To think that life seems better in rep of ireland?

[PunnyOliveTurtle]

ok...hear me out...My DM is Irish and she has not been home in a good few years, I haven't been over since I was 15, I'm early 40's now. So i decided to bring her over to visit her sisters as they are all getting older...late 60s/early 70's.

I had a wonderful time. I caught up with all of my cousins...and here is where I noticed the divide...they all have gorgeous homes and I mean stunning! Some in the country, some in the town, all fab new builds or gutted and updated old houses. A couple in new housing estates which were FAB!!
One of my cousins has just bought a new home...her DH is driving a 2025 car, they are off on hols next week. I asked her if she won the lotto and she laughed saying she wished, savings are now depleted and she was "broke". I know she has no credit cards because she metioned that she didn't have one when we wer talking about booking dinner somewhere and they wanted to take a deposit.

They all have great jobs...a lot of them are teachers...like i was. But they are no where near as stressed as I was. They are on holidays already and have been with a few weeks.Some are nurses but work part time in private hospitals, others work in big pharma companies, banking etc.Their dh's also have great jobs, engineers, managers in tech/pharma, one owns a construction company, one is a farmer.
All and I mean ALL of their DC who are of uni age are in university...no student loans. They have a grant scheme apparently. None of my cousins themselves have student loans...they are in 30's to mid 50's. (Can you tell we had an in depth discussion on uni and fees etc!)
Their DC aged 15+ all have summer jobs...in a local chippy, local cafe, one on a farm etc. My 18 yr old cant get a job at all!!

Everything just seemed so positive there...and im sure its not but I cant put my finger on it...it really got me.
I'm struggling most months...this trip was part on credit card. DD looking to start uni and i dont know how I'm going to help her... I know they say dont compare and I know there must be those struggling in Ireland too but there seemed to be A LOT more money being thrown around.

Hard disagree wrt your assertions about the cause of better infrastructure.

I grew up in Ireland in the days before motorways. It took many, many hours to drive from Dublin to Galway or Mayo or even to towns in the south east. I left at the point where they were laying the foundations for motorways, building the infrastructure that brought the internet to Ireland, and educational leaders were brainstorming the best approach to education to enable Irish students to take advantage of the tech that was forecast to change the world.

The EEC (later the EU) was crucial in providing funds to build - and maintain - the infrastructure. It was also crucial in providing markets for Irish exports both within the EU and in countries and blocs the EU has trade agreements with, thus enabling the Irish economy to grow to the point where development can be home grown.

I understood. The racists are very loud, they generally behave inappropriately in most areas of their life.
I heard a drug addict shouting about immigration on public transport, the government spending OUR taxes, giving them everything, yet, he'll take his 220 unemployment payment, bus pass, medical card and other benefits, not contributing a dot to society.

Googling ten things to do in Dublin will clearly yield ten things to do in Dublin...

My point is that there's not 10 things to fill up that list...

And in Donegal the houses are all falling down with the mica.

And in the UK they’re burning down and worthless with the unsafe cladding… no one country is perfect, like Ireland, the UK certainly isn’t either.

I think you've got a wee bit of 'grass is greener' syndrome but having lived in Scotland-Ireland-England one after the other, they all have their positives and negatives. I do know there are some housing issues, especially around Dublin, since I lived there. Dublin is such a great city that I had lived there for a good while before I really started noticing the normal kinda of city issues we have all over the UK. There are marked class divides also. I lived in the northside and worked in the southside and it was very clear. There are absolutely people struggling just like anywhere.

One thing that stuck in my mind and I did find was that the Irish are friendly but hard to make friends of. Almost none of the group I ended up part of was an actual Dubliner - we were all from Scotland, the north, Poland etc. Although there was a fair bit of political bonding 🙃It was one of the best times of my life and the Irish are cracking people. One of my big regrets is not moving back there when I had the chance but by that point I would have struggled to afford it as the housing situation had changed drastically.

There's loads to do in Dublin, not just touristy Guinness stuff.

Huge difference between the two. With mica they fall down, with the cladding the houses are only vulnerable if a fire breaks out. considering this is rare then it's totally different and the mica is much worse.

Also from Dublin, live in london and come home often. I'm in Dublin right now.

Recent visits I:

• went for a swim in Dublin bay
• went on a mud runs and hikes in Dublin mountains
• looked at Viking and bog man exhibits at national museum
• went to the Irish tenement museum
• went on the Glasnevin Cemetery tour
• went to Howth for stunning seafood and and walked over Howth Head
• ate out in countless nice and affordable restaurants around Parnell and Capel St
• went for drinks in lovely pubs and wine bars.

