Moving back to Ireland from UK - who’s done it?

[ImEoinMcLove]

I’ve just discovered Craicnet!

My husband and I are looking to move back to Dublin after 12 years in London, along with our 18 month old DS. We’re both from elsewhere in Ireland but looking at Dublin for job opportunities and the buzz!

We’re pleasantly surprised at the job market and hopeful we can both get jobs that broadly match our UK salaries. We will need to sell our house here though.

Looking for advice from anyone who’s done this...

1. If you were both looking for new jobs did you go when one of you secured a good one, on the hope the other would follow suit?
2. How did you sort accommodation? We’ll have to rent for awhile regardless of the sale of our UK home but from what I heard you need to be prepared to fight to the death for a rental place at open viewings? Any tips?
3. How did you do the actual logistics with regards to moving/ storage etc? Did you drive your car over?
4. How have you found childcare and schools? (We’re looking at south dublin city for context)

Any help or advice would br so appreciated as this seems very daunting when I start thinking through all the variables!

Thanks!

Interesting to hear that west cork has a lot of Brits - I'm looking at Clonakilty for us. I'm Irish, DH from UK.

Those of you who are, or whose partners are from the U.K., have they been okay settling, have they had any anti-English sentiment?

Been home near 2years with my kids and English husband. It's hard , I had a job sorted but my husband could not transfer his skills here so not worked tho has been looking . He's at home with kids when there not at school . He's found it very hard , misses his family, friends and work. Really unsure if moving was the best thing for us , as people said we moved to be near family etc but they do have there own lives . He finds it hard making friends and covid has made things even harder . Has anyone moved back recently or thinking of it ?I know it's prob not possible now with all that's going on.

Suggest Marino/off Griffith Avenue, lovely area, built around
Greens/parks. V friendly, close to city centre and a number of good schools. Mine went to local Catholic national schools, though we’re non religious. Close enough to seafront for walks and into town on a bus in 15 or 20 mins.
Friends live in Raheny, proximity to sea and St Anne’s Park which is fantastic. Very villagey feeling also.

Also looking at moving home in the next year. I’ve been offered a job in the south east and husband can work predominantly from home with 1-2 days/week in the UK so considering options now!

Hello, I moved to Ireland two years ago, but not "back" as I'm not Irish and had never been here before! But my daughter is married to an Irishman, I was newly widowed and nothing was keeping me anywhere else, so here I am, and intend to stay here forever. I am 69.

The move went very easily. First I moved in with my daughter in NI just across the border while I looked for a place just south of the border, because of Brexit. I have EU citizenship (German, though I am not ethnic German, just nationalised) so that much was obvious.

I decided to move into a BnB as a semi-permanent tenant this happened organically as a B&B owner suggested it. They had a big house that was only sporadically fully let so it made sense for them. It was a lovely big country house just ten minutes from my daughter in NI, but still south of the border. I lived very happily with the B&B couple for a year they were lovely people.

What amazed me were all the connections between people in rural Ireland, and how helpful everyone was. The B&B owners for instance were related to my daughter's next door neighbours and new her in laws well, which I suppose is one of the reasons they suggested I live there! And then my son-in-law's cousin who owned a town house with flats to rent had a new build flat to rent and I took that. It's gone well and I'm still here after a year, but I'm looking to buy eventually.

Everything went smoothly from start to finish. The biggest problem at the beginning was "proof of address". It's a vicious circle. You can't get a driver's licence or bank account without proof of address, and you can't get proof of address without -- well, proof of address, and while I was staying at the B&B I didn't have utilities bill etc. In the end I was able to get the B&B people to give me their utility bill with a note at the bottom confirming I lived there.

The next big problem was car insurance!!! I had a German licence and nobody wanted to insure me for that very reason. The only offer I got, through a broker, would have cost me a couple of thousand a year, even though I had a good no claims discount. The broker advised me to swap my licence for an Irish one and I did that, but of course there was the problem with proof of address.

Anyway, those problems overcome, I'm settled here but hopefully in about a year I shall have my own place and then I'll be needing lots of advice. Property up here is relatively cheap.

In three years time I will be eligible for Irish citizenship and I will certainly be applying! The only thing I dislike is the weather.

