Potential move to Dublin - please help!

[Dublinormovinghome]

My DH and I are both English & have been living abroad in Europe for over a decade and now have 3 young kids (8, 4 & 2). We’ve been talking about moving home (to England) for a while
now.

During my DH job hunt he has been headhunted for a job in Dublin. It isn’t something we’d have considered because the job hunt has all about moving home BUT..: it would be a dream job for DH, could be a career-defining move, would be a great package etc.

So I would love to hear anything and everything about Dublin…. Places to live, schools, housing market, cost of living, what does a family of 5 realistically need to earn to live a comfortable. I am really trying to get my head around potentially moving our family somewhere we’d never considered before!

Thank you so much x

Look at the DART stops southbound and select areas you might be interested in. Then check the house prices there, I'd say you'll get quite a shock! Areas to look at include Sandymount, Blackrock, Booterstown, Dun Laoghaire, Killiney, Dalkey (millionaire's row), Shankill, Bray and Greystones. The latter is very chi chi and is right at the beginning of the vast and fabulous county of Wicklow.

There are some nice towns on the Northside DART too, but you might have to be a bit selective. Look at Killester, Clontarf, Raheny, Sutton, Portmarnock, Howth, Malahide, and Skerries. The last one is on the mainline train not the DART but more or less takes the same route.

There are many other great pockets of decent areas within Dublin. You will know what they are by looking at house prices!

Have a look at Daft.ie and/or Myhome.ie for an idea of what's on offer house sale and rental. Get the smelling salts out!

If you want to know money then I think you would want to be on over €200k for private education for 3 kids (it is much, much cheaper to educate privately in Ireland) and probably about €150k to live reasonably comfortably in Dublin with public school education with no childcare costs if you are stay at home. Mortgage, rent and childcare are really high cost.

There are not many private schools outside of Dublin and almost no private primaries outside Dublin and public schools can be really excellent so it is all choice.

All of these can be cut down by moving from Dublin but Ireland is very expensive.

The 150k is probably high for my second example but without support and buying in any help and travelling home it probably is not that far off it.

English friends of ours who settled in Dublin in 2018, after previously living with their children in several other countries, have struggled far more to adjust than in previous, much more obviously ‘foreign’ countries. I think it’s partly the shared language that is the problem — it creates an illusion of familiarity, which just doesn’t then turn out to be true in many ways.

Obviously I’m not suggesting this is any kind of inevitability (I also have very thoroughly and happily assimilated friends who’ve been here decades), just that it’s something to consider, especially if what you’d always wanted was to move home to England, and it’s only a job offer that’s making you consider Dublin. If it doesn’t work out, and you decide you really want to be in England close to family etc, you’re looking at moving your children again in a few years, and (having done that myself, moving my English-born son to Ireland aged eight), it’s challenging enough in terms of identity.

One of our friends’ children settled after a very rocky start, the other never has, doesn’t like Ireland, and is heading to university in an EU country and says he doesn’t plan to live here again, ever.

Just give it some hard thought and maybe have a frank conversation with your Irish friend where you live now.

I think for second level you need to register with the Teaching Council of Ireland and they will assess any outside qualifications to make sure they’re of a comparable standard, but a secondary teacher from the UK shouldn’t need any extra qualifications as far as I know.
https://www.teachingcouncil.ie/i-am-applying-to-register/qualified-outside-of-ireland/register-as-a-post-primary-teacher/

I'm British, lived in Dublin 6 for 25 years and never experienced any anti-Britishness.

Expect to pay about 3500-5000 for a 3-5 bedroom house.

Look on daft.ie or myhome.ie for an idea of rent and purchasing prices. You can also look on the Luas line for housing options. I'm in D6 and not near the Luas or Dart, but there is ok bus links into the city, although it might be quicker to walk.

(even numbers south side, odd numbers north side. North side supposed to be a bit rougher but I think the real divide is west/east - most of the nicer areas are on the east side of Dublin, nearer the coast. I'm in Dublin 6, second most expensive area of Dublin, yay.)

Flights to the UK can be really cheap - its easy to find €15 tickets to most UK destinations on Ryanair, a bit more on Aer Lingus (but they include a bit more luggage).

Just to be clear - you don't NEED health insurance. You can pay out of pocket for GP visits and the a and e fee. (insurance may or may not cover those things) Other than that and prescription charges there is no cost if you say, break your leg, want to give birth or anything really.

Waiting lists to see a specialist are horrendous on the HSE (irish equivalent of NHS) but they are not all that much better if you pay privately.

Very likely your husbands employer will include health insurance.

University fees are much lower than England (and Wales?). its about €3000 a year fees, not including housing/food costs.

I wanted somewhere primarily English speaking, in Euros (I'm paid in Euros - as was my ex - we were together at the time), within easy reach of the UK for our aging parents - and ideally where we wouldn't be reliant on a work permit given the Brexit situation. Malta was an option - but the schooling in Ireland tipped it for me (we'd lived in Malta before - it is a strong contender in many ways). Mine went to a national school for primary, and have switched to private for secondary, and I couldn't be more happy with both schools.

