Moving to Dublin - any advice?

[whattodo235]

Hello all, I posted in living overseas already so apologies for double thread! My husband has been offered a good job near Dublin airport so we’re considering moving from London to Ireland in the next few months. We will have 2 kids in nursery and one 5 year old at primary school (going into year 1 in the UK system). Do you have any advice on areas, schools, making friends, whether it’s a good idea overall etc?! Thanks so much!

I would also prioritise an area that has good access to public transport if you have a choice. Donabate might be nice and all that but it's not well served by public transport and will be hard if your partner changes jobs, you get a job, your kids grow older, etc. If you're on a major bus route, by the dart or the luas it'll make a huge difference.

Not familiar with the private school but have friends with children in Shellybanks, Howth and older children in the secondary of Sutton Park - all excellent schools. Engaged schools with good strong pastoral care - the Howth one involves a change I think for third class onwards but Shellybanks and Sutton Park go straight through.

I would highly recommend try live within walking distance to the school. I would not be encouraging anyone to be doing any sort of cross city commute in the morning - horrendous and soul destroying!

Secondary school wise - I would relax there are plenty of good secondary schools accessible from the schools you reference. Howth/Sutton - there are Educate Together Secondaries - accessible by postcodes. There are plenty of private options city centre/ accessible on the Dart - but really I would pause that concern for now.

I appreciate you are new to the country but we are very lucky to generally have access to good secondary schools. There are pressure on places - have you clarified availability with the schools? And yes generally it is postcode dependent - it is generally published on their website.

Hi OP,

Sandymount is fabulous and has great schools and amenities. I live nearby. I have lived in the area through having babies, primary, secondary and now even university , with my eldest.

if you decide on it, pm me and I will call you. Also, if you use the tunnel going North from Sandymount, you will only pay €3 not €10.

Secondary schools will all have individual application rules and criteria. "The List" has gone thankfully and loads seem to have moved to lottery applications, so when the time comes, apply to every school you can get the child to and pick the one you prefer from where you get a place. It's a stressful nightmare compared to the UK system. But it'll usually all done fast in first few months of 6th class.

I have family in Glasnevin and they seem happy there. The kids go to the local Educate Together which also seems to be good (personally I would have no uniform, but you may not care). They are big into GAA and that certainly seems to be a thing with most parents of primary aged kids (and maybe older - my family there don't have older kids yet).

What I like, having lived and been brought up in the suburbs of London, is the way houses are often built round a green and once old enough the kids go out to play with each other, and knock for each other in a way that just doesn't happen where I live. But that's true everywhere in Dublin, not just Glasnevin!

I agree Sandymount is fabulous, gorgeous village feel with Sandymount Green, but the coast road can flood.
My sister lives nearby.
The nearby National schools are good.

The commute to Gonzaga from anywhere on the north side or from Sandymount would be horrendous.

Belvedere is reachable by Dart from points both north and south. My mum in the south suburbs has neighbours who go there.

St Michael's would be hard to get to from the north side.

Belvedere and Gonzaga are both Jesuit schools and both have terrific academic reputations. Not free.

St Michael's is run by the Holy Ghost Father's. Again, terrific academic reputation. Fee paying, not free.

m.independent.ie/irish-news/fee-paying-schools-almost-10000-to-attend-most-expensive-day-school-in-the-country/42228952.html

Late to the party...not from Dublin but my kids have all lived there at times... would Navan be an option? It seems handy for the airport area and lots of facilities for families? My nephew lived there for a couple of years.
Less fuss over private schools if you live outside Dublin!

Sandymount to the airport everyday -ugh kill me now id never want to do that!

if you live northside on an airport bus route it will be way easier!

Ah thank you, that’s really kind!! I will do if we are heading that way!

Thanks so much everyone, so helpful to have your views and input as we are pretty much in the dark about everything… think we are leaning towards Sandymount, but not sure whether to go for John Scotus or Shellybanks… anyone else have any experience of these to help me decide?

Honestly if working in airport I wouldn't go southside. You want Clontarf/Bayside/Sutton/Portmarnock/Raheny/Malahide/Swords. Nearly all on dart line, good bus network and good schools across the patch and most with a good sense of community, coffee shops, village centres.
The commute across city will ruin your husbands soul.
You can look online at the percentages of students that go on to college for the different secondary schools.
44, from Dublin from northside,, living southside.

I would try the commute on a wet Tuesday in the second part of January. Malahide is really lovely...but realistically it depends where near the airport is!

You can check current and typical traffic conditions on Google maps from all the locations you're considering. The daily trek from Sandymount to the airport and back would be soul destroying.

You might like to have a look at St Christopher's NS, Haddington Road, if you choose Sandymount.

