To seriously recommend Ireland

New Zealand on the other hand....😂genuinely yet to meet an unpleasant New Zealander but I'm sure they do exist!

I've met some absolutely delightful Irish people. And some deeply unpleasant, very racist Irish people. Just like any other nationality! Ireland is gorgeous and I do love it there but I wouldn't move on the romantic premise of everyone there being a saint...

Also two women the pp met... 30ish years ago.

🫠

Oh yes. As an Irish person I loved New Zealand so much. It's just stunning. OP you may be slightly biased because you went to the best part of the country, the sunny South East!

I live here in the far south west and it is truly wonderful. 😊

if you are judging an entire population of people based on two bitchy women you worked with that says more about you than anything else

When I went to Dublin someone nicked my coat.

Having spent every wretched summer in Ireland from 0-16, I will quite happily never set foot in the place ever again.

It’s a shame, but I’ve been entirely put off.

You might want to take Cornwall out of that. It’s pretty shite and some of the locals are pricks.

That should say I see your Ireland and I raise you New Zealand

Making judgments about the whole population of Ireland based on the relatively tiny number of scum bags who were responsible for those riots would be like judging the whole of England in the eighties based on the behaviour of football hooligans.

I am Irish, born and bred, and left Ireland for a reason. 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 don't like saying this because it sounds like i have a 'looking down my nose' on my home country complex, but I can't help it. If I stay for longer than 3 weeks I feel a dark cloud looming over me and feel my personality changing, in a way I do not like.

OP I’ll your beautiful Ireland and I raise you New Zealand….

Ireland and the UK nations all have incredibly scenic spots, countryside villages and mostly nice enough people. It’s about the area you choose to live in. I think we are all lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world.

Rural Ireland is kind of similar to rural England, but without the overcrowding. English people love rural Ireland because it reminds them of what rural England used to be like. I remember saying “isn’t it quiet” to my partner, but then thinking “hang on… this is normality. This is what the countryside is supposed to be like. It’s rural Essex, with its endless housing estates and country lanes clogged with traffic, that’s abnormal.”

Not sure where you were but Dublin has gotten worse. I think the trouble with being a tourist somewhere is that you sometimes go places at times local people wouldn’t. I’m Irish and would avoid parts of Dublin city centre especially. What you witnessed sounds absolutely horrific! I’ve lived in Ireland all my life and have never witnessed anything like that thankfully.

With a population of circa 7 million on the island it is unfortunate that you witnessed this but the rest of us are not violent thugs who go around battering each other.

Eek 🫨

Sounds lovely.

Ah my experience was different. Saw a man having the shit beaten out of him in the street. I was kneeling beside him and was covered in blood. I live somewhere rough in UK and it was the worst violence I've witnessed.

Sounds wonderful but I am so tired of rain. I feel like it’s been raining non stop for a year. I want to find a corner of UK/Britain with the lowest average rainfall. I want to see tumbleweed in the garden instead of puddles 😁

Some of the responses are gas.

Irish living in Ireland for about 90% of my life cos I did actually escape and live in other countries but always came back to the sanctuary of home. Would not raise my kids anywhere else to be honest.

I agree with pps that you cant generalise about any country, we all have the good the bad and the ugly, but one thing i will say is that Irish friendliness is not fake, Irish people are generally friendly and genuinely interested in other people. They might not necessarily want to 'become friends' with you, that's a whole other thing. And I think the 'notions' thing is misunderstood, there is nothing wrong with bettering yourself, its forgetting where you came from and looking down on others that's frowned on.

I m not irish but married an irish man who I have met in the UK. We lived for 15yrs together in the UK and move back to Dublin nesrly 9yrs ago. When we oeft the UK he had lived there longer than he ever loved in Ireland.

as much as I love London, i dont miss living there. I love that it is now a holiday destination as we still have many friends there.

ireland, and especially Dublin, is so relaxing and it s in Europe which is very important for me as I am a hard Remain.

iriah people are lovely, life is easier and the education is better. And no 11+. Mountains are easy reach and so is the sea. And crossing dublin takes 20mins with no traffic. Unlike london there are olenty of times with no traffic.

caveat - public transport is mainly buses and hardly no public transport to the airport.

i highly recommend an irish life