Your reasons for emigrating

seano12 · 25-01-2014 12:11AM

The Late Late Show

playedalive · 25-01-2014 12:15AM

lufties wrote: »

The thing about emigrating is it is very hard to go back and be content living in Ireland when your mind is open to new places and different ways of doing things. Lets face, Ireland isn't famous for being a progressive, forward thinking country.

You will be fine, my advice to any young person would be emigrate if they can.

Yeah I am finding the idea of emigrating a little terrifying, but I know I'll regret not doing it. I speak French and Spanish(studied them to degree level) so I would love to live where those languages are spoken as I never did an Erasmus.

I've always found Irish people a bit too set in their ways. People can be open minded but we always stick to what we know. I think that happens everywhere. I have found it easier to make friends with foreign people than with Irish at times.

Thargor wrote: »

To the people heading to France etc, are ye fluent before you go there? I thought in France you were a second class citizen if you didnt speak fluently...

Yeah I am reasonably fluent in French (I think...don't speak it too often but can get by quite well). I think it really helps when dealing with French admin.

The job I've applied for is a French government job (Ministry of Education) to be an English Language Assistant in France. I guess you could get by mostly in English in touristic places like Nice.

SamAK · 25-01-2014 12:24AM

hedgehog2 wrote: »

Last time I checked Limerick,Cork and Galway were outside Dublin.
You will find this attitude very prevalent in all 3 of these places.

Stop me if i'm wrong, but it sounds like you're suggesting that there are no narrow minded, bigoted and ignorant attitudes outside Dublin?

Legs.Eleven · 25-01-2014 12:27AM

crockholm wrote: »

Well,You do get a pass for being authentic-pretty much Everything that we eat in Ireland as "Indian" is more Pakistani in origin.
Friends lived in Wembly and is a largely Indian neighbourhood and at least 75% of the local restaurants were veggie.

I still Think I would share your hombre's families incredulity at being offered a dish without some meat.I nearly cried when one of my Brothers gf's made a Quorn Sunday dinner once.

You must be a Son of the Soil then.

crockholm · 25-01-2014 01:02AM

Legs.Eleven wrote: »

You must be a Son of the Soil then.

:D:D:D:D:D

3 of the 4 grandparents were, 1 of the 2 parents were,alas we were landless.
Though I have been known to walk with a blackthorn stick in hand occasionally.
Old habits,you know.Even now,were I to make a ratatouille,the would be a side dish with maet on it:o Can't bate the maet

Push Pop · 25-01-2014 01:23AM

lufties wrote: »

Well HK is an outpost for trade and finance, it has a 15% tax rate and maybe 10% if you are married or have a family. Services are efficient generally. The transport system is great to get around, (you can even check in for your flight with luggage from the city centre). Sometimes communication can be a problem, but generally people speak English ok.

I suppose what strikes me about the Hong Kongese is that they are not judgemental, and take you as they find you. People don't seem to have pre-conceived notions or prejudices, and don't butt in to your affairs or pigeon-hole you. Most get on with living rather than waste time with begrudgery or putting their neighbour down. It is the safest country I've ever been, have never seen anything even close to a fight. My wallet was found on a bus twice and was returned to me with everything in check. In this part of the world people just tend to get along(amongst Expats anyway). There doesn't seem to be many conservative, finger wagging Holy Joes' here either.

I don't want to turn this into a debate of Ireland is crap, 'insert country' is great, as that would be naive and simple minded. Everywhere has it's positives/negs.

The best thing about Hong Kong is Neptune's nightclub 1-3, got the shift within 2 minutes

ArnieSilvia · 25-01-2014 01:34AM

Most of you wont' like what I say but hey!

I emigrated with family into Ireland 10 years ago and tried to get out of here ever since. Unfortunately, the conclusion we made is that wherever you go there will be some unfairness, be it in this or another part of life. It's down to personal choices and which good bits suit in particular case. For us, Ireland was a good place to raise kids in financial safety with gov't support if needed (didn't really but it's nice it's there). There was a lot of sacrifice that had to be done, never mind cultural differences etc but it works for us and will for a while. Once kids grow up, we'll emigrate somewhere else but for now we're stuck.

