [everyone laughs]. It’s true! It doesn’t matter where you look in Luxembourg, there seems to be an Irish accent popping up.

Is there somewhere in Luxembourg that reminds you of home?

MK: The countryside in general, the rural part. If you look at Vianden--that often reminds me of home. Or if you’re on the plateau going down from Kirchberg towards Echternach, you have this huge vista in front--that reminds me of home. The hills, the green…

FC: This was a surprise for me: you’ve got the fields, like you would see at home, and the various shades of green… but my reaction was: where’s the cows? I assumed this was a dairy country, like Ireland, where you see cows. Do you know, they don’t put the cows out till after spring? Which I find odd. So that’s the only difference. The fields look like Ireland, but the animals are missing!

MK: We put our cows out all year round.

Any other surprising things about Luxembourg from an Irish perspective?

FC: The two things that have struck me are how easily people switch not just to one language from another, but between three or four. This was a shock to the system, because we come with our English, obviously, a bit of Gaeilge [Irish Gaelic], and some of us have a bit of French or German--but here, people flow from one to the other. I didn’t think it would be so prevalent from all age groups.

And the other slight shock for me, because I moved here in January, was that Christmas decorations stay up here quite long [laughs].

MK: The most amazing thing I find about Luxembourg and have always done is the presence of art everywhere… on the various steelworks, the roundabouts, the chair outside the EIB. There’s a lot of art and a huge appreciation of art in Luxembourg. It’s becoming more prevalent in other European cities, but Luxembourg was way ahead with that.

FC: For a place that’s not very big, there’s such a cultural variety of events: theatre, music, art exhibits, a celebration of the different cultures, depending on which museum you go to. That surprised me. Shows come--OK, they’re not here for very long--but every week there are exhibits and things to go to, and it’s out of proportion with the size of the place.

How about Luxembourgish food?

MK: I like Luxembourgish food. What you mentioned before, the--what do you call it--?

Feierstengszalot?

MK: That’s it. I mean, you know, it’s eggs and meat. What’s not to like? [laughs]. I love the Gromperekichelcher at the different fairs… where else in the world would you have, you know, fried potatoes with a glass of crémant?

FC: Before moving here, I had never heard of crémant. So that was a nice surprise.

And one final question: any message for Irish newcomers?

FC: Knock on the embassy’s door, because they are very welcoming and supportive. And then, I would say, reach out to any of the Irish organisations depending on your area of interest: , , , because you will find a familiarity of home with an openness to a new life here in a different country.