Jessica Bonenfant made the transition from New York City in the countryside Co-Cork a little less than a decade ago. The story of this creation begins in an Irish bar – in France.

Eager to make friends during a month-long excursion to Montpellier, and missing a lot of French, the Italian-American choreographer headed to the nearest Irish pub. Having gotten more than she bargained for, Bonenfant was introduced to her future husband, Hughie, on her last night working there.

Today the couple live in an abandoned Georgian house converted into an artistic residence, Gray Wood Artsin the east Cork village of Killeagh, at the foot of Glenbower Wood, where they have hosted over 100 artists since opening in 2017. Their home is now a hub of activity, hosting workshops all year round and cultural events as well as offering studio space and accommodation for visiting creatives.

Having visited Ireland for the first time to meet Hughie’s family in Wicklow three months before their wedding there, Bonenfant remembers the first cultural differences she noticed before the big day. (Well, days — as the couple first married in a ceremony in Connecticut, where she grew up.) She remembers asking the venue’s owner, “What time should we finish us?

“When you rent a wedding venue in the United States, you rent it for four or five hours, or whatever. And if you stay later, they start charging you by the hour. Like, really high fees. And so the woman simply did not understand my question.

( Irish education and food are great, but ‘as a sober person it’s very strange to be here’Opens in a new window )

In a “kind of cultural faux pas”, Bonenfant claims to have made the serious mistake of thinking that there would be “no need for dessert if we had cake”, to the great dismay of his in-laws, who, the typical Irish way, was “I’m afraid people will think we’re bad.” Dessert was therefore resumed.

She is now well settled in Ireland and says that although people here have been “really friendly and warm” towards her, Bonenfant sometimes finds “it’s difficult to form a deeper friendship”.

“You get to know a lot and people are usually very willing to help you with whatever you need or are looking for, but I found it difficult to go to a deeper level – beyond the superficial kind .

She remembers the kindness shown by people in the local community when Storm Babet hit last year, causing their building to flood just months after renovations to the field house were completed.

“We ended up with 65 people here to help us on the Saturday after we had the big clean-up day and there was a huge turnout, which was incredible.

“It was definitely a blow energetically, you know, working so hard to open up a space and six months later being underwater. We had a room full of artists at the time.

( “The United States is very transactional. In Ireland, people are nice. There is a recognition of life outside of money’Opens in a new window )

Impressed by the financial support she was able to receive to get Greywood off the ground, Bonenfant says, “I just don’t think I could have done anything on the scale of what we’re doing if I had stayed in Connecticut or New Zealand. York. »

With an MFA in Choreography from the University of Michigan and a BA in Dance from Marymount Manhattan College, she founded her own dance and theater company based in New York where she spent over 10 years performing works for stage and cinema. Today she channels her creative energy into the Cork arts scene, serving on the planning committee for the Midleton Arts Festival and volunteering with First Cut! Youth film festival in parallel with the artistic residency.

The financing opportunities offered by Creative Irelandthe Arts Council and Cork County Council have encouraged Bonenfant, who says that although “we’re still working on a tight budget and it’s not easy”, the prospects are greater here “compared to New York, where all funding is so competitive that we often don’t even put ourselves forward because we feel the chances are so slim.”

“You really develop relationships with your funders in a way that I didn’t do in the United States,” she adds.

Adopting Celtic traditions is a big part of her work at Greywood, where she reinstated the May Sunday festival, which she says ran from the early 1800s “until the year 2000.” .

“When the woods were a private estate, for example in the 1830s, the owner made improvements. He had built bridges and improved the estate. And the story is that he opened the doors and invited the villagers to come and listen to music and dance on the first Sunday in May.

Bonenfant would happily retire to Ireland, with no plans to return to the United States in the future.

“Politics doesn’t help. It has become a real source of division. I definitely prefer the quality of life here. I like people. I like the possibilities…I just think it’s easier to work in the arts here.

“Being so close to other parts of Europe, like the United States, if you get on a plane for two or three hours, you’re still in the United States. Here you can see a place that is still Western European, but also looks like a totally different place. So I feel like there’s so much to explore.

When it comes to domestic politics, she finds that local elected officials are easily accessible. “I think we developed relationships with the local councilors and that’s something I never really did in the United States… It was difficult for me to understand the ranking system when you vote because that it’s really different.

“I voted in local elections for the first time this year. I’m still not a citizen, but it’s something I’d like to do.

We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the last 10 years. To get involved, send an email [email protected] or tweet @newtotheparish