Hello everyone! I’m american and my husband is from Belfast, we have two young children, and are planning to move from the states to Ireland in 2-3 years. I’ve been researching places that might suit us, and would love to hear your thoughts/suggestions on family-friendly places we should consider.
My husband is from the north, so would like to be there but I haven’t found many places that seem like a good fit and think I might prefer the south (which he’s very open to), so feel free to recommend places in either. Here are the things we’re looking for:
- Somewhere safe with decent schools and amenities for our children. Not in a city, but not too far from one either (ideally 20-35 minutes). Would love to live at the edge of a town or a particularly good sized village (because I’d would prefer walking or biking to driving for shops and the like). I’m hoping for a bit of land for a veg patch and maybe even a few chickens or goats, and just generally want a slower pace of life than most cities offer. My husband would prefer somewhere not too far from Belfast if we end up in the north.
- My husband is culturally catholic, which doesn’t matter much to either of us, but if we’re in the north he would just prefer not to live in a super loyalist area.
- Hopefully some young families, maybe some festivals - the sort of thing that the articles refer to as ‘good community spirit.’
- I’d love to be reasonably close to the sea, or somewhere with some medieval bits, but this is less important than the other considerations for us.
We’re heading there in august to have a look and so far, we’re looking at Bangor in the north, and in the south: possibly somewhere around Galway but not sure where, clonnakilty and Midleton in Munster, and then skerries outside of Dublin (possibly too expensive). Several people have suggested Donegal and it is beautiful, but it feels a bit too rural for me.
Thank you for reading!