Daria Bilyk and her husband Nikita moved to Ireland from Russia in 2021Daria Bilyk: 'We read about Ireland. We thought that it's a perfect place because of the economy, which is growing, and that people would be welcoming and nice.' Photograph: Alan Betson Hosanna BoulterTue Jun 23 2026 - 06:00 • 4 MIN READDaria Bilyk (27), who moved to Ireland in 2021 from Russia, had dreamed of moving abroad from the time she was a young girl. “I hated living there,” Daria says of her childhood in a town called Severomorsk, which is beyond the polar circle, not far from the border with Finland. She described the town as “not like the pretty towns you have here in Ireland. It was old and dirty”. Growing up there she watched as people, led by government propaganda, directed their anger over the country’s difficult economic situation elsewhere by blaming foreign enemies. “You are just told to hate someone outside. America is to blame; Europe is to blame. Some other people are to blame for our misery. You are surrounded by this hate and difficulty, and it feels very tiresome and lonely to live like that.” Her family were different from the people she grew up around. Her father is Ukrainian, and she is proud of that heritage. Her parents understood that they could not trust the Russian state media fully and raised her to be curious rather than hateful about the world. After leaving school she moved to St Petersberg to study international relations at university. She met her husband Nikita there, who shared her dream of moving abroad. “Since I studied Italian and my husband studied French, we needed somewhere English-speaking. We read more about Ireland. We thought that it’s a perfect place because of the economy, which is growing, and that people would be welcoming and nice.”The couple arrived here in the autumn of 2021 to study master’s degrees in management at Trinity College in Dublin. “We read that education here is really good. Honestly, we applied to a lot of universities in Ireland thinking that we probably don’t have a chance in Trinity.”Daria Bilyk at the Joe Dolan Statue on Market Square in Mullingar, Co Westmeath. Photograph: Alan Betson After they arrived Nikita had to immediately find work to support them. He worked as much as his student visa allowed, as a waiter in a hotel, on top of his studies. Daria remembers this as a difficult time. Nikita barely slept, but “somehow survived”. “We knew that Ireland had a housing problem, but we did not know the extent of it before we came here.”For their first two weeks in Ireland they rented an Airbnb. They used that time to email estate agents, but none replied to their messages. They turned on Daft notifications so they would be alerted the moment any new listings were published. But still they struggled to find a place to live – the couple were either denied or found the living conditions untenable. “I remember one place, it was in the centre of Dublin. It had some black-coloured stains on the mattress. It was very shady.” The stress of the housing situation often reduced Daria to tears, concerned that they would either have to settle for a horrible place or “live under a bridge”. In the end they “got extremely lucky” as they found a kind landlord who offered them a small but nice space in a good area. [ ‘My family and friends said, if you can stay in Europe, stay in Europe’Opens in new window ]Aside from the extent of Dublin’s housing crisis, Daria says the couple did not really have any big culture shocks after moving to Ireland. “We read a lot and watched a lot. The internet is very blocked in Russia so you cannot get foreign news, foreign movies or call internationally. You would need a VPN now, but when we were growing up you could know everything about the world.” ‘Mullingar is really blossoming. All the businesses are working. You don’t have abandoned buildings. It looks very pretty’— Daria BilykBoth Daria and her husband managed to secure jobs before finishing university. Nikita found a place on a graduate programme and Daria worked in a start-up insurance company, though she has since changed career path and now works for a medical device company. “While studying at university, I wanted to work somewhere where I could help people more. Because insurance is nice but I understand it as a bit of gambling.”In Russia, Daria says, the world of work can feel like war because the economic situation is so difficult. “It is not that nice. You’re just trying to survive. But here people are really nice and kind to each other,” Last year the couple welcomed their first baby, a son, and bought a house. “We travelled all around Ireland searching for a house.”The couple’s biggest requirement was accessibility to public transport as neither of them can drive and their jobs require them to travel. Fulfilling this requirement was difficult because of Ireland’s limited public transport infrastructure, but eventually they settled in Mullingar. “I know that in the Midlands some towns are struggling, but Mullingar is really blossoming. All the businesses are working. You don’t have abandoned buildings. It looks very pretty and people here are welcoming and happy.” [ ‘It was so cold in Ireland, I thought, oh my God, I don’t think I’ll survive this’Opens in new window ]Daria says she now sees Ireland as home but misses her family constantly. It is becoming more difficult to see and call them because of the political situation in Russia. “Before, they could visit sometimes, but recently they cannot get visas. It’s also difficult to call as there are huge internet blockages in Russia.”Raising her son without family around is challenging for Daria. “There’s nobody to help you when you’re feeling sick, when you’ve been up for several nights, you’re just there by yourself. Sometimes it’s maddening and you feel like you’re losing your sanity, but it always gets better.”We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past 10 years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com or send us two lines about yourself using the form below. IN THIS SECTION