Relocating to Dundalk for work

FlyingD

Hi, just got a job offer from Pay Pal and am now deciding if I will accept the offer. I've googled a bit and found out that Dundalk is a small town. Of course the best way to find out the way of live over there is to experience it on your own, so before I make my decision I would like to ask you guys for some information as I've never been to Dundalk or Ireland.

1) I'll be earning EUR. 25.000,- Gross p.a. Is this a decent salary in Ireland?
2) How multi-cultural is Dundalk? Expat community?
3) Vibrant night life. Like clubs, lounges, disco's, bars?
4) How much is the rent for a one bedroom apartment in the city centre?
5) Restaurants I love ethnic food (Italian, Chinese, Indian, Sushi)
6) I know Dublin is the capital, how would you compare it to Dundalk? As far as the vibe.


Cheers,

FD

event

1) regarding the salary, its hard to say. Probably not great, but you'll get by.
2) this im not sure about.
3) Good lot of pubs. On park street (main street for pubs really) there's a good few places to go. Ridleys is the main nightclub, rest would all be a younger crowd. obviously there are lots of great pubs all around the town.
4) no idea, check daft.ie.
5) yeah few nice restaurants. There are a few chinese (Jade garden, Adephi jade), Indian (king balti, cant remember other one across from courtneys, anyone?), Sushi ( i dont think there's anywhere) italian (not sure if there's anywhere specialised, probably la cantina. EDIT: just remembered Eno)
6) ah they'd be far enough apart, trying to compare a city and a town. I know Dundalk is a big town, but the town centre is small enough. I find the vibe fine in it

KBarry

Thought I'd add my tuppence worth as fellow blow-in

1. I'd say salary is about average. If you're single you should get by no probs.
2. Dundalk is one of the more multi-cultural towns in Ireland. You hear plenty of strange accents and languages. Lots of Poles, Lithuanians, Africans. Not sure what you mean by ex-pat community. I am English myself. Not aware of any 'community' as such. I think we integrate fairly easily with the locals.
3. Can't really comment on the nightlife. Those days are gone for me. :P
4. As previous poster says check daft.ie for apartment prices. Do your research though. There are some real dumps.
5. Not really a restaurant person either. Hear good reports about the Jade Garden (Chinese)
6. Worlds apart. Dundalk is 'the biggest town in Ireland'. If you're coming from England say, you'd probably think it's on the small side. I like it though. Friendly locals, good location and if you're that mad about Dublin it's less than hour away. (Belfast is too now I think about it).

Rossin

id say 1 bed apt could be a tad expensive, possibly check house sharing on daft.ie as well

rogieop

FlyingD wrote: »

Hi, just got a job offer from Pay Pal and am now deciding if I will accept the offer. I've googled a bit and found out that Dundalk is a small town. Of course the best way to find out the way of live over there is to experience it on your own, so before I make my decision I would like to ask you guys for some information as I've never been to Dundalk or Ireland.

1) I'll be earning EUR. 25.000,- Gross p.a. Is this a decent salary in Ireland?
2) How multi-cultural is Dundalk? Expat community?
3) Vibrant night life. Like clubs, lounges, disco's, bars?
4) How much is the rent for a one bedroom apartment in the city centre?
5) Restaurants I love ethnic food (Italian, Chinese, Indian, Sushi)
6) I know Dublin is the capital, how would you compare it to Dundalk? As far as the vibe.
Cheers,

FD

all these questions really depend on where you are coming from. if you are living somewhere like london/manchester or any othe big city you are more than likely in for a shock.
Having said that i lived in dublin for the best part of 2 years and couldn wait to come home!

1) Salary is bang average.
2)Plenty of different cultures. A lot of eastern europeans/africans etc etc
3)Basically there are 2 nightclubs one good disco bar and a few other good pubs. as ive said if you're used to going out to different spots every week and seeing different faces, dont expect it here. you'll soon get to know the people!
4)1 bed apt in a nice location i would imagine you would be looking at anything from €500-€650.
5)restraunts - same as nightclubs. 4 or 5 very good ones. one very nice italian, couple of good chinese and couple of good indians. just a bit outside the town you'll get some better ones, Lisdoo and any of the restraunts in carlingford(assuming you have a car)
6)Dublin is a million miles apart from dundalk. two opposite worlds, but the beauty of it is only an hour away.

MugMugs

You can rent a 3 bed house for the same price as an apartment.

Waitsian

rogieop wrote: »

1 bed apt in a nice location i would imagine you would be looking at anything from €500-€650.

:eek:

I know of 7 people in Stapleton Place, myself included, paying between 95 and 110 euro a week for modern, furnished, one bedroom apartments.

FlyingD

Thanks a lot for the feedback.

