In retrospect, would you move again to Ireland?

Well, Ireland is a very different country and culture from the many countries I have stayed in and visited.  The people are friendly in general, but not very open to receiving you into their friendship group.  Compared to the North American culture, being Canadian myself, we would love to invite people we meet in our daily lives, to have a meal with us, so we can get to know them better.  Irish folks are much more reserved in this respect, these kind of invites are generally reserved for their immediate families and REALLY close friends.

The country is GREEN, very GREEN... nice, if you like "anne of green gables" type of "farmy" life... sometimes I feel like I see more sheep than I do people... not a bad thing, but can be a bit isolating and boring...

But it is very cheap to visit the EU, as Dublin is very cheaply connected to many major cities in Europe...

Overall my experience was a nice one, but felt very isolated at the same time...

Would I do it again, probably not... but would I visit the green isle again?  maybe...

Hi Christine,

I sort of more/less didn't have a huge option when moving to Ireland, as we were taking over my husband's family business (a pub).

I have to agree with Mav -- starting out here was quite tough (keep in mind I also live in a rural-ish area so I think that's a whole different kettle to Dublin where there's lots of nationalities/expats) but it's been quite hard to make some good friends... I also work from home or in the pub so it's not like having workmates was an option.

I found that people are really friendly, but the onus is sort of on you to invite them out (or around yours) for a drink/cup of coffee/tea etc... whereas when I lived in say Sydney so many people were from other places that they understood what it was like to be in a new place and sort of brought you into the circle. So that was quite a change.

Now, in saying that -- I am starting to really love it genuinely (almost 9 months now) and I am pregnant so that's made socialising difficult but at the same time opened up a whole other avenue of friends through mom/community groups. I also made it a point to so some community service so I've met people that way (but again got to be proactive)

I think rural living (outside major towns/cities) is fantastic when you're ready to really "settle" and become a part of a community or raise a family but I think if it was my 24 year old self I wouldn't have taken to it at all.

Not only is Ireland close to everything via a flight but there are actually so many amazing places to visit in the country and there is a lot of opportunity is you have an entrepreneurial spirit.

So in the end, yes knowing what I know now I would still move -- I cannot express how lovely the people here are, it's fantastic to live in a place where you know your neighbor and they care about you (& vice versus) I just might have done a few thing differently to make things easier in the beginning....

There are a few annoying things that crop up when you're new here -- like getting all your social numbers & car insurance is HORRENDOUS and my driver's license didn't cross over (I'm american) but those can be dealt with....

Hope that helps!

cheers,
Megan

I'll be interested to see some of the responses as I'm in the throes of moving over there.