IF YOU HAPPEN to drive through Balbriggan, towards the M1, on your morning commute — chances are you’ll be familiar with the figure of Sean Moroney.

The 36-year-old returned emigrant has been walking the roadside each rush-hour morning since Monday, in the hope that someone will see his homemade sign, and hire him for work.

Source: Robert Purfield

“People did say to me it would be embarrassing standing at roundabout with a sign,” Moroney told TheJournal.ie

In my opinion, it’s even more embarrassing going down to the Post Office to collect the dole. I’m embarrassed every time I go in there.

The Balbriggan man returned to his home town two years ago, after spending eight-and-a-half years in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was employed by a moving company — working his way up from casual labourer to become manager of the firm.

“I wanted to settle down at home, so I came back… I didn’t realise it was as bad as it was.

Coming back to Ireland is probably the sorriest thing I’ve ever done… It was a rude awakening.

As well as sending out ‘hundreds’ of CVs, Moroney has also completed a FÁS course in business management.

He was due to start another course, in computing, in the last few weeks. However, the start date has now been postponed until February — and Moroney says the idea for his roadside campaign came to him as he lay awake one night.

It hasn’t been as bad as he thought…

“People have been great… A lot of cars have been beeping at me. People have been stopping and giving their cards, saying if anything came up they’d call me.

“They’ve even been dropping off coffee, believer it or not. A lot of people have texted too — saying ‘hang in there’… One said ‘you’ve balls of steel’.

It was embarrassing “for around the first hour”.

But it feels great to be doing something.

Moroney said he was willing to do anything — full- or part-time, “within reason”.

“I’m a hard worker — a genuine, honest, hardworking guy. Before this, I’ve never been out of work in my life.”

As Moroney observed:

The support is great — but beeping cars won’t pay the bills.

So if he sounds like a man you’d like working for you — well, the number’s on the sign…

First posted at 5pm