Corkonians Abroad: My life as an A&E nurse and a DJ in London

Tell us about yourself, Aisling:

I’m from Ballinlough in Cork and I currently live in Brixton in London and have been there for the past four years.

I decided to move to London as I had been living in Edinburgh for a long time and felt I needed a change.

I was feeling stale in my job and needed a new challenge.

Tell us a little about your career?

I work as an A&E nurse in Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. The job has been a culture shock compared to home. Stabbings and gang-related incidents were all very new territory for me, but now I have adjusted.

The health care system here is amazing and nursing life is certainly better than at home, unfortunately.

One day, I would like to return home to be close to my family as I miss them so much, but until then my life is in London.

Work opportunities are better here in the hospital than at home. You can climb the ladder much quicker, and they offer so much training and development compared to Ireland

I’m also a DJ - not the combination you see every day.

I always loved music growing up and was heavily influenced by my parents introducing me to all kinds of genres.

I bought my first DJ controller when I was 19 years old and played my first gig in the Roundy.

Looking back, I was terrible, but they had faith in me so I kept going.

Over the past six months, I’ve played my biggest gigs, which I never imagined I would be doing. I had the closing set at the famous Fabric club in London last week, which I am still on a high from.

Hopefully, I will get to come back and play on Cork soil soon. You cannot beat an Irish crowd. There is a special magic about it that you can’t beat.

I spend my weekends either working/DJing. However, if I’m off, I love to spend it with my pals by catching up over some good grub and a nice walk.

Tell us a little about the culture of where you live?

I live in Brixton, which was a huge culture shock initially.

I was quite naive before moving and I have become very streetwise since arriving in London. It’s an amazing place which is so diverse and vibrant. There is never a dull moment here.

What’s the best thing about living in London?

So the best thing about living in London for me is that I feel like I’m like Peter Pan living in London. I never feel like I have grown up at all and that’s the only place I feel like at the age of 37 you don’t get judged for being single or not married, or you know, not having a house. Whereas I feel like any other city l’ve ever lived in, or just being at home, and there’s just more pressure and certainly when I go home and see all my friends, they’re all settled down.

In London, I can wake up in the morning and decide to go to any different part of London from like Borough Market in east London, or I can go to Hackney, and every part of London is so different and it feels like you’re basically going on holiday and you’re visiting a different city within London. I still haven’t seen half of it - there’s so much to do.

I also feel that no one cares in the sense of how you dress...There’s another level [with] people not interacting with each other...it can be both a positive and a negative, I suppose.

How has your journey with music and DJ work progressed?

I always was interested in music like my dad and I always listened to that punk and Pings and all different genres. I was like 19 when I got my first controller and then, when I was in school I used to make CDs. I recorded them off the radio and then I started selling them and then, when I was in college, I went to my J1 and people started asking me, ‘Will you make a CD for me?’ So l started making more and then I got more into like wanting to be a DJ and just connecting with local DJs.

I finally ended up moving to Edinburgh and getting more and more into music, and then got a gig. From that one gig, I played this other place and I was persistent and I kept going to that club every week, asking them 'please give me a gig'.

Then, finally, someone pulled out and I got a gig at Edinburgh Fringe. I got residency in this place called Tiger Lily, which is really like the bar club that everyone would go to at the weekend, and then got residency at that venue.

So I was doing weekly DJ sets and then I started organising their other DJs for them and used to have, like, famous celebrities. I started doing parties, like the George Clooney party, and I did a private party for Leonardo DiCaprio but he actually didn’t end up coming.

I did some work in Ibiza and then came to London at the beginning of covid. So there was nothing happening, but I was working away in the hospital as a nurse right through covid, which was extremely tough, but I kept the head down and got on with it.

Playing in Fabric has been the highlight so far. I used to say to myself, ‘Oh my God, like this is where I want to be’, and then last week I got to play that, it was actually surreal.

I got to close the set and by the end of it I was actually crying and I was sober - didn’t have one drink - it was just that it was magical and it was just everything that I’ve ever wanted. It was the best.

What do you miss most about home?

A huge mention back home to family, my mom and dad and Tony, and my brother Ronnie who lives kind of between Cork and Madeira, which is very exciting and he’s home at the moment.

I suppose that’s what’s most difficult about living in London, even though Ronnie is both there and halfway, I still feel very far away from them, and sometimes in London you just feel a bit lost.

I miss that kind of home feeling of sitting down at the kitchen table with my parents and my brother and just talking about nothing, but just having just the best conversations and just sitting down over a cup of tea.

What I miss most is my mum’s cooking, and I miss going to the English Market on a Saturday, or any day, and just sitting down to soak up the atmosphere, looking around at all the different types of people that are just walking around.

There’s just something special about it, and just the atmosphere and the people.

You just miss Irish people so much because we’re all a bit daft, but we’re just so genuine, you feel, and it’s the longer you live away.

The longer you’re away, the more you miss Irish company. I left Ireland so that I’d have a better life, a better career, and just more opportunity.

Like, as a 37-year-old in London, I feel like I’m 22 sometimes, but also, at other times, it’s very difficult because most of my friends have kids now. I don’t, so I’m still the single one, which is great in one way because over here it’s not a big problem, but I feel, when I go home, it magnifies everything really.

What’s the ideal day back in Cork?

So, the perfect day at home would be just going to the English Market in town, having a coffee, and sitting down soaking up the atmosphere.

I’m going to On The Pigs Back to get the best cheese, and I still bring cheese back with me, and also to Man Fridays. I know they’ve got a place on the South Mall.

Their treacle brown bread is the best brown bread ever, and so every time I come back, I stock up with all my bits and bring everything back with me.

I would just have a really casual, nice day, and one day maybe I’ll get to come home - my parents are dying for me to come home, and they would be so happy if I did - but at the moment I’ll definitely be sticking around here in London.