Moving to Kells

Jobrowne33

Hi everyone,

We are living in our own place in South Dublin and considering moving to Kells. I would be really grateful to get peoples opinions and thoughts on the area. Is the town safe, are there any nice restaurants/shops? Any rough areas/is there much anti-social behaviour? Is the lack of train service to Dublin a problem - what is the traffic like between Kells and Dublin at busy periods? Is there a good choice of schools? We are both working from home but may have to be in the office 1 day a week. Is there a sense of community in the area, are the people friendly? Is there a big commuter culture or more of a village community? Apologies for the questions but we are super grateful for any insight concerning the above :) Thanks very much!

I don't live there but visit it regularly as a good friend who is originally from the town, but now lives just outside it, and it has a couple of business that I did contract work for as a sidle line for a while.

So my opinion here is just based on my frequent visits over the last few years and the scuttle that my friend mentions from time to time.

Trouble/Rough Areas/Sense of community.

For a town that has a big commuter population it has a good sense of community from what I am told, but like any country town and a good few estates, it has it's share of people who think that they know everyone else's business.

Relatively safe enough town, there are one or two families with head cases in them, that wouldn't hesitate to stab you. My wife had to give a young lad first aid after one of his classmates cut open his arm with a Stanley blade after a joke was made at his expense one evening.

Like most rural places trouble is normally around closing time with farmers beating the sh1te out of each other because of some argument over broken fences, wages not being paid, or their kids driving quads on other people's gardens and fields, or local young lads taking umbrage at people from outside the town coming in to have a night out and chatting up the local girls.

Shops.

Not great for a number of reasons, one being that unlike say Ardee, the local council insists on having metered on and off street parking, some of it 24hr, which local retailers have been complaining about for years as causing them to lose business and Navan being reasonably close with more choice of outlets.

There is one supervalu where most of the staff are quite friendly and an Aldi where the staff aren't for the most part.

There are a few boutiques and gents clothing shops, but they stock items aimed at casual and evening wear for the over 50s. If this is your style, you can get similar cheaper in Navan or online.

There are a couple of nice odds and ends shops, but the rest are the likes of Choice, glorified pound shops.

There are a couple of hardware stores, the largest is a rip off, and the family members who work there are pig ignorant, rude and wouldn't get a job unless they were related to the owner. The rest of the staff are a mixed bag, but mostly they appear to not want to be there.

There are two garages, the newest one at a motorway rest style place with a supermacs etc. But both are owned by the same guy, so no price competition and fuel can be up to 20c a litre dearer than garages in Navan.

Nightlife/Dining out

The pubs are carp and dead for the most part.

The hotel has a nightclub, but apart from that has terrible Irish country and western acts playing in the bar, you couldn't pay me enough to sit and listen to them.

The hotel does ok food, but it is a bit pricey for what it is. There is also has a very good restaurant in the same building.

The restaurant at the top of Farrell st is nice.

Good few Chinese takeaways, no Indian takeaway, they never get the customers despite the last one doing really nice food. An apache pizza place with seating upstairs but the tables have always been dirty any time I went in so just stopped going. Couple of other fast food places, and two chippers, none do nice food, which after a good few drinks doesn't bode well for what the food would be like when sober.

The pub grub in general is awful and typical of rural areas, more butter than anything else on the plate.

Good few cafes, most are just off Farrell st, but the metered parking affects their business.

Taxis are a complete rip off, wanted to charge my mate and I 30€ from Farrell st to his house which is a ten minute drive away the last time we went out for drinks in kells.

Schools

Can't help there, don't have any kids. But brand new school opened up beside the garage with the supermacs just before covid hit.

Commuting.

A bit of a pain, how much depends on where your work is.

Pre Covid the Irish owned company my friend works for wouldn't allow working from home. His office is on the northside near O'Connell st, regardless of either driving all the way into the office or going to the M3 parkway and getting the train to Cabra and then the Luas to Parnell st, he was leaving home at 6am to start his shift at 8am.