Ireland: Home or Away??

Tigger

Randomness wrote: »

If you were given the choice to live the rest of your life in Ireland OR in any other country in the world, would you stay or would you go?

Obviously family, friends, job etc can't always go with you so I'd say you can bring immediate family and that would be it, also no increase/ decrease in income or anything, just a move from your life here to a life abroad.

Yes or No and the reason why either Ireland will always be your home or you'd be first in the queue to leave.

if i could earn what i earned last year in a different country ?

i'd go live in spain

Tigger

Tigger wrote: »

if i could earn what i earned last year in a different country ?

i'd go live in spain

or new zeeland looks nice

but i cant

Acacia

Randomness wrote: »

One of the biggest problems I can see is our " agh sure it's grand" attitude. Until recently (protest marches and the like) we never challenged our ideology as a society.

I don't know about that. Personally, I like our laid back attitude (well, laid back compared to places like Germany, Japan or America). What ideology are you referring to exactly?

Randomness wrote: »

We had unprecidented economic success but when it came to the crunch we hurt those most vunerable in our society first.

Yup. Pretty much like most other countries around the world. And not just recently either. It's generally the case that the ''little guy'' gets shat on by the rich. ''Let them eat cake'', and all that. Of course, it's a crap situation, but it's not exactly unique to Ireland. Or the present economic situation.

Randomness wrote: »

We laugh off political crime as "fair play to them".

Do we? I'm sure a few people will make jokey remarks about Bertie's finances but I think most people are actually quite p1ssed off at government corruption. Even on boards, you can see there's immense dis-satisfaction with the government , and 'political crime'.

Randomness wrote: »

The majority can't have a social life unless it involves drink or drugs.

I agree with you on this. I thought the 'drunkard' image was a bit of a myth until I traveled abroad and spoke to foreign people living here, who are amazed at the amount we drink. It can get a bit embarrassing to be honest.

Randomness wrote: »

We spend our days off in shopping centres instead of going to a museum, a play, up the mountains, visiting family, having a laugh.

That's consumerism for you. It's a problem in most of the Western world, not just in Ireland though.

Randomness wrote: »

Of all of this is not true for everyone but I think alot of this adds to the feeling of "apart from the friendliness and *free* education" what is there really to offer in Ireland?"

I think we have a relatively good quality of life here. It's not the best country in the world, for sure, but it's certainly not the worst.

However, I think the real problem with Ireland is that it's meant to be a first-world country, but in many ways it's not (e.g. health, infrastructure). I think we got a bit carried away with ourselves in the last few years,to be honest. The Celtic Tiger merely papered over the cracks.

Personally, I'd love to live abroad, I'm not sure where I'd like to end up, though. Possibly America or Japan.

af_thefragile

I like Ireland though there really is not much to do here. But i prefer staying in Ireland to going to USA or other european countries or anywhere where they predominantly don't speak english. I don't know what Canada or Australia or New Zealand is like though... I'll check em out first before thinking of moving there.
Wouldn't mind moving to UK but i think i prefer Ireland to UK.

norwegianwood

if i ever got the chance to go to america i'd jump at it, i'd love to live in new york!

dSTAR

tedstriker wrote: »

I'm not sure what episode of CSI you've been watching but look out the ****ing window once in a while.

My experience of the good ol' USA comes from living in the Mission District in SF. When I looked out my window I would see the local hispanic gangs up to no-good. I am quite sure my next door neighbors ran a crack operation because there was constantly people coming and going.

Whenever I would pass by my 'friendly' next door neighbor on my return from work his standard reply to me saying hello to him would be what the fu'ck are you looking at homes? This went on for so long and I hoped that one day he would acknowledge me and actually say hello. Maybe that was his way of saying hello. I really don't know ...

dSTAR

Papad wrote: »

What a load of bullcrap. The same ****e: people with little or "limited" travel experience bitching about the States. It's gas when a person's perception about a place comes from TV shows like the Shield. And if you did spend some time in America, why did you live in the ghetto?

Before I moved there back in 1998 I asked my brother who had been there years to sort me with some accommodation. I asked him to find me somewhere that was cheap. Little did I know what awaited me. The day I arrived my first impression was get me the hell out of this place. It was a shared house on skid row with a couple of Irish guys and an American chick from Maryland. The first thing they did when I arrived was chop up a few lines of charlie. No nice to meet you would like a cup of tea? They were a severely damaged bunch. But hey it was an eye opening experience nonetheless.

Neamhshuntasach

There are certain parts of the US that are really bad. The same way there are some parts of Ireland that are really bad. Only thing i find with the US is that you can be on one street and it is really nice and then you turn the corner and it's a dump. Poverty and richness are a lot closer to each other in the US i find. Over here you seem to get widerspread bad areas and they gradually turn into nice areas.

Papad

dSTAR wrote: »

Before I moved there back in 1998 I asked my brother who had been there years to sort me with some accommodation. I asked him to find me somewhere that was cheap. Little did I know what awaited me. The day I arrived my first impression was get me the hell out of this place. It was a shared house on skid row with a couple of Irish guys and an American chick from Maryland. The first thing they did when I arrived was chop up a few lines of charlie. No nice to meet you would like a cup of tea? They were a severely damaged bunch. But hey it was an eye opening experience nonetheless.

So you are basing your experiences on time spent in The Mission; a big chunk of which could be classified as one of the most dangerous areas in America. I would prefer my chances in Moyross (Limerick). And I don't think it would be fair to judge all of Ireland based on this area.

