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.

You could try visiting or living abroad? It might broaden your horizons. You seen genuinely very limited in experience with these naive questions.

So you can't answer. Got it.

You're telling me you really believe that Ireland is not more racist than the UK right now?

Incorrect. It's just exhausting educating someone who wants to cling to a little rock and never visit anywhere else. You have some responsibility to broaden your own horizons, you know! I've never met a bunch of people so proud to have tiny horizons.

"SHUR WHAT MORE COULD LONDON OFFER THAN ARVA, EH? HAVEN'T WE GOT THREE PUBS AND A CENTRA?"

Not recent, over 25 years, all moving along nicely, mass immigration is relatively recent to Ireland.

Racism has increased vastly since the rise in 2022. It is disturbing, honestly it is not the majority, it is mostly thugs involved.

We have so many different nationalities here whose children have Irish accents.

Citizens do have concerns about the level of immigration, this includes Citizens from all over the world that live here, not just white Irish people, they're having similar problems with housing, health care, rising costs, they worry about their DC future.

None of the above should give way to racist people that are big mouths.

There are similar protests and push backs all over Europe at the moment.

Oh please, you know what you were asked. And you do not appear to be able to answer it.

Yes that is what I'm telling you

They're going to steal all the potatoes again ! Or of course they could forget that Ireland is part of the EU and that they'll have to deal with the EU and not Dublin.

Well said. Racist groups have mushroomed since COVID and the Ukraine War. Plenty of involvement from British troublemakers , including Loyalists from Belfast like Mark Sinclair and Jim Dowson. And needless to say Tommy ' Ten Names ' Robinson. Then our own thugs like Rapey Mc Cokehead , the clapped out boxer.

But these problems have a similar root in the UK - housing shortage. Government in UK and Ireland have to get a grip on this. It means upsetting private interest groups. So be it.Just build houses ya thickos

Are questions so hard for you to answer that you have to try and personally attack posters instead of answering?

I'm actually just back from the UK. I found, despite threads on here, a busy main street with good choice in shops, a Gregg's (!), a lot of takeaways (we couldn't find a decent restaurant where we were staying), very rundown areas - paths full of weeds and cigarette butts. Rats looking at us from the parks. No doubt you get these in a lot of urban areas.

But I didn't find anything too exciting in that city - a few small museums, some climbing walls, a park.

Anyway, I've had enough of the personal attacks so will be unfollowing this thread now. Most people we met in the UK were pleasant and mannerly.

^you know! I've never met a bunch of people so proud to have tiny horizons.^
Indeed @WallTree we're a unique bunch of leprechaun lovers. ☘️

Great comment. I hope leaders in UK and Ireland eventually wake up to the housing crises.

If you look at the results of the most recent general election in Ireland you will see that not one far right anti emigrant candidate got elected, you can't say the same for the UK.

Just build houses ya thickos

I want to just walk round the Dail with this on a big placard. I appreciate the house building is not easy, but it is so fundamental that they should be ploughing every available ounce of resource into it.

Apologies I haven’t RTFT but I fully agree with the OP.
I relocated from London back to Ireland having lived in London for ~25 years. Quality of life here, especially for children, is so much better. Teaching is still a sought after and therefore respected (and relatively
well paid) profession and I strongly believe this respect filters into the classroom. The schooling system itself is so less pressured on kids, with children staying in primary school at least a year longer, no GCSE equivalent (junior cert does not impact your uni offers), and the transition year programme is fantastic and exposes teens to valuable life experiences. We genuinely believe our London-raised kids get to be kids for longer now that we have moved here.
People in “normal” jobs live in lovely homes here from what I have seen, and overseas holidays seem to be for everyone. I’m still quite stunned at how much better the QoL is, but above all else, there is a positivity that hasn’t been overly present in London/UK, in my experience, since the early 2000s. We would never move back even though we lived in a lovely leafy well-to-do part of London. I do still love London, and expect my kids will also want to live there as young adults, but for family life we are in a better place now.

Where in Ireland are you living now?

Yes but they've been over subscribed since the 80s tbh

Wowsers.

It's interesting to me that when Ireland is demonstrably worse than the UK on some measure (e.g. forestation), it's just a tiny difference, it makes no odds. But when Ireland is on a par with the UK, Ireland is way better! For example, several people on here have said that education is better in Ireland than in England. Well, PISA has us scoring the exact same on maths and within 1 point of each other on science, but Ireland is "way better", apparently. SMH.

How are your measuring racism in the two countries?

How are you?

PISA scores are based on 15 Year Olds.

The difference in Ireland is that all those 15 year olds stay on in school for another 3-4 years and most will then continue on to 3rd level. And they will come out of 3rd level mostly debt free.

Checking Google for PISA scores.
Ireland is 12th in Maths and Science and 2nd in Reading.

UK is 14th in Maths, 15th in Science and 13th in Reading.
The points difference is very close between both countries for Maths and Science.
Overall Ireland is 8th, and UK is 13th.

So yes, Ireland does better in Education.

You first. You are insisting Ireland is more racist.
I am unsure.
There are racist elements but as someone mentioned above, the Irish are not electing far right TDs.

This is just EU countries, so the UK isn't included, but Ireland does not fare well:

https://www.euronews.com/2023/10/25/shocking-levels-of-racism-rising-in-europe-finds-report

WallTree, why are you so triggered by this thread?

Much of the discussion is subjective and a matter of opinion. Why is it bothering you so much?