I also approached it as just moving to yet another foreign country - I didn't find it any more or less different than any of the other places I've lived - you learn the habits/expectations quite quickly. For me the main difference was that as the children were at a state school I made local friends, rather than the rather more temporary expat ones I've made other places, which helped me acclimatise more quickly I think.

I will say, many people here are pushing you to the coast or Sandyford etc, which is lovely, but very, very 'rich ex-pat' coded and expensive. I live towards the mountains - less prestigious, but significantly more for your money - but I grew up in a remote area, so I'm used to not being able to get takeaway delivered etc.

One thing Ireland really gets right is its housing estates around Dublin - they always have green areas where the kids play out, always have little shopping areas with a Centra/coffeeshop/chemist or whatever. If you're happier in town, then the suburbs of Dublin really are good.

Be prepared for the wind, and the weather does get a bit miserable so if you're used to sunnier climes that can take some getting used to - although the other side of that is the greenery is spectacular.

Oh, and yes, I'm pretty much settled here - put in my application for citizenship last year, bought a house, got my private pension and company here - I've got another 6 years before the youngest finishes school anyway, but I don't think I'll move again - it's also a convenient place to travel from too - loads of places fly to Dublin.

You want to make that initial accomodation bit as long as possible - go looking for a year in your negotiation. The corporate letting agency will have access to accomodation that you don't. It's not just the price of it, it's just very scarce. Use this tax calculator to see how much after tax income you'll have https://www.pwc.ie/issues/budget/income-tax-calculator.html . Assume you'll be paying 3-4k in rent for a 3 bed house and see what you have left over. For teaching check if your qualifications will travel. Generally primary school teachers have to have the Irish language.

From talking to family members who taught in both jurisdictions teaching in Ireland is vastly lass stressful than teaching in the England.
There is less testing and admin.
They get paid substantially more in Ireland too.

Have a look at a map of Dublin. The river Liffey cuts Dublin in half - northside and southside. The northside might be convenient if you'd like access to Dublin airport. as it's on the northside of Dublin. The southside offers easy access to county Wicklow, which has some really stunning mountain scenery (Wicklow Mountains National Park).

The coastal areas of Dublin are the most popular, for obvious reasons - who wouldn't like to live by the sea? And the coast is served by the DART rail line. @maftaz has already listed some very desirable areas. But of course, you'll be paying a premium price to buy a house in these areas. Which is why I said, "If money is no object.....". I'd need to win the Lotto to pay for a house in those areas . If you can't afford to buy in those areas, there are some nice leafy suburbs further inland. I don't know the northside so well, but on the southside you have areas like Ranelagh, Rathgar, Rathmines, Terenure, Templeogue, Rathfarnham, Dundrum etc. A lot of these areas started off as villages and then the city grew out and engulfed them. Houses are very expensive in these areas also, because, you know, leafy suburbs.

If you can't afford to buy in Dublin at all, then you'd have to consider commuter towns outside of Dublin, in adjacent counties like Wicklow (south of Dublin), Kildare (south west of Dublin), Meath (north west of Dublin) and Louth (north of Dublin). As I said, traffic in Dublin is chronic, so if you're considering a move outside of Dublin, then I'd choose a commuter town with a rail connection to Dublin. A lot of Dubliners have moved out of Dublin in recent years, because they've been priced out of the capital. So that has resulted in an increase in house prices in dormitory towns and has also put pressure on schools in adjacent counties. Would your DH have to travel to work five days a week, or is working from home an option? If he can work from home (even part of the week), that would make a long commute easier.

When I was talking about schools, I forgot to say that our school holidays are a lot longer than in the UK. The primary schools close for two months in the summer - July and August. The secondary schools close for three months in the summer - June, July and August. State exams take place in June. I know you don't live in the UK at present, so I don't know how this compares with your current country of residence. It's great if you're a teacher (I'm not), but not so great if you have to arrange (and pay for) childcare for that length of time. And even if you're a SAHM, it's a long time to keep kids entertained, especially if we have a rainy summer. We sort of take it for granted, because we grew up with it. And I have to say, I loved the long summer holidays as a kid myself. However, I'm amused when I read the lamenting and handwringing on MN about the six week summer break in the UK.

You could work in the primary special school system , special classes and in non permanent posts as Irish exempt (I think - open to correction!)

I think this is right. Plus secondaries here are unlike English secondaries. They are generally significantly smaller (big 1000+ schools are around though), calmer and despite recent changes to the exams, significantly less pressured, until you get to leaving cert anyway. But if you don't have a Masters in Education you may be required to top up your UK teaching qualification for secondary.
As PP say, the commute is all. Public transport is poor, but you want to avoid having to drive into Dublin as much as possible.

I’m not so sure about not needing Irish to teach in a special school. I’m linking a couple of questions in the Dáil about it last year and the answers emphasise the importance of Irish for primary teachers.

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2025-09-08/776/

www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2025-03-25/425/