Northern Ireland

[bassiann]

Beautiful country, house prices appear to be exceptionally cheaper than GB, same currency, language, why do people not want to move there?

AIBU - it’s a shithole
YNBU - I would love to move

It is the UK, presumably your comparison is with GB. I imagine it isn’t too different from remote parts of Scotland.

I live over the border, not too far away and work in Dublin. Significantly cheaper than where I am living and am giving thought to making a move to Belfast in the near future.

Sorry that should have read backward compared to rest of the UK 😁

The place itself is wonderful, scenery, things to do and places to go etc property prices are reasonable.
NHS is very much hit and miss, excellent for children and adolescents and terrible for adults overall.
SEN provision is atrocious, mainstream education is overall good apart from this as long as no issues arise.
People are friendly but there is also a problem, certain areas are very much of a different way of thinking about things and slow to embrace anyone or anything different. There’s also a lot more of a religious “pushiness” in schools and a lack of tolerance in general. People are also generally very nosy. However the sense of humour here is wicked and we definitely make the best of it.

I moved here 10 years ago. My husband is from here. Lovely community, children go to a lovely school, enjoy it alot. Renting was so much cheaper than England too. Doctors are wonderful, no issues with appointments. Dentist is brilliant. Weather doesn’t bother me as I hate summer 🥵 I do miss my family (we visit as much as we can) but glad we chose to bring our children up here.

It's sounds like that may be something specific to your family and where they live. My kids (integrated) school has kids from all over the world, English accents are very common and no one appears to feel uncomfortable with them. Drugs and gangs are part of life in every part of the UK.and Ireland but I am pretty confident NI rates of violent crime are generally lower and our cities safer than elsewhere in GB.
Waiting lists may be longer in many areas but the health service is not 'non-functional' I have had an exceptional experience with kids born in NI hospitals (consultant lead care, private rooms). Government isn't ideal but the UK revolving door of prime Ministers, racists and billionaires corrupting democracy is hardly a shining example. It is as if we waited for our politicians to grow up and become like yours and instead you adopted the worst aspects of our approach.
I would love to see some stats on congenital disability to back that up, most I can find relates to issues in English cities with a prevalence for cousin marriage.
As we would say here you don't half talk some shite.

We got a letter the other day from children's ENT outpatients, DD has been on the waiting list since before COVID and apparently it will be at least another two years before she is seen (by which time she will be an adult and probably go to the bottom of the adult waiting list).

I'm English, lived in NI 20 years, moved there from London to school the kids. Happy here but feel like the government have no interest in promoting NI , First Minister only interested in border poll and rest of stormont seem to squabble and squander. Its such a shame as most people here are lovely but the youth get a good education and leave. With strong leadership NI could bloom.

Love NI. A friend and I (half seriously) talked about a double move there when things were going a bit tits up in our lives. She’s from there, it was just nostalgia for me from holidays there as a child. It’s a great place with lots of upsides but ultimately I think I’m probably better off in Scotland.

Does not being represented or less represented in the UK Parliament affect anything now (still sinn Fein MPs do not takes their seats). Or as so much is devolved and not as many MPs mean no real difference? I know there was the time when the Tories relied on DUP so more power.

I haven’t been but would love to. My mother spent her first year or two working in Belfast coming from India but well before I was born. It’s nothing like when she was there though - she said you could see tell from how loud the noise was what part of the city had a bomb and whether you
were likely to get casualties. Also a time tarring and feathering. She also said most of the people were wonderful.

I’m the same, if I can work it with keeping my job I’d move back regarding property prices in NI as opposed to Dublin. I also have school friends who moved back to NI after years in mainland Britain because the schools are much better.
There are some rough, deprived areas and rough, deprived people but that happens everywhere. Apparently it’s like the mafia trying to get a good dentist or into a GP nowadays, and the government is ridiculous but overall NI is beautiful with plenty to offer.

NI is very lovely, but sectarianism is alive and well still in many communities. Its far more religious than GB too and had gay marriage and abortion forced in by Westminster despite public support for both. A big cultural shift from England.

Ni great in many ways. Great schools, affordable houses, gorgeous coastline, friendly people. NHS not great - for example in Belfast 5/6 years wait for under 11 adhd, no 11-18 adhd diagnosis service at all, 4/5 years for child autism, 6/7 years for adult rheumatology and dermatology. 1 year for Camhs assessment another year for treatment. Im currently on year 7 of waiting on eye operation and no one privately does it so other than go to England I keep waiting!

Neither. It’s beautiful, but very colloquial, and most could pick a fight in an empty house.

Im a fan as moved here. The religious aspect is draining at times.

Government is a joke, with opposite parties taking pot shots at each other rather than moving things forward.
Nhs has literally fell apart

My parents were from there. I’d move there tomorrow if I could get a job there. Love the north coast

If you are not planning on living in Belfast or Derry (or even if you are) a car is non-negotiable. Public transport is pretty bad. Also the health trusts cover large areas, so a simple hospital or A&E appt could mean driving twenty or thirty miles. If you lived in Tyrone or Fermanagh, you'd have a long drive to the airport and ports (both in County Antrim) etc. But if you drive and don't have children you have to ferry everywhere, many of the smaller towns and villages are lovely. People are generally very friendly, but many tend to be busybodies.

Calling a country backward is bordering on xenophobic. And your not very thinly disguised suggestion of in-breeding is breathtakingly offensive. It’s a long time since I’ve come across such naked anti Irishness.

And you don’t think this attitude might be why relatives with English accents ‘feel uncomfortable’?

It’s all over the place on Mn. This is, I agree, an unusually overt version.

NI exile here, all my family still back there. People complaining about the health service and public transport in NI don’t know they are born! Outside of London and possibly Manchester, public transport in England is diabolical, and NI health service is certainly no worse than in England. In many cases better, with services still kept in places like Enniskillen, which is smaller than my nearest town and has a complete hospital, whereas my local town has a health centre and no post 16 education.

That said, attitudes are still a bit backwards and my nephew’s SEN education was well behind what would happen here in England - he was allowed to drift with no support or identifiacoint of any issues, and the 11+ was horrific,

Belfast is great, a proper city.

Very backward compared to uk? I’d very much disagree with this and go as far to say you don’t know what you’re talking about or perhaps you haven’t experienced as much of the culture as others. It’s an amazingly beautiful place with incredible people. Like any area of the UK there are issues, however to say it’s backward is a massive generalisation and simply untrue

Backward, parochial, misogynistic place.

I’m from there before you all jump at me

Doesn't that have a huge negative impact on the 60/40% who don't? Grammar school for a tiny percentage wouldn't, but if it is really 60% (or even 40%, but especially 60%) that must have a catastrophic impact on the self esteem and prospects of the children who don't make the cut at age 10 or 11.

A family member married a girl from Belfast and moved there from England. Their house is gorgeous and they couldn't have afforded anything as good here. He loves his life there and it's been a really excellent choice.

Have you been to Belfast Zoo? It is absolutely terrible and not worth a shilling more than that price!