Clancys reign in Spain!

A Galway family who emigrated to Spain five years ago to escape the housing crisis and set up an English language school are recruiting Irish people to their adopted home to learn Spanish.

Eoin and Ingrid Clancy had been renting a house in Knocknacarra and teaching English to foreign students. But by the time their second daughter Lily was born, the prospects for their family were bleak.

“Many people talk about the housing crisis in Galway as just another one of Ireland´s many problems when in fact it is – by far – the most destructive and frightening circumstance for thousands of hard-working families in Ireland,” said Eoin.

“Spain is the antithesis of Ireland in so many ways and we had always wanted to live there but I suppose we were afraid of the language barrier and upsetting our eldest daughter, Sophia.

“But having lived in this crisis for over six years – and realising that the situation was only going to get worse – my wife and I searched and searched for the best place in Spain to settle and bring up our family before Sophia turned twelve.”

As well as teaching hundreds of Spanish students over 10 years, the couple had hosted many of them in their home and had built up contacts in Spain.

After doing their research, they decided to settle in the port city of La Coruña in the Galicia region of northwest Spain.

Within a year the pair had set up an English academy, called Clancy’s English or Clancyenglish.es, which now has 120 students, aged from three to 80.

“Being qualified, professional native English teachers, we very quickly became successful, which was what we had expected. What we did not expect was the response from all our former students from around the world,” Eoin stated.

“Thanks to social media, we were immediately inundated with requests to come to La Coruña to learn Spanish. So, once again we became a host family, but this time for Spanish language learners.”

As a result, they have now set up Spanish School Coruña, catering for students who want to learn Spanish.

They offer courses for secondary students in Ireland and Britain studying Spanish at second and third level, as well as people who simply want to learn one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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