Moving to Ballaghaderreen, Roscommon from Dublin

alex_r

Hello Roscommonians,

My partner and I decided to make a move. You can't find a better time for that.

It's a nice house just outside the town in the Friarshill estate. Supervalue is not far. I think there is Lidl somewhere around as well.
The town is quiet, not much going on around from what I noticed when was there a couple of weeks ago though.
Are there any other places where you go for a cup of coffee or a little bit of shopping?

We can't wait to move in. But I need to sort electricity, broadband, and oil first.
Any suggestions?
Our new neighbor said there is a fiber connection, but I couldn't google that up.
Our work is internet-based and we need good and stable broadband.
Which electricity provider would you advise? Oil provider?

We never dealt with oil heating before. Any tips and advice?

Thank you in advance

alex_r

Update:
After more googling and ringing, it looks like even if our house is in the green OpenEir Fibre area, the closest cabinet is 500 metres away and that means we won't get more than 15mb/3mb speeds(in reality it probably will be half of it). Also no SIRO in our area. The only hope is on government's NBP(FTTH). But that won't be available at least for another half a year.
Does anyone have any idea how 4g dongles work there?

alex_r

Hello, anyone? I feel like I shouldn't have added "from Dublin"

PatrickSmithUS

alex_r wrote: »

Hello, anyone? I feel like I shouldn't have added "from Dublin"

We moved to Letterkenny from Dublin around five years ago. I'd advisae the following:
- Just use Eir for your broadband, no matter what provider you use you'll have their engineers doing the installation anyhow. Little difference on price. We had it for the first few years until I got Sky Q into the house, best bet for multiroom TVs.
- Use bonkers to find the cheapest electricity supplier. Don't be caught out by special gifts and offers.

Matta Harri

Hi Alex! Sorry I’m from Roscommon but not near Ballagh and I don’t know much about the area. You’re no distance from Castlerea though which would probably be a livelier town for coffee etc. Shopping, probably Roscommon town or Ballyhaunis maybe? Anyway, very best of luck and I hope you will be very happy

RoscommonTom

Galway or castlebar would be the best places for the shopping, Internet is cat all over roscommon

NOTE: Reading my post below may be a complete waste of time.

I don't live in the area (I'm in Louth) but I drive through Roscommon a fair bit.

It seems to me, that Ballaghaderreen has cheap property, for it's location. I think it became a prominent direct provision place or something like that a few years ago? Not sure of the exact background, but it does seem to have a strong Muslim population. I wonder is this one of the reasons why property is cheaper? People being afraid of anything that's different?

From my spinning through the place, I see a fair few Muslim folk doddling about, doing their shopping and such, but I never see any hassle or trouble being caused.

I've always been interested in the 'buy a cheap detached house and do it up over time' approach to housing, and although I'm not yet in a position to buy anything, Ballaghaderreen has always interested me, purely for it's ability to get a detached house at a low price, and live somewhat rural, yet have pretty decent town nearby if it's needed. It's an area that you don't have to worry too much about getting over-developed for the next 20-30 years (hopefully!).


That said - you're probably looking at a completely different approach to it than I am. Presumably looking to be a tad more social than me. Again, I'm not a resident, so I can't speak of anti-social behaviour issues, or which estates would be plagued by them. But there are obvious signs to look out for (graffiti, litter, down-trodden occupied houses, etc.).

I know my (GoMo) phone internet seems to be generally fine in the area. It's a long commute from Dublin, and the national broadband plan is likely to hit hiccups and issues every step of the way (this is Ireland) so I wouldn't bet money on having that wired up anytime soon.

I'm not familiar with Friarshill estate (I can't even find it on a map!), but you can generally tell what an estate will be like, just from the look of it, and a quick google search. That said, for the likes of Ballaghadereen, property isn't overly expensive - if I were in your shoes i'd be looking for something with some level of privacy and away from any knuckle-draggers (personally, I'd like to live as far away from anyone as possible, but i appreciate that's not likely your goal).

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

Deleted User wrote: »

I wonder is this one of the reasons why property is cheaper? People being afraid of anything that's different?

I'm not sure that it's a case that the locals are afraid of or dislike Muslims (or at least, I bloody hope not), I'd say it's more the fact that Ballagh is in a very peripheral area with few employment opportunities and poor transport links to any large centres of commerce. It was some of the cheapest real estate in Ireland long before Direct Provision had any influence.

mattser

Full page in yesterdays Irish Times ( pull out section ) on Ballagh. Couples who moved from Dublin to wfh etc, plus new small businesses etc. Good read.

Matta Harri

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

I'm not sure that it's a case that the locals are afraid of or dislike Muslims (or at least, I bloody hope not), I'd say it's more the fact that Ballagh is in a very peripheral area with few employment opportunities and poor transport links to any large centres of commerce. It was some of the cheapest real estate in Ireland long before Direct Provision had any influence.

It was never great but it’s gone to the dogs in the last 10/12 years.

Airyfairy12

Ballagh is ridiculous, is so underfunded, theres barely even a public transport system and buses are constantly late. The direct provision center is the most excitement that town has had in forever. Locals were buzzing with RTE cameras showing up to interview people on the street. The property is so cheap because no one wants to live there, it has nothing to do with Muslims. Shame on the government for sticking refugees there, bad enough for them as it is without sticking them in a dead end hole.

To answer the OP's question, Durkins bar & Fiddlers Elbow are decent enough.

deepsilent

alex_r wrote: »

Hello, anyone? I feel like I shouldn't have added "from Dublin"

did you move at the end?

beggars_bush

Airyfairy12 wrote: »

Ballagh is ridiculous, is so underfunded, theres barely even a public transport system and buses are constantly late. The direct provision center is the most excitement that town has had in forever. Locals were buzzing with RTE cameras showing up to interview people on the street. The property is so cheap because no one wants to live there, it has nothing to do with Muslims. Shame on the government for sticking refugees there, bad enough for them as it is without sticking them in a dead end hole.

To answer the OP's question, Durkins bar & Fiddlers Elbow are decent enough.

the problem is, the town is in Roscommon but half of the locals think they are in Mayo