Haven't been to a gig here in recent months but have friends and family who are at gigs, theatre weekly.

Sounds like a lovely trip! Anyone claiming there ‘isn’t much to do’ in Dublin or Ireland must have a very limited imagination and little to no motivation.

Lots of good observations pro and con here, but am staggered by those giving out about public transport in Dublin.

i commute all around Dublin every day and regularly commute by train to Louth, Westmeath, Galway, Mayo,cork.

I thought the train service recently to Wexford was terribly slow but have colleagues who commute by bus daily. All the above is frequent and so cheap. In the last 3 years I had one train later than 10 mins. Buses are frequent and fast.

It’s the principle behind it…also both worthless, and people are losing their homes, their investments, etc.

Oh yeah? Any examples? (I'm from Dublin)

Or they're used to living in a bigger city, and don't count "going for a nice walk" as something to do.

Or it might be down to stage of life/different interests. The point many posters are making is about quality of life- if you can enjoy the simple everyday things you are likely to have a better quality of life.

You must not have any neurodiversity, as I said I had a few things against me as a child, not just one disadvantage. I studied art back then so actually did need to interview, I passed it but I had to do a PLC first as I didn’t get enough points in science / maths etc. to go straight onto a degree, maybe that’s changed now, I’m 38, so I’d imagine it has. The A-level system
in the UK would have suited me better as I could have just focused on the subjects I was good at to get me into uni, I come across better in interviews than on paper and still do.

I’m Irish and have lived in Canada and also the UK so have done some observing over time. I’m so out of that culture that it’s a real shock to me when I go back to visit, I remember my aunt visiting me here in the UK, someone said ‘excuse me, please’ as she was in their way and she thought the person for rude. In Ireland you say sorry if someone is in your way or if you want their attention, I’ve stopped doing that now because if I said that here, people wouldn’t know what I was on about.

If you look through the thread, I think a lot of posters quite wealthy or at least relatively ( buying houses for 1m and living in Dun laoghaire) and probably had quite comfortable lives growing up.l so they have limited knowledge of the disadvanted communities in Ireland. I just got back from visiting MIL where the kids across the road were being visited by social services and the whole road is extremely run down, police visiting regularly etc. These kids will likely be very lucky to complete the junior cert never mind the leaving cert and if a small minority of them should be ambitious/ motivated like I was, there really isn’t much support or adjustments for them. If they don’t get the points to get them out of poverty. they are rather screwed.

I think many people don't realise how bad Ireland was in the relatively recent past and the way the country was turned around by the EU. Up until the 80s Ireland was a effectively a third world country still suffering from the ongoing effects of occupation and the devastating of the population from British rule. Many areas didn't have electricity and indoor plumbing still (my family home still had a hand dug thunderbox for a toilet until well into the 70s.
The one thing I will say is that the government investment strategy in the first Celtic tiger book was remarkable and really turned the country around 180 with it's focus on bringing in business and investing in education.

Cost of living in Ireland is a massive push towards the younger people emigrating. Lots of young professionals are now moving up across the border for cheaper housing in the north, as they cannot afford to buy in Ireland. Have a look at Dublin house prices, absolutely shocking!

Just to note the asking price for houses for sale in Dublin is nowhere near what they will be sold for! You can add about €70,000 or €80,000 on top of it for the actual price they will be sold for. Bidding wars. Any new developments in the commuter belt around Dublin have people camping out to be in with a chance to get one of the houses. And many of these houses are being bought by Indians working in the tech industry.

This is probably true. There are some things better here, and some things better there, that's how it is when you compare countries both in the west. I'm Irish, I like my life here, but don't feel any need to claim it's better than the UK. Or any other European country.

Multiple art galleries and museums, theatre, cinema. The beach, sea swimming, boat trips, coastal walks. Sport. Cafes, restaurants and pubs. Etc

I grew up in Ireland and live in the UK now. Both places have their charms and I think I would prefer to live in Ireland.

I agree with posters saying that there is racism in Ireland - some people are small minded and the Irish aren't immune to this. My friend was in a car accident in Dublin where a black man bumped into the back of her and she was shocked that the man pulled his hood up to cover his skin and told her that people would shout at him if they saw him - and then she hear loads of people passing in their cars shouting racist abuse at him.

Things do seem to be more laid back in Ireland. For example, I would rarely show up somewhere in the UK without having a booking but in Ireland my family laugh at me when I suggest we need to and tell me that England is rubbing off on me.

I like the anonymity of living in the UK but it comes with a price of potential isolation.