Attorney Sean Kiely had a happy childhood growing up in Waterford, on the southern coast of Ireland. But he says where he is from, emigration to America or another country, is an option people always consider. After he finished college, he decided it was the right next step for him.
Seven years later, he says he wants to stay here forever.
How do Ireland and America Compare?
“It’s very similar to America,” Kiely says about growing up in Ireland.
He says the Irish-American population in cities on the east coast of the United States and specifically in Boston, have done a good job of bringing a lot of the traditions to their new country.
“A sense of family, sense of loyalty to your friends, strong work ethic and trying to do your best for your children, a lot of those have been imported,” he says.
“I’ve talked to relatives who emigrated in the 50s or 60s, they grew up in a very different Ireland. It was a lot poorer, there wasn’t even the right to a free middle school or high school education,” he says. “When I moved to America, the culture shock wasn’t as big as generations prior to me.”
Sean Kiely says when he was growing up, St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland was a family holiday that involved a lot of relaxed celebrating, perhaps going to a Catholic Mass, but mostly it was about spending time together and celebrating Irish heritage.
He says it’s different in America because the people involved have a different history to celebrate.
“Those Irish from decades or centuries ago that came here, built America,” he says. “It was on their backs that a lot of the great cities were built.”
“In America, St. Patrick’s Day is a great day that gives Irish-Americans the opportunity to be proud of their identity and their background. It is evident that Irish-Americans take great pride in their Irish heritage. Alternatively, in Ireland, because there isn’t as much reason for people to celebrate their Irishness, it is hard for those people to understand the Irish-American celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. The Irish culture in America is strong, and it doesn’t discriminate between generations. We are all proud to be Irish.”
Why Did Kiely Come to America?
Growing up, Kiely says the American culture was all around him. The same TV shows that we watch here were on TV there. The movies we watched were shown there. The same gadgets we played with were available there. So he always saw the move as a possibility.
“There was a lot of influence of American culture in Ireland at the time,” he says. “America as a country, I was always fascinated by it.”
Standards of living in Ireland were pretty similar to the middle class lifestyle in America, so he said it wasn’t a move of necessity as much as something he just felt was the right decision for him.
Kiely’s New York Years
Kiely first moved to New York City, where he worked for five years for a law firm where he practiced family law. However, there were drawbacks.
Kiely says family law can be difficult because there really aren’t happy outcomes when families are splitting apart, and kids are often caught in the middle. In addition, cases are tried before a judge, instead of a jury, which he said isn’t what he preferred. Over time he decided to change his primary focus to personal injury.
“This type of law allowed me to do what I wanted to do, what I was trained to do as a barrister in Ireland, which was try cases before a jury and still get to represent everyday normal people,” he says.
Joining Andy Abraham’s Team at Keches Law
After years in New York, Kiely tried a case representing a personal injury victim, and discovered that was the direction he wanted his career to take.
When the opportunity to come to Keches Law was presented to Kiely, he took it. Two years ago, Kiely moved to Massachusetts to join Keches Law Partner Andy Abraham’s team that mostly handles brain injury cases.
Kiely says he loves that in his job he gets to fight for people who have had the rug pulled out from under them and need help to get back on their feet, in particular, he says he sees eye to eye with immigrant clients.
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“They’re at more of a disadvantage because they don’t oftentimes speak English fluently, or they don’t have qualifications, or they can’t retrain to a different area,” he says. “It’s my job to fight for them with the same intensity that I would like someone to fight for me if my ability to work was taken from me or my ability to provide for myself or a family was taken away.”
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Kiely Wants to Become an American Citizen
Kiely described how the immigration process is long and ongoing for him, and that he wants to become an American citizen one day.
“Right now I’m in the process of hopefully getting my green card,” he says. “After you get your green card, you can wait around 3 to 5 years to become a citizen.”
He says it’s ironic how he can get up in front of a court and represent someone, but he can’t vote. But he says he does want to become an American citizen one day and he plans on staying in America.
“It just takes time,” he says.
He says while he misses his family, and knows living in America means he misses out on some things that happen in Ireland, he loves his day to day life in the USA. He has a great affinity for American culture and his American friends, has built an incredible career, and plans on staying for years to come.
“Ireland is a great country…I can go and get respite whenever I need to,” he says, “but I’m in the US for the long term.”
