Dublin

365 days and 2 hours after leaving Frankfurt airport I arrive back in Dublin airport. Since then life has been strange to say the least. Applying for unemployment assistance as an Irishman who was outside of Ireland for more than 2 years is the same as a Nigerian student applying to live here, so I had wonderful questions on the benefit form such as:
* Where have you been before Ireland?
* Why do you want to come to Ireland?
* How long do you want to stay (0-1 year, 1-2 years, 3-5 years or 5+ years, tick as appropriate)
* How do you plan on financing your stay here?
* Do you have any close relatives in Ireland (i.e. mother, father, brother, sister), give address, d.o.b. and the year they arrived in Ireland (I kid you not!)
* Do you have any other friends or relatives in Ireland?
* Where are you staying?
* How did you find this accomodation? (My sarky answer: "Phoned home")

I remained composed and answered all the questions. Now I await a means tester to find out how much money the Irish goverment wants to give me. The maximum is 130? a week which will have me living the life of Reilly.

Stay tuned for more details...