I'd lived in Ireland previously, before going to the Netherlands for a while.

In the autumn of 2001 I'd gotten a job at a restaurant in Kilkenny. The chef asked me to get a tax number. Being an American, I didn't expect one; but I had to go ask, so that I could return to the chef and say that I had tried.

Instead, I got a PPS number — a Personal Public Service number.

In the middle of 2010, my time in Ireland began to come to an end....

I worked various jobs until the summer of 2003.

That summer, I left Ireland until January of 2005.

When I returned, I visited the office of FÁS, the national employment agency.

They told me to go to the social welfare office.

I did so. To my great surprise, they put me on social-welfare payments.