ORIGINALLY from Ukraine, Alex Chernenko reluctantly followed his parents to Ireland as an 18-year-old for a summer and eighteen years later, he is now the CEO of his own company with a wife and three children, here in Cork.

LEAVING the “noisy, polluted” city of London for the solitude and beauty of West Cork was an easy decision for Londoner Claudia Kinmonth, who moved there 23 years ago with her husband Michael and young son Finbarr.

Internationally acclaimed computer scientist Mubashir Husain Rehmani, originally from Pakistan, loves his work with Cork Institute of Technology and said he hopes to stay in Cork to raise his three children with his wife Khadija.

NEIL GRANT is a Scotsman who left the highlands for the hills of West Cork, where he has been living with his wife Yvonne for the past 11 years. He met Yvonne, a Clonakilty native, in Mayo when they were both working at Ashford Castle.

WITH her family in the south of France and having spent a large part of her childhood in western Africa, Melanie Poussin says that living in Ireland the hot climate is the one thing that she misses. “The weather is cold and wet all year round.

GLASWEGIAN artist Lorna Macdonald Dunlop has been living in the County Cork countryside for the past 14 years, but doesn’t drive and doesn’t own a smartphone.

INTERNATIONALLY renowned American pianist David Syme has found himself settling in West Cork with his wife Suzanne since 2005 and said he can’t see himself living anywhere else.

THE weather can be challenging but the Cork sense of humour keeps her smiling. That’s the mantra of Sicilian Valentina Gambardella, who has been living in Cork for the past 13 years.

LONDONER Caroline Kennedy has been living in Cork for the last decade and said she looks set on staying in the Rebel County in the years to come.

FORMER Latvian police officer Diana Bucko handed in her gun to follow her calling of greeting people at the Cork International Hotel where she works as a receptionist.

A Romanian musician who is head of CIT Cork School of Music’s department of keyboard studies, Gabriela Mayer tells Roisin Burke why she loves Cork’s ‘rebel’ vibeA TALENTED musician who speaks five languages, Gabriela Mayer is a force to be reckoned ...

YOUTUBER, social worker, and animal enthusiast Sandra Schmid moved to Bantry 22 years ago after meeting her husband in West Cork while working on a farm in exchange for bed and board at the age of 20.

BASTIEN Peyraud has been bringing French flair to Cork hospitality since moving to the Leeside 15 months ago.

FOR Pakistani refugee Tauseef Muhammad Khan, living in the direct provision centre at the Kinsale Road roundabout represents the darkest, most tragic part of his life, but he says he will keep fighting for a better life.

Community activist and human rights lawyer Majo Rivas has been living in Cork since 2015 and has been a regular visitor to Ireland since 2008 when she met her now-husband Richard through the Scouts. “I’ve been in the Scouts since I was 12 years old.

FROM the heart of London to the bosom of West Cork, Ian Brown, 56, said he and his family feel very lucky to have settled in Kinsale for the past 11 years.

A French man with a love of music and a degree in Geography hit the right note when he landed in Bandon at the age of 25.

Born in Iraq, but a Spanish citizen, 62-year-old Fadila Al Ubaidi spent time in Egypt, America and London before settling in the Rebel County and says Cork people are the sweetest and kindest people she has ever met.

SETTLING in Cork was never the masterplan for Australian woman Colleen Phillips, but after wandering into the Rebel County 20 years ago, she is still here.

FORMER firefighter and bodyguard Robert Klimaszewski is originally from Poland but says he will always love Cork for the great life he had been given in the Rebel County.

A CHEMICAL engineer from Syria, who has extensively travelled the world in his 52 years, says Cork people are the nicest he has ever met.

‘HEAVEN on Earth’ is how Nigerian Cordelia Oseh Nwaokolo, 49, describes her second home after moving to Cork 21 years ago. Cordelia, who spent two years in a wheelchair after breaking her pelvis while living here, said Cork was her promised land.

Computer nerd turned cafe manager Izzeddeen Akarajeh and his wife Eman are cooking up a storm in the recently opened Izz Cafe on George’s Quay.

BANGLADESHI taxi driver Abul Salam loves the Cork landscape and people but is frustrated that, after 19 years, he is still considered a ‘blow-in’.

SECURITY worker Zsigmond Safrany has spent 13 years in Cork with his wife Tímea, after moving here to raise a family and to afford a better life.

COMING to Ireland was the realisation of a childhood dream for Austin Alagba, aged 48, who grew up in Nigeria, but has spent the last 18 years in Cork with his wife Caroline.

INDIAN scientist Piyush Verma loves a challenge, which is good because in his 33 years, he has encountered more than a few.

Sao Paolo native Bianca Vincenzo met her husband in an Irish bar in her home town.

UCC lecturer Stephen Onakuse, from Nigeria, has a diploma, a degree, three masters and a PhD, and says “study is my escape.

FASHION blogger Ladi Bidinga came to Ireland eight months ago from Belgium, where she had been living since she moved with her family from the Congo at the age of four. “We left the Congo when my father was studying.

CIVIL engineer Alan Costello, aged 34, came to Cork in 2002 to study at CIT and found the love of a fine Cork woman at the house warming of a mutual friend.

In the latest Living Leeside column, Roisin Burke speaks to Dr Amanullah De Sondy about how he set up life in Cork and why he loves it hereFROM umpiring at Wimbledon to lecturing in Miami, Glaswegian Muslim, Dr Amanullah De Sondy, who is a senior ...

CHRIS Wolny, originally from Poland but living in Cork for 14 years, is a man deeply immersed in the Rebel community.

UKRANIAN refugee Oksana Shadrina-O’Hurley has been living in Cork for the past four years, since meeting her Cork husband in 2012 when they were both on business trips in Kyiv.