Contrary to what most say I think that mild weather is actually a positive here, relatively easy to live on day to day basis, low heating cost, houses can be built cheaply.

We moved around with our 2 kids so we know Westmeath, Longford, Tipp, Dublin inside out along with surrounding counties and many longer trips. We've seen most of what Ireland has to offer. This is a great country for raw nature but that's it. Lots of lost potential in ruined/unrestored castles making an impression that there is no respect for the past. I say that best thing about France is what people created there, best thing about Ireland is what people didn't ruin.

We spent lots of time with my wife discussing different options, countries, career prospects and every time we had to say that there must be no other country in the world where a man doing unskilled work can support family on his own. And this was always the deciding factor, because having experienced financial trouble (far worse than most Irish can imagine), family security has always been above all. We see the system being abused and costing lots. Budget deficit is shocking in context of politicians trumpeting their "success". I find it nice that Irish look after the most vulnerable, disabled etc but again, this is sooo abused and I speak here from knowing people living well off these benefits unlawfully.

Irish idea of recession is very different to its meaning abroad. Full clubs, bars, restaurants, hotels, binge drink, holidays, ppl not taking care about their stuff, cars wtf? Recession is where you lost your job, your social welfare is gone, have no money and no prospects at all i.e. you are fcuked.

We build our careers here doing hard work from very bottom and we are doing very well now, both came here educated to 3rd level degrees but in completely different sectors with not-so-great English - we had to adjust to local market. So this can be done. But while others were on building sites during boom, earning 1000 p/w, I was on 20k p.a. developing new skills. Hard work, not greed got us (and many others) where we are now.

Insurance fraud happens everywhere in the world. It's nice that Irish take so much care about safety and compensation but in many cases, attitude to pay for plain stupidity and lack of self-responsibility I saw are just unbelieveable :eek:

Our kids are in a great Educate Together school and its Principal and teachers are sooo great but we also had experience of our kids attending catholic school in small town in Tipp and it was shocking. Those teachers were basically doing their best to kill any form of incentive in our kids and please don't start me on prayers.

And in general, there's a large group of very decent people here but also unproportional amount of "element". Why oh why this society feeds these leechers every day and expect nothing in return but "if we don't give them SW they will be stealing on the streets".

In regard to some comments on openness, again, lots of great examples, nicely weighed opinions but I also have lots to say on the contrary. May I avoid it please. And Sinn Fein too.

And it goes on and on. It's a country of big contrasts. Like everywhere else.

Electric Sheep · 25-01-2014 01:46AM

Annie Silvia's post makes almost every other one on this thread look very immature and stupid. Ireland is very fortunate to have immigrants of this quality. So I guess it can't be quite such a hell hole;)

LETHAL LADY · 25-01-2014 02:00AM

ArnieSilvia wrote: »

our kids are in a great Educate Together school and its Principal and teachers are sooo great but we also had experience of our kids attending catholic school in small town in Tipp and it was shocking. Those teachers were basically doing their best to kill any form of incentive in our kids and please don't start me on prayers.

Fair points until ya slagged Tipp. Seriously though my experience with education in rural Ireland is that they stick to what is the norm and there is no options for something different. The small town I'm from has schools all attached to religious orders so there is no choice. I don't blame the teachers, they gots to gets paid.

ArnieSilvia · 25-01-2014 02:13AM

LETHAL LADY wrote: »

Fair points until ya slagged Tipp. Seriously though my experience with education in rural Ireland is that they stick to what is the norm and there is no options for something different. The small town I'm from has schools all attached to religious orders so there is no choice. I don't blame the teachers, they gots to gets paid.

What you said about education is what I meant and thanks for that. No need to mix Tipp with it, true. Sometimes I find it difficult to say what I mean. If you know what I mean:D

On more serious note, my wife had a work placement in my kids' school and that's how she got "insider" knowledge and how we confirmed our worries. We decided to move to Dublin when she came back home one day crying "we fail as parents for what we do to our kids by them having to attend this school" You are right, it's the system, local powers and agenda rather than teachers. And to clear things up, I'm a Catholic. Not much so these days though.

crockholm · 25-01-2014 02:15AM

If anything,Ireland is doing well in the education stakes (according to PISA)and going in the right diretion.Plus I have had a Catholic education starting with Nuns in primary school all the way until finishing secondary school where religion class was a free class,the teacher told us to do homework/sleep.
And that was nigh 20 years ago,so I find it strange that the claim would be made about religion(esp catholicism) being a stifling and overbearing influence on todays schools, but I am willing to accecpt that what Counts as stifling will change from person to person.

hedgehog2 · 25-01-2014 02:22AM

ArnieSilvia wrote: »

Most of you wont' like what I say but hey!