Want to remind you what you said:

Only in America do you have to step over stoned crack whores in your hallway on your way to work and be hustled by the local dealers offering you one and ones at 7am outside the subway.

And I checked down the corner of my street and this ain't happening:

On nearly every street corner homeless people beg for a quarter and down the alley ways, shoeless black people with their front teeth missing lying in their own excrement.

dSTAR

So tell me Mr Worldly .. have you been to parts of Santa Cruz, San Jose, or LA to name a few places where this type of street scape is quite common? Or are YOU basing your entire argument on the fact that because you probably live in a comfortable, upper middle class neighborhood that this type of stuff doesn't exist?

FYI I am merely giving you an account of MY time spent in the States. I am not some little naive spring chicken that has just stepped off a plane somewhere. I left Ireland in 1988 and have spent practically my entire adult life outside of Ireland in a number of different countries. Don't come here with some smart ass assumption claiming I am one of these people with little or "limited" travel experience bitching about the States. because you will find this is far from the case.

LolaLuv

This argument about the States is ridiculous. It's just like any other country; some parts are dangerous, some are very safe. What's there to debate about?

Papad

dSTAR wrote: »

So tell me Mr Worldly .. have you been to parts of Santa Cruz, San Jose, or LA to name a few places where this type of street scape is quite common? Or are YOU basing your entire argument on the fact that because you probably live in a comfortable, upper middle class neighborhood that this type of stuff doesn't exist?

FYI I am merely giving you an account of MY time spent in the States. I am not some little naive spring chicken that has just stepped off a plane somewhere. I left Ireland in 1988 and have spent practically my entire adult life outside of Ireland in a number of different countries. Don't come here with some smart ass assumption claiming I am one of these people with little or "limited" travel experience bitching about the States. because you will find this is far from the case.

I react to people spouting crap. When you spew nonesense like

Only in America do you have to step over stoned crack whores

and

On nearly every corner homeless people beg for a quarter

Do you not expect some type of reaction from your hallucinating notions?

By the way, in my time in Santa Cruz, the homeless there never asked me for a quarter, but they use to ask me for 2 bucks for a Starbucks coffee. And Santa Cruz is a fabulous place to live, even with a homeless issue. I'm sure that you are well aware why there is a "homeless" problem in the city (because they are well taken care of). Never felt threatened by any of them. And I definitely know that you are talking crap when you lob San Jose (the heart of Silicon Valley) into the mix.

I lived in the Bronx for years, so my experience is not hazed by a brief time in The Mission.

By the way, just got your PM. Don't be so angry. Life is too short for that.

Im going, the feckers robbed our pension fund to bail out anglo irish bank.
Im not stayin here to work until Im 75 or if your physically unable then live in poverty.

open your eyes people to whats going on in our country economically

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Papad

Deleted User wrote: »

Im going, the feckers robbed our pension fund to bail out anglo irish bank.
Im not stayin here to work until Im 75 or if your physically unable then live in poverty.

open your eyes people to whats going on in our country economically

Read this online on the Indo this morning:

Senior staff at ruined Anglo Irish Bank have been paid what were described as "significant" end-of-year bonuses, in an action that will cause anger and dismay among taxpayers, who are being asked to bail out the bank with €1.5bn of public money.

pearcider

I was given the option to move to Spain specifically Madrid. They have a fantastic standard of living over there (amazing public services, more relaxed way of life, greater emphasis on sports, food, culture and the small things in life rather than money, cars and drink/drugs) and in other circumstances I would jump at it. The difference in salary was shocking though. I was looking at 12-18k max over there (and a fairly hefty tax rate) compared to my 36k here. So whats savage about Ireland? The money undoubtedly. But that's it.:rolleyes:

I will move in the next couple of years once I've saved sufficient cash. My initial destination is Japan to teach English to kids for a couple of years and after that South America or back to Europe - depending. You'd be mad to stay here when it's quite clearly a depressed country. Generally, people who are 30 years old look in their 40's or 50's - the way of life gets to you here and the little islander mentality is all prevalent. Having traveled and worked in both the States and Germany, I find I can't really handle it here. I feel I'm selling my self short. People in these countries get better deals and the exhilarating sense of freedom and possibility you get on the continent or in America is totally absent in small town Ireland, even in Dublin.

Dublin is a ****ing joke to be honest compared to any other first world city you'd care to mention. A dirty, ugly 19th century village that is culturally and socially bankrupt. Not only has the boom been criminally wasted on the social and economic development of Dublin, we actually took the worst ideas from abroad rather than trying to define ourselves and reinvent the place. We repeated all the mistakes of other cities - urban sprawl etc. What do tourists think of Dublin? They think it's some sort of weird joke - a tacky kind of funderland boasting the most haphazard architecture and chaotic infrastructure in the modern world. They think Temple Bar and chippies and people making a show of themselves. Fair enough some might say but quite frankly it's an embarrassment whenever I take foreign friends there. My feelings on the place could be expressed by saying I was born and I grew up in Dublin and would NEVER raise kids there.

The rural parts of Ireland (I'm thinking places like West Cork, Kerry, Clare and Donegal) undoubtedly possess a certain bleak beauty and are special in a way and set us apart from other countries but thats about it.

In conclusion, I can't wait to leave. There's a beautiful world out there folks and modern Ireland is not part of it.