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Ireland - An Expatriate Guide
Overview
Climate and Weather
Getting There
Speaking the Language
Visas, Residency, Immigration & Documentation
Currency and Cost of Living
Foreign Currency - how to secure a favourable exchange rate
Banking
Taxation
Insurance
Business Culture
Healthcare and Medical Treatment
Social Security
Employment
Education and Schools
Utilities (Electricity, Gas, Water)
Communications (Telephone, Post, Internet, TV)
Driving and Public Transport
Food and Drink
Leisure, Entertainment and Sports
Retiring and Pensions
Taking Your Pets
Expat groups in Ireland
Property in Ireland
Property Types
Property Locations
Property Prices
Finding Your Irish Property
Purchasing Irish Property
Property Purchase Tips
Renting Property in Ireland
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Expat Ireland - Destination Mini-Guides
Dublin
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Expat Experiences of Life in Ireland (submit yours here)
For what it is worth my husband & I are both English & left England to live in Connaught about 8 years ago. We had a great welcome & have experienced nothing but friendliness. One of the most frequent questions we were asked was if we had family or a family history in Ireland. If we had been able to have answered yes then I'm sure we would have been in danger of being buried in kindness!
I am very sorry to say it, but Ireland is not the best place in the world to live if you are from any sort of ethnic background. In the north they can`t even get on with each other so much so in Belfast they have a dividing wall, and as far as I know and have been told the south is not a lot better. The Irish are an extremely suspicious and clannish lot. I know Dublin people who married into rural communities and even after having reared their families there and after living among them for 30 years plus, they were still considered to be outsiders and continued to be treated as such...
Social occasions - It's a whole lot different. Weddings for instance are celebrated in a very public way by the guests leaving the church in their cars. Horns are blown repeatedly by anything up to 40 cars as they make their way down the High Street. The noise is unbelievable! Funerals too are different. In our small town the Church is one end of the town & the cemetery the other. Sometimes the coffin is carried down the street on the shoulders of the mourners. As the coffin passes all the shops turn off the lights & lock the doors. This can be somewhat perplexing for tourists shopping who suddenly find themselves locked in & plunged into darkness.
Read more experiences here or submit your own!
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