Last year, after my final decision not to live in fear and poverty any longer we made the move to Ireland from South Africa. It had been a long time coming, since the end of the apartheid era, which in its self was not a bad thing. The only problem was, the apartheid was now reversed. Try as we might, we were unable to secure decent jobs. The cleaning staff was now put onto managerial posts. The only way to get anywhere in a company was to be ABC (Asian, Black, Colored).

for a  long time we lived a life of sheer existence. I was a bank clerk and my Husband was a forklift driver. We have twin boys, who have, from the time they were born, suffered the consequences of the previous generations Foley’s.  My husband was told that he would need to start looking for other work, as the warehouse was not going to be keeping on any white labor. This was at the worst time of our lives, as the boys were starting primary school and we needed all the money we could get.

A job offer from a family member in Johannesburg was made. This seemed to be a life saver, but as they say, “never work for family”.

Life was slightly better financially for my husband, but for me it was going from the frying pan into the fire. I now had to commute every day, where I used to walk. The price of petrol only went up, coming down over elections of course. I never got to see my family, unless we traveled the 500km to visit, and there was not much time or money for that.

Things at work got bad when a colored manager took over. I had been suffering endometriosis for years and was unaware of this. The manager and his trusty sidekick took a personal dislike to me as the disease had taken a lot out of me and I was unable to function like a normal person. I had a permanent headache and my hormones were out of whack.

My husband’s brother then decided that he could no longer care for the company as it was too much hard work. My husband lost his job, and the company house became private in a month, so this put a strain on finances. I had resigned my post at the bank, due to ongoing illness and prejudice.

My father had been living in Ireland for 8 years as a truck driver, and he wanted to get us all over. The escalation of crime and racism and genocide towards the white community has everyone running. If you can afford to, get out before they decide to do another ethnic cleansing.

Landing in Ireland was the nicest day of my life. It was fresh and cool. We were welcomed and greeted by every stranger. If we were lost they helped us, until the recession.

Now, after my husband decided to quit his first job after one week, and was retrenched from the next one after three months, we are sitting penny-less and desperate. We are not able to find work as we are not Irish. We cannot claim social benefits. I am only allowed to work in this country if my husband works as the EU has certain conditions about that. (My husband has a Portuguese passport). today we tried to sell some peanut clusters, which had saved us in the days gone by in Pietermarizburg South Africa, but not only did no one buy, we were laughed at.

Now we are unable to go back and we are broke. We are not black enough for South Africa and we are not Irish enough for Ireland.