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Woman who moved from Ireland to Boston shares why the American dream is 'all a lie.'

"I have been bamboozled."

via Kayleigh Donahue/TikTok and Zeeshan Kundi/Pexels
Kayleigh Donahue explains the differences between the U.S. and Europe.

Living abroad is a dream many people have, whether it's spending a summer in a foreign country or packing up their entire life to make the permanent move. In fact, about a third or more of Americans would move to another country if they had the means, and many do. Some estimates show that between 4-5 million non-military US citizens live abroad.

But life is funny, and sometimes these ex-pats come back to the United States for a variety of reasons like family or career, which gives them an extremely interesting perspective when they begin their re-entry.

Take American-born TikTok user Kayleigh Donahue, for example. She's going viral on the platform because of her unflinching take on why it was a mistake for her to move back to the U.S. after spending 4 years in Ireland.

She moved back to the Boston area. Kayleigh moved back to the U.S. from Ireland to make more money, but that didn’t go as planned.

Even though she got paid more, the cost of living was so much higher that she saved less money than she did in Ireland. She also missed the generous number of vacation days she got in Europe as compared to America.

"I have been bamboozled," she begins in the now viral clip with over 600 thousand views.


@kayshaynee

popping off always #americanabroad #usavseurope #movingabroad #livingabroad #europevsamerica #fyp


Many people like Kayleigh move abroad, especially to European countries, for a slower way of life, better work-life balance, more opportunity for travel, or just to see something different. But America is the land of opportunity, right? For some, that promise always beckons, no matter where they go. So even though Kayleigh had an amazing life in Ireland, she wound up moving home to advance her career and make more money.

“Basically, I really got sucked into the American Dream way of living when I was abroad, which is funny because I loved living abroad,” Kayleigh said. “But you know, making more money, that’s enticing. Good job, that’s enticing. It’s not true. It used to be. It definitely used to be. You could come here and make a ton of money, make a great life for yourself. But the younger generation today, in this country — screwed. It’s literally all a lie that is sold to you. It’s such a struggle, and the older generation doesn’t seem to see how much of a struggle it is for the younger generation here.”

In the end, who wants to work harder for a lower quality of life?

“Needless to say, I will most likely be moving back to Europe where 20-plus days of paid vacation a year is literally the law, and I will make less money, but somehow, you know, the cost of living is lower there and I can save more,” Kayleigh concluded the video.

Viewers applauded Kayleigh for coming to the realization:

"Yep, I made the same mistake. Then I realized that people and quality of life are more important than income. Enjoy life!" one wrote.

"Get that. We moved back to US and it was horrible. We moved back to the UK. Happier now was 6 weeks off a year" said another.

"I think there are actually very few people who derive their enjoyment and self-worth from their job. Quality of life is so much more important," another user added.

@kayshaynee

so lucky to live this life🤍 #movingabroad #americanabroad #thenetherlands #europetravel


Kayleigh made good on her promise. As of January 2025, she now lives in Amsterdam with her Dutch husband, and they seem to be loving their life abroad.

A Mercer survey in 2024 put Amsterdam as the sixth best city in the world for quality of life. It's a place with rich culture, amazing public transportation, and a reasonable cost of living to earning potential ratio.

@kayshaynee

I guess I live here now??? #movingabroad #dutchtiktok #amsterdam #americanabroad #internationalcouple

Young Americans really aren't asking for that much. They just want to be able to afford and enjoy their life, and they're willing to work hard for it. America should be giving them those opportunities instead of losing more and more talented young people to other countries.

This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

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5 fun facts about St. Patrick's Day to wow your friends and family

Saint Patrick wasn't Irish and neither is corned beef.

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Several St. Patrick's Day traditions didn't originally come from Ireland.

Shamrocks, leprechauns, corned beef and cabbage, pinches for those who forget to wear green—St. Patrick's Day is filled with traditions that have passed down from generation to generation. What began as a religious holiday in Ireland over 1,000 years ago to honor Saint Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, has morphed into a raucous celebration of all things Irish here across the pond.

Ironically, however, some of those traditions and "all things Irish" didn't actually come from Ireland—including Saint Patrick himself.

If you want to impress your friends with some interesting St. Patrick's day trivia, here's a handful of fun facts to put in your pocket.

