Although he hasn’t a drop of Irish blood in him, American former TV executive Bob Miller has been celebrating his recently acquired Irish citizenship.
He and his wife, Pam Hoffman, live at the further reaches of the Sheep’s Head peninsula. The couple bought their West Cork house twenty-four years ago and spent holidays there before moving full time to the idyllic spot, over eight years ago.
To be granted permission to live here, the couple had to apply every year for a Stamp O visa for retirees and older people. It involved an annual audit, detailing all their expenditure in both the US and Ireland, including what Mr Miller spent in the pub. (A self-described extrovert, he loves the friendliness of Irish pubs and enjoys a beer).
Broadcaster Hector Ó hEochagáin interviewed Mr Miller for a TG4 programme called Éire Nua about people relocating to Ireland. Mr Miller started his career as a TV reporter before becoming the head of the WKOW-TV station. He also got involved in several software companies, developing computer graphics for television weather forecast presentations.
While he loves Ireland, Irish law and bureaucracy are a bit of a bugbear for Mr Miller.
“It’s very difficult for an American who doesn’t have Irish ancestry to live in Ireland. In hindsight, I don’t know if I’d have applied if I knew how difficult it was going to be. We sold our beautiful home in Wisconsin and really made a commitment to Ireland. Our children are adults and have their own families (in the US) so they’re fine.”
One of the prerequisites for Mr Miller and his wife to live here (before ever applying for citizenship) was that they had to have an income of €50,000 each, but weren’t allowed to work or own a business. Ms Hoffman was covered by her pension, while Mr Miller had that money from his investments. He hasn’t taken his American pension until this year.
Mr Miller had to get testimony from the American police that he wasn’t escaping something in America and that he was upstanding. He is actually a former mayor of the city of Monona in Wisconsin and is chair of a number of boards in West Cork, including that of Kilcrohane National School.
The couple had to hire “a special accountant to audit our numbers and validate that we had spent what we said we had with records to back it up.”
Three years ago, while looking into citizenship, the couple had to send their passports to Dublin to be stamped. They didn’t like putting their precious ID in the post but thought the passports would be returned quickly. They registered their mail so they could track it. But nothing was showing up; they couldn’t trace their post. “I called An Post but there was nothing doing. I was livid.”
Mr Miller got a local TD on the case, but in the end he made an appointment with the American embassy in Dublin to get emergency passports so that the couple could go to the US for Christmas.
“When we got the emergency passports, my wife said ‘get me out of here. Take me to the airport’. We wondered if we had made a mistake moving here. Getting the emergency passports cost me €1,300. The meeting at the embassy was at 7am so we had to stay in a hotel. But it got us to Wisconsin. It’s an intense process to get a visa and all the documents required to allow us to live here for a year – and then start the whole thing again the next year.”
As it played out, a few days before Christmas three years ago, An Post sent the couple a letter saying that their passports had been located (found in the bottom of a bag in the basement of the post office from which Mr Miller had posted them).
“But I said that was no good. We were going away for five weeks. It set me off. I said maybe we’ll go back to being tourists here once a year. But my wife said I was a fighter. What about citizenship? But the letter said that none of our time here counts for citizenship. Then I just decided to hell with it. I asked for a reference from a solicitor that knows immigration law. There was no real constitutional reason why I shouldn’t be able to apply for citizenship. I hired the solicitor and went through the application process and got notification after a year and a half that I was going to get citizenship.”
Mr Miller met all the criteria including not being outside of Ireland for more than seventy days a year. However, Ms Hoffman had been away too many days, visiting the couple’s grandchildren. She will try for citizenship again.
The couple, who bought a house in Wisconsin (having sold their original one) for visits there, adore Ireland. It’s not just the scenery although Mr Miller rhapsodies about being surrounded by Dunmanus Bay, Bantry Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
“It’s also the people. I have some of the dearest friends here. And there’s the generosity of the people. It’s a most giving country. Americans were pretty generous before. I’m not going to get into politics. I’m not happy about America right now.”
Mr Miller cycled from Mizen Head to Malin Head as part of a fundraiser for a friend who became paralysed from the chest down as a result of a bike accident. The fundraiser was also for a woman with breast cancer.
“Our goal was to raise €5,000 to be split between Spinal Injury Ireland and Breast Cancer Ireland. It was a six-day cycle, one of the highlights of my life. We raised over €70,000. That’s what makes Ireland special. The generosity of the Irish is proven again and again.”
