Leaving the city and choosing country life in the age of Covid

With most businesses in Dublin and other cities currently shuttered, an increasing number of people are taking the plunge and relocating to rural boltholes. The benefits, they say, are immediate and obvious

Tanya Sweeney: the journalist’s move to Naas was greeted with incredulity by her friends. Picture: Barry Cronin

“Naas?!” my friend says with incredulity, like I’m moving to the Outer Hebrides. “Oh God, Naas . . .” a neighbour says, in a tone that suggests I’m in receipt of some sort of consolation prize. For some Dubliners – the type for whom travelling past Terenure means “the sticks” – the jokes about country living, or becoming a farmer, or leaving the Big Smoke, come thick and fast. It may be Kildare, but the ...