Roisin Cooke

In 1994, I was living in Dublin and just finishing college when I was called for my green card interview. I’ll never forget it, my mum had filled out the application the year before while I was spending the summer in Munich. I owe it all to her.

That September, I visited New York for a week and instantly knew: this was the place for me. When I returned to Ireland, I started pulling things together, saving money, packing my things, and by April 25, 1995, I was on a plane bound for New York. It’s a date I’ll always remember. I first settled in Woodside, Queens, and later made my home in Oceanside, Long Island.

Life in 1990s Dublin wasn’t what it is today. Jobs were scarce for recent college grads, and since I’d always dreamed of living in the U.S., having the privilege of receiving a Morrison Visa made the decision easy. I had the itch, and now the opportunity, to make a new life, so I did.

I spent my first few months in New York staying with family to get on my feet. Then, on July 15th, 1995, I moved into my very first apartment. It was 100 degrees outside. I had no air conditioning, just a few donated pieces of furniture and a bunch of boxes. I remember sitting on the floor that night thinking, I can do this.

“I was lucky to land a job right away with a computer training company in Midtown Manhattan. Even luckier, I met another Irish girl who took me under her wing,”

introduced me to people, and helped me settle in. Back then, you couldn’t just pick up the phone and call home, it was expensive, and I wrote a lot of letters. I missed my family terribly. Weekly phone calls to my parents were the highlight of my week, and knowing when my next trip home was planned, or when someone was coming to visit, really kept me going.

Through grit and determination, and thanks to the support of some amazing people along the way, I built a career I’m proud of. Today, I’m SVP of Operations at a market research firm called BuzzBack, where I’ve worked for over 20 years. But my proudest accomplishment by far is my family, my husband Ronan and our two boys, Jack (16) and Patrick (12). We moved to Oceanside in 2013, and we’ve found a fantastic community here. The boys are thriving in school, Jack plays ice hockey, and Patrick plays football for Oceanside Schools. I feel so fortunate.

“The Morrison Visa opened doors I never even knew existed. It gave me the chance to live out my dream of moving to the U.S. and building a life here.”

The U.S. is what you make of it, hard work leads to opportunity. I was fortunate to get the Morrison Visa in 1994, and I’ll always consider myself incredibly lucky.