AIBU to worry about elderly relative travelling to Eire without insurance?

Eire is not used on stamps etc. it’s Éire

I'd do my best to get insurance because it can make life a lot easier if there is a problem. My mother fell in Spain and broke her leg, she was taken by ambulance to hospital and admitted, then moved to a private hospital for surgery a day later, she was there for over a week and was being discharged with no mobility aids despite being non weight bearing and her house (holiday home, she lived in Ireland) having steps front and back, thankfully she had excellent insurance and was picked up from the hospital by private ambulance, taken to the airport, travelled on a normal flight but was taken on and off by medical staff, met in Dublin by private ambulance, taken to hospital where they had to remove the pin inserted into her leg and replace it due to the wrong size being used, I dread to think how she would have coped without insurance. I know it would be easier between the UK and Ireland but having the details taken care of just helps so much. On a lighter note, if anything did happen your relative and you put it up here you'd have a queue of Irish Mammies willing, able and eager to help out, she certainly wouldn't be left to manage alone, there'd be visits (with food/books/fresh clothes) organised within minutes!!!

As in Cork or Kerry?

No it’s not. There is no such place as Eire. Eire means burden in the Irish language. The Irish name for Ireland is Éire.

Absolutely understand that OP didn’t know, but it’s not altogether a bad idea to let her know before her mother travels, especially if her mother does need her family’s assistance while on holiday in Ireland.

Using the wrong name for the country unfortunately gets (some) people’s backs up. The wrong name happens a lot you see.
And there are also historical reasons for the dislike of the names OP used, but not going to go into all that now.
Ireland is good. Republic of Ireland’s fine too and can be used to avoid confusion with NI (but that’s not necessary mostly).

I hope your mother has a wonderful trip OP.
I know it must be worrying for you and hope everything goes well.

Try Holidaysafe for insurance. I am mid 60s with multiple health conditions including stage 4 cancer. I was being quoted £3-4K for a week in Europe. Someone recommended Holidaysafe to me. Got insurance for £50.

DD’s is £300 a year and she’s mid 20s. Thst was the cheapest by a long shot, most refused cover and some quotes were thousands. Dread to think what it’ll cost as she gets older. She can’t get insurance for winter sports but goes skiing in North America anyway!

I do agree OP, for Ireland I think going with a ghic card is an acceptable gamble.

Is that because she has ongoing investigations?

Tell them not to refer to it as Southern Ireland and they'll probably be grand 😉

PlayingGracesByMyself

(whispers) It’s mn, people like to grab hold of sticks that people might have gotten the wrong end of and beat people with them!!!

Sorry OP, it’s not Southern Ireland either.
It’s just Ireland. Or you can say Republic of Ireland, but the name of the country is simply Ireland. But don’t worry about it.

I think she should go if at all possible.

Fwiw I took my very unwell DM to France with only a GHIC card though we did have our own accommodation there. I figured worst case scenario and she ended up in hospital in France or dying in France that wouldn't be massively worse than her bring hospitalised or dying in the UK, though I knew we wouldn't be able to repatriate her unless she was well enough to get in a car or on a train. In those circumstances we would have additional travel costs and perhaps ongoing travel costs back and forth but the insurance would have been astronomical itself and I wasn't really sure what it was ultimately protecting me against. If she'd died in France we would have had a cremation there. Sounds morbid but really you do have to ask yourself what the worst case scenario is and if it's worse than not going.

We got her home safely in the end and she died 1 month later. I'm glad we did that final trip.

My travel insurance for a year is 150ish and Im 30 years younger!!!

What does their GP think?

I took 85 yo father to Ireland last month. A condition of me going was that he got travel insurance. He’s got various pre existing conditions … he was annoyed as it cost a lot. Ie £150, the same as his flight.

Calling the ROI Eire used to be standard on English news etc back in the 80s.

And to answer your question, get a GHIC sorted for them and warn them that they will be on their own.

Everyone knew what she meant.

My GHIC card was not accepted in Italy, in a public hospital there

Ireland is going to be different one would hope

But why are you assuming she wont get insurance, as long as she has no outstanding investigations or things wrong that are undiagnosed/waiting for tests/waiting for consultant appointments for unknown things, she will get insurance.

An ex partner of mine who was Irish used to say Eire so not sure why people are jumping on that

Don't worry about it. I knew what you meant.

We use ROI at work, but I think you are being unfair to have a go at the OP who I feel is not being deliberately ignorant. I think she genuinely wasn't sure which name to use.

Free State, for the win!

Definitely not being unreasonable, it cost £60k to get my DW medically repatriated from Spain, although the GHIC card covered the hospital bill, I not sure how we would of got home without insurance.