Shelly Banks and John Scottus are very different. SB parents are more local, JS had a lot of ex pats, and can be quite transitory. JS would be much more traditional while SB is more relaxed and informal. They both follow the same curriculum but they have a very different approach.

The two most popular schools in sandymount are the catholic boys, Star of the Sea which is at one end of the village and the catholic girls, Lakeland's, which is at the other end. They stagger start and finish times, but if you have a son and daughter in each it's is quite a challenge to get them both on time.

St Mathews the Protestant national school is lovely, boys and girls. It has grown in size in the last decade, lots of tech forms in the area and a lot seem to send their dc there. TBH that's the one I'd choose out of all the schools in the area.

Sandymount to the airport actually isn't that bad using the tunnel. 20-30 mins, the worst part is getting over the east link bridge, after that you fly through

Another option if you are in Sandymount is St Andrews, about 15 mins from the village, you'd be going against the traffic. Goes right through to secondary, lots of international students.

I live in Howth. It's a great spot. I really like Malahide too. Housing is bonkers around here though.
I can't imagine the commute from Sandymount to the airport would be easy on a dark winter's morning tbh. Traffic in Dublin can be very unpredictable.
The primary school in Howth is lovely according to my neighbours. My children will be going there. For secondary we are considering Sutton Park. Mainly because I don't want my kids going to an all girls school. St. Fintans has a good name too.

I really really wouldn't send a child to John Scottus. I've had a few friends have children there, and we considered it for ours and did try-out days. It's extremely cultish due to its association with the school of philosophy. All my friends ended up taking their children out due to increasing pressure as they moved up through the school to conform to the school of philosophy's ethos. IMO your dcs would settle better in a state national school. Class sizes are big but education is very child-centred and they would learn more about Irish culture and be better integrated in a national school.

If you're committed to Sandymount:

Shelleybanks is a nice school, it's got a close relationship w the relatively new (6 years old) Educate Together secondary in Sandymount which is still finding its feet a bit - but just so you know your dcs classmates may go on to that school so might be worth checking out. If you live in Sandymount, a lot of kids will go to secondary along the DART line so you might want to think about what schools would work for you in that case.

Sandymount is pretty but not great for cross-Dublin public transport other than the DART, and I wouldn't buy a house there due to potential future flooding (married to an engineer!) The commute to the airport might look ok on paper but could end up being a total pain.

If you'd consider moving closer to the airport:

As others have mentioned, Howth and Sutton are lovely - but places closer to the city are also nice (and very convenient) with lovely houses such as parts of Drumcondra which has excellent state primary schools.

Skerries was recently cited as the ideal place to live by an English anthropologist! https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/02/has-irish-town-found-secret-the-good-life-skerries

In terms of secondary schools in north Dublin, there's Sutton Park and Mount Temple as others have mentioned - Skerries Community College (state) is a great school. If you have boys and don't mind single sex, a lot of boys in North Dublin go to Belvedere College in the city centre which is one of the best schools in Ireland. It's Catholic but religion tends to be manifest in a commitment to social justice rather than dogma, and there are plenty of non-practising and non-Catholic students there.

Good luck with the move!

This is so helpful thank you- basically need to decide today/tomorrow and had just gone down an internet wormhole about the school of economic science etc so very timely too! Yes I think we are leaning towards Shellybanks. I love Howth but there isn’t that much property for sale there it seems and also maybe it’s a bit more remote/less easy to integrate as an newcomer - or maybe that’s not true at all?!!

The cost of the Port Tunnel differs when you are travelling in it and it's increasing from 1st Jan 2024.

https://dublintunnel.ie/toll-information/

If you're planning on working on the Northside of the city, so around Dublin Airport, I'd recommend living on the north side and you shouldn't have to deal with cross city rush hour traffic (or the costs of going through the port tunnel).

I wouldn't put my kids in schools that are going to be considerable distance to where you live. They will want friends from school to visit (at some point in the future) for play dates when they are little and just to go back to your place as they get older. You may want to make friends with the parents of the kids in your kids school so that might be more problematic if you're on opposite sides of the city.

So I'd go for schools in Howth/Sutton/Clontarf/Drumcondra if you'll be living on the northside.

Lots of schools have catchment areas so living on the northside and going to school on the south side may not be an option available to you.

I live in Dublin so if you have any questions, please ask away!

I live in Dublin also and would consider it madness to look for housing and schools on the other side of the county to work. The county looks small but do not underestimate how long it takes and how awful the traffic is (including on public transport) if travelling from one side of the county to the other.

If you are going to live in Sandymount definitely consider St Andrews in Booterstown.
It is fee paying but Irish fees are not like U.K. fees. It is very much an international school and will make live easier if you consider moving back to the UK at some stage.