Eoin Gorman has enjoyed life across the Indian Ocean and the across the Irish Sea. The Clonaslee man moved to Australia in 2010 and last year he made the move to London with his partner Talia.
The electrical site supervisor still carries a huge amount of grá for all things Irish, and has carried on his footballing adventures with the East Celts in Australia and the London Shamrocks. Clonaslee is also never far from his mind and he spent the summer playing junior football here for his home team.
With the Laois v London match this weekend, Eoin is looking forward to his father and the crowd of Clonaslee supporters coming over to sample the London-Irish experience.
When did you move away to Brisbane and how did you end up moving to London?
I moved to Brisbane in June 2010. I had a good few friends living there at that time and with the recession hitting hard at home it was the place to go. I got work easy enough and start playing football with East Celts. At the time was basically make up of Laois, Offaly and Meath lads and girls. Before I knew it nearly seven years had flown by.
How did you end up in London?
London wasn’t really on my radar until I started seeing a lovely Brisbane girl. She had plans to move to London and I had been thinking about moving home, and I London is a lot closer to home and my family than Brisbane is. So I packed up everything and headed for home without telling anyone. Enter a very shocked mother and father who thought they were picking up my girlfriend Talia for a weekend visit while travelling Europe.
What’s the best thing about living in London?
London is very busy, it’s another world from Clonaslee which has its positives and negatives. There is always something on or somewhere to go. The public transport system is very good so you can go out anywhere in the city and it’s easy to get home.
Have you visited Laois much since you left?
I try to get home every five or six weeks. I played a bit of junior football in the summer which was a good excuse to get home. We spent Christmas at home too.
Have you noticed any changes since you left Ireland?
I think the biggest change I saw was when I came home after being in Australia for the first two years. Things were hard then. I think since 2015 it been slowly getting better but it still has some way to go.
What have learned most since leaving Ireland?
If you treat people and a place with respect they will treat you the same. It doesn’t matter where you are.
What’s the strangest thing that has happened to you on your travels?
I once went to work in New South Wales for four weeks. My work booked accommodation closest to the work site. It happened to be a cabin park about two kilometres from a prison – so 90 percent of it residents were ex-convicts. I didn’t get much sleep there.
Do you meet many people from Laois where you’re living now?
I did a few training sessions with London Shamrocks last summer who are were managed by Paddy Madigan from Ballyroan. Scott Conroy played with them too but I never saw him at the trainings!
The Laois v London game is on this weekend so my father and all the Clonaslee gang will be out for the weekend. It looks like the snow has cleared so it should be good.
What do you miss most about Ireland?
Definitely not the weather! I miss the people I guess. All my family and most of my best friends are in Ireland. At least now that I’m living in London I get to see them a lot more. Any family events or friends wedding that I would have missed while living in Brisbane are now only a few hours travel instead of the long trip from Australia.
Will you return to live in Laois at some point in the future?
I would like to think so. Talia and I are hopefully going to do a house renovation in the next year so maybe after that if the right opportunity came our way. We would more than likely be working in Dublin and commuting from home.
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