Moving to N Ireland

[Chocolatepuppy]

We are potentially moving from the UK to NI next year.
I am originally from the ROI, my husband is English. We have a university aged son but would make the move with high school and primary school aged children. We also will have an elderly mother in law in tow!
We were wondering if anyone could suggest areas or towns to consider living in/near. The location can be reasonably flexible as my husband's job would involve travelling all around NI anyway, proximity to good road networks would be useful. Schools are also a consideration, we are RC though the kids currently attend Cof E schools, I don't know if this is more of an issue in NI?
Any suggestions would be gratefully received!

Yes the education system here in N I opens up a whole can of worms! NI is fairly small so even if you don't live in a city it's usually reasonably easy to get from A to B. Belfast is a brilliant city, easy to get around, reasonably good for house prices, quite compact. The restaurant scene is buzzing and there's lots to see and do for families. It has best proximity to roads, there's only two (short) motorways here. Seriously with regards to schools it's split for the most part between Catholic and Protestant schools. You have to make a choice. There are a smallish number of integrated schools which take kids from all religious traditions, cultures, races etc. The education standard is quite high overall. The nonsense you see on tv news re flag protests, marching etc tends to happen at limited times of the year and specific locations so can easily be avoided. My DH is also English and been here for twenty years. It's a good place to live. Good luck and I hope all goes well x

Thank you for your reply kerpob and all the advice. Good to hear too that your English DH settled well in NI !
It will be complicated uprooting everyone but hopefully will all be worth it!

Chocolatepuppy I am an American who has lived in Belfast for 10 years.

It's a fantastic city with a lot to offer.

As kerpob said, most schools are either Catholic or Protestant, but there are integrated ones, my son attends an integrated primary in South Belfast.

It's a bit quiet, but you might want to pop over to Belfast Local and have a nosy!