Possibly moving back to Ireland due to job offer

[KeiraKnightleyActsWithHerTeeth]

We have been thinking about moving back to Ireland for years (I was born in the south grew up in a border town, husband is English but went to college in Dublin). My husband has just been offered a job within his current company where he could work from home but could report to offices in either Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow or Manchester every couple of weeks.

I only lived in Ireland, as an adult for a short while so I don't know where to start. I am happy with countryside or city living and would prefer 1hr30 min absolute max drive to a good size city. I have some distant-ish family in Dundalk, Monaghan and Drogheda so those are considerations but I don't know anything about them whatsoever in terms of moving there. Also open to other areas although somewhere between Dublin and Belfast would be very useful for DH's job.
A flavour of the cities we have lived in England have been Manchester, Bristol and Liverpool. We like engaged communities but aren't into the race for the best school/competitive house price chatter which we see here a lot.

We want to keep our house here so ideally would rent or could still keep house in England but stretch to £225,000 for a 4 bed but would prefer not to buy just yet as we would have much more to spend once sold up in the UK.

Other colleagues who have been offered similar roles and moved to ROI rather than NI were offered help with schooling and medical insurance so I think we are looking at that angle rather than the north.

Aware that is all a total mind dump but would love your ideas of where to live or indeed where not to live.

I believe school is expensive too as you have to pay for books etc but don't know much about it. I've seen it on other threads about moving to Ireland from UK.

I would not recommend Dundalk or Drogheda either!

Thanks for all of your input, it's all really useful.
I love Galway but I think it is out purely because we would like the ease of being near more airports.
I love NI but I don't know, there is something drawing me back to ROI. Funnily enough of the areas in NI the area I know most is S.Armagh but it isn't for me - too many close family (and family feuds) for my liking over that way.

If we did go NI I think we would want to be coastal.

If we sold up our house over here we would have (hopefully) around £500k, is that too little for a decent area of Dublin? I know it's a bonkers market and I've basically written it off completely. We have 6 DC so 4 beds is the absolute minimum. We could stretch further but would ideally like to keep money aside.

Daft.ie is the Irish version of Right Move, so you can check out prices there. Good luck!

500k would get you a doer upper in Clontarf. Clontarf is a wonderful place to live.

Alternatively, you would get quite a nice house in Malahide (or Malachite, as autocorrect prefers). I haven't lived there but it's supposed to be lovely.

Actually, looking at daft, you would have when we were buying but might struggle now.

Malahide is absolutely beautiful but houses are expensive and might push your budget. What about Rush? Further up the coast but still in Co Dublin and near some long sandy beaches

Rush is notorious for having little or no housing available. It's an older community that people stay put in cos of the great train link into the city and the pleasant coastal atmosphere. People don't leave!

They say live in the North -cheaper - housing, NHS etc.
Work in the South- salary better.

Thanks again, lots of food for thought. We are booking flights this evening so we can have a drive around lots of different areas.

Any Belfast recommendations? Seems off to totally disregard it.

I live in South Belfast and it is very nice. Stranmillis and Ormeau lovely and you'd definitely get a 4 bed house for your budget.

Thanks Corporal having a nose at those areas now.

Holywood just 5 minutes outside East Belfast is coastal and beautiful. Up by Stormont is lovely as well

Kindle (great username)
Thanks, I'll have look.

I know a few families who bought the Lisburn side of NI that commute quite regularly to both Dublin & London. I know one man that commutes daily from Hillsborough to just outside Dublin (Healthcare). He can do the journey most days quicker from Hillsborough to Dublin than it took him to navigate the traffic from Hillsborough to his previous hospital in Belfast.

Definitely look at Holywood/Cultra area OP, it's really lovely, greatt schools, beside airport and sea, train, shops, restaurants...it's perfect!

Thanks again! So much useful info. We are going to book a week over there this weekend.