It’s like they never left Wantagh

It’s been nearly a decade since the Casserlys left Wantagh and moved an ocean away, but recently it felt like they had never left.

Seamus, Geraldine, Conor and Samantha Casserly were back in their former town earlier this summer. To celebrate birthdays and reconnect with their old friends, they visited Wantagh for the first time since September 2008, and the second time since they moved to Ireland.

“It was strange,” said Conor, 19, who left Wantagh after graduating from Forest Lake Elementary School in 2006. “The place hadn’t changed that much and kind of felt like I haven’t left at all. Just everything seemed a lot bigger back then. I still felt like I was at home.”

Regarding his return to Wantagh, Seamus said, “It was emotional and exciting, like the start of a new book.”

Seamus and Geraldine were born in Ireland, and moved to New York together in the mid-1980s to look for jobs when they were 20 years old. They flourished in their new country — getting jobs, starting a family and buying a house in the suburbs.

Since returning to Ireland in the summer of 2006 to be closer to family, the Casserlys have smoothly assimilated back into Irish culture. Geraldine explained that their transition back to Ireland was quite simple. “We had to learn to slow down,” she said, “as it’s a slower pace of life.”

Seamus, an architect, is the owner and managing director of OKM Architects. Geraldine was a nurse in New York for 20 years. Now, as owner and manager of Westcare Homecare, she provides health care services to elders in several Irish counties.

Conor is studying architecture at the University of Limerick. When he isn’t engaged in his studies, he likes to play Ireland’s most popular sport, Gaelic football, simply know there as football. He plays for the Western Gaels, a club team.

Gaelic football is similar to soccer, with aspects of basketball and rugby. The game features a combination of kicking and hand-passing.