How did you do the actual logistics with regards to moving/ storage etc? Did you drive your car over?

I didn't answer this question.
I arrived with my son at the end of February 2018, in the middle of that terrible snowstorm! We flew over from Frankfurt. Just after we landed they closed all the airports due to weather.

We had booked a transport company that did Germany-Ireland removals. They came to my place in Germany and packed everything into their big van, then the day after we arrived the van arrived at my daughter's place in NI. The van had driven through the most terrible snowed in motorways and was several hours late, arriving at midnight on snowy roads. After dropping my stuff they were headed down to Cork, again in the snowstorm.

I would not recommend that company as they lost at least one of my boxes. They had picked up boxes from a second person after us and they had exactly the same boxes as I did and at least one of them was delivered to her. We are still trying to get it back. It was actually a Polish company. There are lots of UK-Ireland removal companies; it's much easier (and cheaper) than from Germany, of course!

Her parents in law were very helpful and allowed me to use their large shed for storage. When I moved into the B&B I took much of my stuff and was able to store it in their barn, for free. It's a large barn!

The flat I rented came partly furnished so much of my furniture is still in storage.

I did not drive my car over as it was a German car with left-hand drive. I sold it in Germany and bought an old banger here to start with and now I have a very good 2012 Golf. If I had been moving from the UK I would definitely have driven over.

Hi all, just wondering how everyone is settling in since this thread was originally posted? We are in Bristol and have just put our house up for sale. DH is English, we have a 2 year old and a baby on the way. We're looking at moving to Galway where I have family (from Roscommon originally) but am very nervous as I left Ireland in 2009. We have a good life here, decent jobs, lovely neighbours, lots to do. But no family support, apprehensive about English schools and we have outgrown our house (we could buy a bigger one for a lot less in Galway city/ commuter town). Any advice from anyone and are there any others that have made the move since 2020?

Depending where you move to, property can be much cheaper. I moved from Germany in 2018, but I also have a flat in the UK and had furniture stored there. I've lived in rented property in Ireland since 2018 three moves in all, each time upgrading first a long-term room in a B&B, then a two bed flat, now a 4-bed house, and finally I'm getting into a position to buy.
I live in the north (north of the Republic, near the border!) and the place I'm looking at now is a 4-bed rural house on 2 acres, needs renovation but mostly cosmetic (floors and wallpaper, as well as replacing tubs with walk-in showers) with an asking price of 175k, hoping to offer 155k in September when I can probably pay cash. Hopefully it will still be on the market then. Properties like that tend to take their time to be taken off the market so fingers crossed. If not, something else will come up and I have a fairly wide area I can move to.
I'm retired so the job market is irrelevant. I do want to live near my daughter and her family (grandchildren).
I'll be living with my son who works from home and does all the housework, bless him!

sorry, I didn't mean to strike through that clause but apparently dashes create a strike-through on MN! I learn something new every day.

The last portion of the entire move consisted of renting a big Enterprise van in Belfast, driving over with my son, emptying the UK garage of the last items of furniture, and driving back. You could do the same thing from Dublin. We did this last summer, once I had rented the house and had the space.

Do you know that they offer far less in mortgage in Ireland? E.g. roughly 4.5 times your combined salary in the UK, but only around 3.5 times your joint salary in Ireland. This is a show stopper for us.

Also, you would need to pay for private healthcare, which is very expensive.

Also, you would need to pay for private healthcare, which is very expensive.

I suppose, after the NHS, private health insurance in Ireland must seem expensive! For me, it is a fraction of what I was paying for health insurance in Germany, and that was mandatory, public health insurance, which in my case was calculated as a percentage of my self-employment income!
Though it is true that health care in Ireland does not cover dental work, which is just about the only cover I'd need at the moment.

@Irishmammy20 - we made the Move from Bristol at the start of this year (after being there for 17 years). Happy to share my thoughts on our move back if that would help you.

@Bristol07 id love to hear! We’re in hackney and love it here, but would like to be home in the next decade I think. Have one kid already and would like more… and would like them to be and feel Irish, you know?

You can get approved for a mortgage without being resident in ireland by two lenders - Haven, and Bank of Ireland. I'm not sure about AIB but worth a call! A lot of people are coming home now.

We're putting in an offer on a house. :)