To seriously recommend Ireland

Galway is in the West of Ireland! Or the Republic of Ireland.

But Belfast is a different country! It’s not Ireland!

But doesn’t New Zealand have better weather?

Where was it very clean? I live in Ireland so I’m just curious what part you considered to be very clean?

Northern Ireland I think, so the UK.

some parts of Ireland are now ranked the most dangerous place to be a woman in Europe due to the high rates of homicide against women.

What?
Where?

It’s just a country. I’m from there. It’s no better or worse than anywhere else but there is a culture that is a bit different. Say from England or wherever.

My cousin who’s from Ireland but lives in the UK now says this is very true (thankfully imho 😅)

Absolutely love life here and wouldn't go anywhere else. The weather doesn't bother me. BUT you guys have no idea how unbelievably privileged you are with NHS. It's about €60 upwards to see a GP. Children under 7 ( I think) are free now but that's relatively new, when ds was born he cost the same as an adult from 6 weeks old. My family had a lot of dental issues and at one point our dental bills were second to our mortgage, literally 1000s every year. We pay about 3k a year for private health insurance, but that doesn't include consultant fees which could be 250 for a first visit. There is of course the public health system option but you could be waiting literally years for surgery if something goes wrong. My one and only experience of the public system was a visit to A&E after a fall and I was told a Dr would see me in 13 hours to decide if I needed to get an X ray, which would put me back of the X ray queue. After 8 hours of pain I left and went to a private clinic the next day for a 150 or so. I can afford this but many can't. That's just a snap shot of reality of life as opposed to a holiday.

From a cultural perspective I love it. The scumbags/ pervs/ racists exist as they do everywhere, but I believe in a smaller proportion to most places I've been. It's a friendly place and if you have enough money a wonderful place to raise a family.

And still the women are not "blissfully relaxed".

That's okay. We don't want you.

Dun laoighaire is literally the poshest place you could possibly live in Ireland. I wouldn’t call it “normal” or “mixed”

'I never miss it. I go home regularly enough to see family, but treat it like a holiday and visit the nice bits. Ultimately I feel very suffocated when I go home'

I feel the same @Icelap . I was born and brought up there, left when I was 20. Been in the UK for 26 years and it's definitely home to me. There are things I enjoy about visiting Ireland but I have no desire to live there and always happy to get back home

Would you care to elaborate?

Absolutely .

And they both have loads of sheep!

Think Ireland could learn from NZ in the way they have capitalized their land scape for outdoor activities (rafting, kayaking, zorbing etc) . It's just fab .

I wasn't. I was just pointing out that it isn't all lovely and Oirish like the OP has seen on holiday in the countryside.

I used to live in Dun Laoghaire. It's a pretty normal, mixed place, no different from a large town in the UK. Has its ups and downs. The women there are not "blissfully relaxed", in general 😆

@Martymcfly24 The countries have much in common. Green, rainfall, great fresh food, uber friendly people who go out of their way to help tourists, large empty spaces and big skies, aptitude for rugby. While Ireland has Guinness, NZ has wine. And I would say the scenery is more spectacular.

Agree, visited Belfast for the first time this year, and was blown away by the architecture and the warmth of the people

Where is it in Ireland that is rated the most dangerous place to be a woman in Europe?

Not being smart just genuinely surprised at that statistic.

It depends whether you’re living in Ireland or visiting Ireland .I’ve done both and they’re completely different.
I lived on the west coast for a few years in the 2000’s and met some lovely people though I would disagree with people who say we have the same culture- we really don’t. However I also met some very racist people who snubbed me as an English unmarried mother.

As an Irish woman I definitely don’t find it blissfully relaxing here in Ireland. Give me a glass of wine sitting by the seaside in Italy or Spain any day.. I have to say though I would imagine a lot of people in the uk don’t have Ireland on their “bucket list” for the same reason a lot of people in Ireland don’t have the uk on theirs.. same shite weather , similar scenery in a lot of places , similar culture. I like visiting the uk but It just doesn’t seem that exotic to me I guess.

On a seperate note I don't think this is the case, many towns and cities are very dog friendly, particularly in the south like Galway.

I think this is interesting and not to burst your bubble op, but some parts of Ireland are now ranked the most dangerous place to be a woman in Europe due to the high rates of homicide against women.

I agree it's a beautiful and wonderful part of the world but let's not pretend it's all sunshine and rainbows. Women in particular have been through a lengthy traumatic history of horrors and injustices.

I've never been and really fancied doing a road trip for a while but someone (irish) told me that there are very few dog friendly pubs/cafes/ hotels in Ireland unlike England where there are loads and i was going to take my dog so this has put me off although no idea if it's even true!