Tanya Sweeney: When I moved to London in 1997 it swallowed me whole and spat me out – for today’s Irish twentysomethings it’s so much easier

I was halfway down the street when I realised I’d been here before. I was on a quiet walkway, just behind Victoria station, and as soon as I saw the corner pub, the memory pieced itself back together. Nearly 30 years previously, I had taken a live-in bar job in this very pub, but had only lasted one night. The tiny room upstairs had no TV, and a window that looked out onto a filthy brick wall.