I'm a single, so EUR. 2083,- gross, how much is that net?
I'm not Irish so I'm unfamiliar. I've checked some sites and it stated it wil be EUR. 1700,- net is that accurate?

With expats I mean European nationals who work in Ireland e.g. Me. So I do not mean the Eastern European/ african immigrants.

not1but4

Check out http://www.deloitte.ie/tc/ for a break down but you are looking at a Monthly Net Income of €1,791.00

After growing up in Dundalk I would personally not like to live there but thats down to me rather living in city.

Waitsian

FlyingD wrote: »

With expats I mean European nationals who work in Ireland e.g. Me. So I do not mean the Eastern European/ african immigrants.

East Europeans are, emmm... European!

Dundalk has quite a diverse population. My neighbours include a German woman, another from Vietnam, and a couple from Poland. There's quite a few from the African continent here, and quite a number of Asians too, mostly, I think, students at the local college.

For what it's worth I I'm not from here, in that I wasn't born here nor grew up here, but I love Dundalk. I'm here 17 years now and wouldn't live anywhere else. Dublin and Belfast are very near with little travel, and the town here is a relatively nice place to live.

Atomic Pineapple

As above the college in itself brings a diverse mix of people to the town so it's a pretty multi cultural town.

I lived there for two years as a student with only working for the summer and found it was cheap enough to live there in a house share for a year without the need to work through college and the celtic tiger was still alive back then so it was more expensive.

Cicrca €1800 a month should be fine to live on, I've lived on less in Dublin for a year.

Nightlife was great and it's still pretty good, the college being there means you can go out and have a bit of craic during the week too.

Dundalk also has some nice areas, best is to look on daft.ie for places you can afford and maybe post some of the one's you like here for feedback on the area.

Salvation

If your going to work in Paypal and dont want to travel to much, you could live close by (2kms walk max)

Bay Estate, Red Barns road area, even blackrock (small seaside village)

if you want to get good broadband to stay in contact with home you would be better staying close or inside the town centre.

The food and resturants in Dundalk is aimed at the local population, my missus is spanish so basically has to accustom herself to the local food, but there is plenty of variety if you want to cook your own, as for resturants the Jade garden is the best or fitzpatricks outside the town.

The pubs in Dundalk are okay but can get very loud and annoying at the weekends.

There are very few ex-pats from the original EU countries here but a lot of non nationals who forced themselves into Dundalk over the boom for economic reasons and also the proximity to the border.

Dublin is 1 hour away and can be accessed via buses (Mathews coaches the best €12 return) Trains are expensive but also there.

By car it is 1 hour to the city centre of Dublin but on the motorway at toll each way of €1.90

To see after tax what your net income is go here :
http://taxcalc.eu/

€1791 per month

Dundalk is a good town but also has its problems but generally people are friendly and it is easy to get around.

Dublin on the other hand is not and very expensive

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Salvation wrote: »

There are very few ex-pats from the original EU countries here but a lot of non nationals who forced themselves into Dundalk over the boom for economic reasons and also the proximity to the border.

That's a bit rough isn't it? Are only original EU members allowed? Ireland wasn't exactly an original EU member ourselves. Do we now discriminate against the Polish but not the Spanish? And "forced themselves"! Honestly I think you need to re-phrase that.

I know quite a few French and German people living in and around Dundalk. They don't congregate together but they are certainly here.

As for the pubs; like all towns it depends on those you frequent when it comes to noise or annoyance, to be perfectly honest.

I rate many restaurants ahead of the Jade or Fitzpatricks but eating out is very much a personal taste type of thing.

Salvation

Deborah Thundering Meadowlark wrote: »

That's a bit rough isn't it? Are only original EU members allowed? Ireland wasn't exactly an original EU member ourselves. Do we now discriminate against the Polish but not the Spanish? And "forced themselves"! Honestly I think you need to re-phrase that.

I know quite a few French and German people living in and around Dundalk. They don't congregate together but they are certainly here.

As for the pubs; like all towns it depends on those you frequent when it comes to noise or annoyance, to be perfectly honest.

I rate many restaurants ahead of the Jade or Fitzpatricks but eating out is very much a personal taste type of thing.

Rephrase me ar5e live with it deal with it and jog on with your political correctness!

Waitsian

Salvation wrote: »

Rephrase me ar5e live with it deal with it and jog on with your political correctness!

Charming! Your comment has been flagged by me for discrimination and unnecessary aggression.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Salvation wrote: »

Rephrase me ar5e live with it deal with it and jog on with your political correctness!

I too have flagged this.
Nothing to do with political correctness in the slightest; just accuracy!!:)

cournioni

Salvation warned for unnecessary jibe at immigrants. Any more of the same will result in infractions or bans.