Moving to Ireland - lots of questions

[ThatchersCold]

I’ve massively got the fear about what is going to happen in the near future with Brexit in the U.K.

I have Irish heritage (grandparents) and so am going to apply for an Irish passport. My DM has had an Irish passport for about 20 years and she is putting her house on the market and is thinking about moving to Ireland. I am strongly considering moving there too, but am trying to work out if it would be feasible.

I don’t think my dc would be entitled to Irish passports as my DM was not born there, is that right? If so, what kind of rights would they have to live in Ireland, particularly when they become adults?

My eldest dd is disabled which impacts how much I can work, so I would need to claim benefits. I am self employed but don’t earn that much, so currently receive working tax credits, child tax credits, carers allowance, child benefit, housing benefit and my daughter gets DLA. I’ve no idea what my/her entitlement to welfare would be in Ireland. Because of my daughter’s disability I need to be sure I’d be able to make ends meet.

also any other information about the cost of living, healthcare, employment, schools etc would be useful. My DM is planning to move to somewhere around Wexford so would probably be that area. My dc are 8 and 14. I don’t know if this a bonkers idea or whether I could actually do it. Would be a scary thing to do as I actually really like my life here but I’m so worried about what the future holds here, particularly for the dc.

some of us are trying to!

AnEPleaseBob - I did get that some are trying to promote Ireland as a place to move to and I also get that some are trying to be real and not give the OP false expectations of the area she is thinking of moving to.
Anyway, I think Ireland is great and I love living here!

Not wishing to derail thread but could I please ask if it's common practice for schools/day care's/crèches etc to be nut free zones?

Very common. All my kids schools and creches have been nut free zones. Not secondary though, as far as I know.

Thanks anE

As an Irish person, reading these posts on an UK hosted site, I feel we're not exactly selling the best of Ireland.

As an Irish person, I am mindful of the fact that the OP is a real person, with a real decision to make, and a real daughter who has real special needs. I don't think "selling" her a false idea of life in Ireland is doing anyone any favors. She is not a US Multinational thinking about setting up in Ireland and providing possible employment, she is a woman who is trying to provide the best life she can for her family.

Selling her your own personal experience as being indicative as the whole country is not doing her any favours. Neither is people giving her completely inaccurate information.

I agree choli. In the OPs case, and any others reading it and looking at the breakdown of figures, will probably see at a glance that Irish social welfare is more generous than the UK. But my points were that if you delve into the cost of living as a comparison and how easy it is that get by, in transport, health, education, community respects, it may not be a better quality of life after all.

Agreed choli and hetty. The OP is an economic migrant, not someone looking for nice B and Bs on the Wild Atlantic Way. This isn’t a thread sponsored by Bórd Fáilte.

Agreeing, on the other hand, with mathanxiety and other posters about rural Ireland being far more diverse in types of people, if not ethnicities, than rural England. I’m from rural Cork and live in rural England. In my immediate vicinity at home there were long-settled and well-integrated Americans, French, Germans, Dutch, South Africans and English people, and more recently a scattering of Eastern Europeans. In my English village, DH and I are the only foreigners for miles around.

OP doesn't count as a migrant at all, given that movement within the common travel area is treated as home turf. Plus she'll be a citizen anyway.

Definitely true on rural Ireland being way more diverse than rural England. And better integrated, ime.

Wexford has some lovely beaches and is the driest part of the UK.

Bad enough when people from other countries do this without Irish people doing it as well.

You clearly don't understand the Irish humour if you think us saying 'blow in' is a negative term! 😂

You clearly don't understand the Irish humour if you think us saying 'blow in' is a negative term!

I understand it all right. My family moved to the village where my mother was born and raised when I was 12. I heard that used as an insult to me on practically a daily basis for 5 years, and it was not done in good humor. It was done in a very nasty way to both me and my best friend, who was also a "blow in".

That doesn't mean the term is negative. It means you were bullied by a nasty person.

this thread seems to have fairly snippy views on back to school in Ireland and may be happy to share their less than rosy views

Also as a pp said , special needs assistance is not what it might be in the UK. I have an Irish friend abroad who cannot move home because the care she receives for her child is so superior to anything she could get here. We are just a bit behind some countries in that respect.

Ok, Ireland recce booked for early October, with my DM. Have been passing on some of the concerns raised in this thread and she’s determined to prove to me that they are not true! Will be interesting to see Ireland for myself as an adult.

Good luck, OP. Do your research.

Wexford has some lovely beaches and is the driest part of the UK what the actual fuck did I just read???

@Returnofthesmileybar I really hope they were taking the piss surely the majority aren't that thick. Like when all the English newspapers refer to Katie Taylor as British when she gets mentioned big.

Have a good trip, let us know what you think.

I would certainly be prepared to move to Ireland if the right job came up.

It means you were bullied by a nasty person.

It must mean there were a lot of nasty people in that village.

On the multi-cultural front, it's true it's way more diverse than it used to be but we are a multi-cultural family (white Irish, asian, black caribbean in various proportions) and while we haven't had any negativity we do stand out a fair bit in our part of south Dublin. DS was the only non-white child at his primary school when he started. He's never been bothered by it, partly because he's incredibly thick-skinned but also because he can pass for white unless he catches the sun, but DD really feels different and she already wants to go back to London to go to university as she just blends into the crowd there. It's fine, I'm not saying it's bad, but it's not the incredible variety and ubiquity of cultures that we had in London.