1. Saint Patrick wasn't actually Irish. He was British.

Born in Britain in 386 A.D., St. Patrick was captured by pirates and brought to Ireland at age 16, where he was sold as a slave. For six years, he worked in the fields, tending sheep and praying. One night, he dreamt that God was directing him to a boat that would take him home, and in 408 A.D., he escaped Ireland. Then, after being ordained as a bishop in 432 A.D., the Pope sent him back to the Emerald Isle to spread Christianity.

"Patrick became inflamed with the desire to help alleviate the suffering of the Irish people who were burdened under the yoke of slavery, brutal tribal warfare and pagan idolatry," Matthew Paul Grote, a Catholic priest with the Order of Preachers, shared with USA Today. Saint Patrick incorporated pagan rituals into Christian worship practices to ease the resistance to Christianity. Even when he was attacked and captured by Irish clans, he would respond with non-violence and share his Catholic faith peacefully, always treating non-Christians with fairness.

He is credited with the spread of Christianity in Ireland, but he himself wasn't Irish.

2. The legend about St. Patrick driving all the snakes out of Ireland? Literally impossible.

Legend has it that St. Patrick was fasting for 40 days on a hilltop when he was attacked by snakes. With a sermon and a wave of his staff, he drove all the snakes in Ireland out to the sea where they all drowned, which is why, according to the lore, there are no snakes in Ireland.

Except there were never any snakes in Ireland, according to the fossil record. The cool climate and being part of an island make Ireland uninhabitable for snakes. Scholars today generally view the snake story as a metaphor for driving paganism out of Ireland.

3. St. Patrick's Day was not traditionally a festive holiday.

Parades filled with floats, pubs filled with festivity, parties filled with frivolity—all of that fun, celebratory St. Patrick's day revelry is fairly new. For the vast majority of the holiday's history in Ireland, it was a somber, quiet religious holy day spent in prayer. It wasn't until Irish immigrants to America began celebrating their Irish pride in the 1700s with parades and such that the holiday became more of a festive occasion.

According to History.com, the invention of the television let Irish people see how the U.S. celebrated the holiday, which led to the party atmosphere making its way to Ireland.

4. The traditional color associated with St. Patrick was blue, not green.

St. Patrick's Day is all about green green green, from the shamrock shakes to the leprechaun coats to the Irish flag. But the color Saint Patrick himself was actually associated with is blue. The earliest depictions of the patron saint of Ireland show him in blue garments, and according to The Smithsonian, when George III created the Order of St. Patrick, a new order of chivalry for the Kingdom of Ireland, its official color was known as "St. Patrick's Blue."

Green is more of a political color than a religious one, as it became the color of Irish nationalism in 1789 with a series of rebellions against the UK. And really, green makes the most sense as a symbol for a place known as The Emerald Isle. The shamrock helps, too. (Another fun fact: The green, white and orange flag of Ireland was officially adopted in 1937 and points directly to the contemporary history between the Catholic and Protestant branches of Christianity in the country.)

5. The tradition of eating corned beef didn't come from Ireland, either.

For many Americans, a St. Patrick's Day meal simply must include corned beef and cabbage. Traditional Irish fare, right? Nope.

Though the Irish produced some of the world's most sought-after corned beef in the mid-1600s, they didn't eat it themselves. Due to England's oppressive laws, Irish people couldn't afford beef, and when they could afford meat, they ate salted pork or bacon. (The reason they produced corned beef was due to some complicated history with the UK and cattle shipping restrictions.)

Two centuries later, Irish immigrants who had a bit more money started buying kosher beef from their Jewish immigrant neighbors in America. According to The Smithsonian, what we consider Irish corned beef today was really Jewish corned beef tossed into a stew with some cabbage and potatoes—truly an example of the American immigration "melting pot."

In Ireland today, you'd most likely be served lamb or beef stew for a St. Patrick's Day feast. (However, much like our St. Paddy's Day revelry, the American tradition of corned beef has slowly made its way into Ireland's celebrations as well.)

It's a wee bit funny to dive into the history of St. Patrick's Day and find that many of the things we typically think of as old Irish traditions are neither particularly old (compared to Saint Patrick himself) nor purely Irish. That's not to say these traditions are not worth celebrating; Irish Americans have their own storied history in the U.S., after all, and who doesn't love a dyed green river or a green-themed parade with lucky shamrocks and leprechauns?

No matter how you celebrate, have a very Happy St. Patrick's Day! Or as they say in Irish Gaelic, "Beannachtaí na Féile Padraig ort!" (Watch how to pronounce it below.)

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Navajo Nation raises $3 million for COVID relief with the help of grateful Irish donors

@Ciaraioch/Twitter, GoFundMe

Update: Since this article was published two days ago, the GoFundMe total has risen from $1.8 to more than $3 million.

The Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation in the southwestern U.S. have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak. With a third of the population having no running water, proper virus-avoiding hygiene is nearly impossible. Access to groceries is limited, and the community has a high number of elderly and individuals with health conditions that put them at higher risk of complications from the virus.

A GoFundMe fundraiser was organized on behalf of the Rural Utah Project Education Fund to raise money for groceries, water, health supplies, and other necessary items in these Native communities. And this week, they have received a huge influx of donations from a seemingly unlikely source—Ireland.

If you're wondering what would prompt people on an island across the Atlantic to send money to a specific community in the U.S., the answer is simple. Gratitude.

In 1847, Native American tribes were struggling to get established after being forced to relocate from their homelands during the cruel and shameful Trail of Tears. The tribes had suffered greatly and had very little. But when the Choctaw nation heard about the suffering of the Irish people during the potato famine, they pulled together a donation of $170—around $5000 in today's dollars—to send to Ireland.

That collective act of sacrificial generosity was not forgotten. And now people in Ireland are repaying that gift many times over in a beautiful expression of historic human connectedness.

The GoFundMe currently sits at more than $1.8 million of a $2 million goal, thanks in no small part to a flood of donations from Ireland. And as the donations of $10, $20, $30 keep rolling in, Irish people are leaving lovely messages of gratitude, solidarity, and hope along with them:

"Ireland remembers the Navajo kindness in her hour of need."

"In remembrance of the kindness shown to my country by your fellow native Americans, the Choctaw people, during a time of dire need. Gach rath oraibh uilig." [Translation: "Best of luck to you all."]

"I donated because when you had nothing, you gave something to help Ireland."

"Yá'át'ééh from Ireland. The Native American donation all those years ago was never forgotten. There have been songs written about your generosity. I am glad to be able to return the favour in some small part. Ahóá!"

Vanessa Tulley, one of the fundraiser organizers, acknowledged the outpouring of love and money coming from Ireland in an update:

"Several of our recent donations for our GoFundMe campaign have been inspired by the Great Hunger Famine in Ireland which started in 1845.

During this difficult time, in 1847, the Choctaw Nation provided $170 of relief aid to the Irish to help them (today that is the equivalent of $5,000). Not long before the Great Hunger Famine in Ireland, 60,000 Native Americans, including the Choctaw people, had suffered through the experience of the Trail of Tears. The death of many people on the Trail of Tears sparked empathy for the Irish people in their time of need. Thus, the Choctaw extended $170 of relief aid.

173 years later to today, the favor is returned through generous donations from the Irish people to the Navajo Nation during our time of crisis. A message from Irish donor, Pat Hayes, sent from Ireland across the ocean: "From Ireland, 170 years later, the favour is returned! To our Native American brothers and sisters in your moment of hardship."

The heartache is real. We have lost so many of our sacred Navajo elders and youth to COVID-19. It is truly devastating. And a dark time in history for our Nation. In moments like these, we are so grateful for the love and support we have received from all around the world. Acts of kindness from indigenous ancestors passed being reciprocated nearly 200 years later through blood memory and interconnectedness.Thank you, IRELAND, for showing solidarity and being here for us."

Absolutely beautiful. Humanity wins the day once again.

If you'd like to donate to help the Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation in their COVID-19 fight, you can find the GoFundMe here.

Correction: This post has been updated to clarify that the 1847 donation came from the Choctaw Nation during the Trail of Tears. The Navajo tribe were forcibly relocated from their lands during "The Long Walk" of 1864.

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Ireland's prime minister offers Donald Trump some St. Patrick's Day advice on immigration.

'For many people around the globe, [St. Patrick] is ... the patron of immigrants.'

In his final St. Patrick's Day visit to the White House as Ireland's leader, Enda Kenny, offered some timely thoughts on immigration.

GIFs via The White House/YouTube.

In a bit of advice to the U.S. — an old friend of Ireland — the Irish prime minister recounted how immigration helped mold a strong relationship between the two countries, making a subtle plea to the new president to look for the value in those who wish to come to the U.S.

Kenny urged Trump to find a compassionate solution to undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

"There are millions out there who want to play their part for America — if you like, who want to make America great. Heard it before?" Kenny joked, offering up a simple, friendly, and clear message:

Whether Trump takes Kenny up on his advice is anyone's guess, but it's certainly a message worth spreading.

Check out the full address below, beginning about 10 minutes in:

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