Moving back to rural limerick after 20 years??

Heffc

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with moving back to rural Limerick from elsewhere in Ireland/abroad after a long time and now you found it?

I left my small home town in Limerick to go to college in Dublin 20 years ago and have lived here since. At various time over the years I have found myself wondering about moving back home to be close to family, as many of my friends have, but always stopped short of actually doing it. Last year my husband and I had a baby and with neither family close by (my husband is from Cork about 30 minutes from my family home) we’re wondering yet again if it’s time to move back. We own a house in a very nice area of south Dublin and have two very good jobs but I feel there is a hole in our lives where our families should be and more so than even now that we have a child and I see how much he is missing by not being close to his grandparents and cousins.

Has anyone out there made the move and how did you find it? We worry about making the leap and regretting it, that we’re romanticising what life will be like closer to family and that the transition from a city to a small rural town might be a lot more difficult that we imagine.

Any thoughts?

zulutango

Well, Dublin is a tough place to live. It's expensive, pressurised, difficult to get around, etc.

But rural Ireland isn't particularly rosy either. You could feel isolated, and you might miss many of the good social and cultural aspects of the city. How about choosing the middle ground and living in Limerick City? You'd be fairly close to your family and have the benefits of city life. Or indeed Cork City, seeing as it doesn't seem to be far from the part of rural Limerick that you come from.

Heffc

thanks zulutango - I guess after 20 years of having to pack and bag (and now loads of baby equipment) and drive 2 and a half hours just to see my parents for a day or two, if we did decide to make the leap, I would want to be close by to them rather than having a 30+ minute drive from limerick city. Plus in making the break from 'city' life, I would want the benefit of space and the peace and quiet that comes with rural life and that I enjoy when we do get a chance to go home.

I'm realistic enough to know that life in my home town would have its own challenges, they'd be just a different set of challenges and its trying to figures out which ones outweigh the other. Would the benefits of being close to my parents, extended family and friends outweigh the elements of Dublin life we enjoy now. Its such a difficult one to call

Red King

If you own your own house in a very nice part of South Dublin and have two very good jobs then frankly I think you are off your head to want to move back to County Limerick.

You are basically giving up everything to be close to family for your kids sake. Think of the long term though, when your kid is old enough to go to university or looking for work. They'll probably want to leave County Limerick.

Where do you think you'd enjoy your retirement? In Dublin where you have everything or in County Limerick where services and amenities are awful.

Are you ok with the isolation of living in the countryside?

Parchment

I dont think rural living is as charming as many seem to think - there are so many break-ins in rural areas these days. A friend living rurally had her car stolen from outside her house two weeks ago. My parents have been broken into twice and neighbours have had incidents too.

To be honest i feel safer living in a city. I am hopefully going to purchase a house soon and the above reasons have made me look in the city(i know it happens in cities too), the costs of travelling in and out of the city also - cars are so expensive to own and run now. Its nice to be in the country side but the negatives outweigh the positives for me now.