I emigrated with family into Ireland 10 years ago and tried to get out of here ever since. Unfortunately, the conclusion we made is that wherever you go there will be some unfairness, be it in this or another part of life. It's down to personal choices and which good bits suit in particular case. For us, Ireland was a good place to raise kids in financial safety with gov't support if needed (didn't really but it's nice it's there). There was a lot of sacrifice that had to be done, never mind cultural differences etc but it works for us and will for a while. Once kids grow up, we'll emigrate somewhere else but for now we're stuck.

Contrary to what most say I think that mild weather is actually a positive here, relatively easy to live on day to day basis, low heating cost, houses can be built cheaply.

We moved around with our 2 kids so we know Westmeath, Longford, Tipp, Dublin inside out along with surrounding counties and many longer trips. We've seen most of what Ireland has to offer. This is a great country for raw nature but that's it. Lots of lost potential in ruined/unrestored castles making an impression that there is no respect for the past. I say that best thing about France is what people created there, best thing about Ireland is what people didn't ruin.

We spent lots of time with my wife discussing different options, countries, career prospects and every time we had to say that there must be no other country in the world where a man doing unskilled work can support family on his own. And this was always the deciding factor, because having experienced financial trouble (far worse than most Irish can imagine), family security has always been above all. We see the system being abused and costing lots. Budget deficit is shocking in context of politicians trumpeting their "success". I find it nice that Irish look after the most vulnerable, disabled etc but again, this is sooo abused and I speak here from knowing people living well off these benefits unlawfully.

Irish idea of recession is very different to its meaning abroad. Full clubs, bars, restaurants, hotels, binge drink, holidays, ppl not taking care about their stuff, cars wtf? Recession is where you lost your job, your social welfare is gone, have no money and no prospects at all i.e. you are fcuked.

We build our careers here doing hard work from very bottom and we are doing very well now, both came here educated to 3rd level degrees but in completely different sectors with not-so-great English - we had to adjust to local market. So this can be done. But while others were on building sites during boom, earning 1000 p/w, I was on 20k p.a. developing new skills. Hard work, not greed got us (and many others) where we are now.

Insurance fraud happens everywhere in the world. It's nice that Irish take so much care about safety and compensation but in many cases, attitude to pay for plain stupidity and lack of self-responsibility I saw are just unbelieveable :eek:

Our kids are in a great Educate Together school and its Principal and teachers are sooo great but we also had experience of our kids attending catholic school in small town in Tipp and it was shocking. Those teachers were basically doing their best to kill any form of incentive in our kids and please don't start me on prayers.

And in general, there's a large group of very decent people here but also unproportional amount of "element". Why oh why this society feeds these leechers every day and expect nothing in return but "if we don't give them SW they will be stealing on the streets".

In regard to some comments on openness, again, lots of great examples, nicely weighed opinions but I also have lots to say on the contrary. May I avoid it please. And Sinn Fein too.

And it goes on and on. It's a country of big contrasts. Like everywhere else.

Why did you leave your own country;what were your reasons to come here.
The thread us about reasons for leaving Irekand but be interesting to hear why you left your birth country and why come to Ireland as I am sure there will be similarities.

BraziliaNZ · 25-01-2014 02:34AM

Jasus this thread has grown. Ireland is a lovely place if you're earning decent dollars in fairness and you know nice people which is how it always was for me back home. There were 2 dudes exchanging crack probably which seems to be the gout du jour around here across the road just now on my way home and old bill were pulling apart a car and searching someone outside my local. And the thing is I miss this sh*t when I go home but if I ever have kids I'd much rather raise them in Eire with the family and friends network. We really are blessed to have been born in Ireland, you could have done a lot worse. Going home for me now is as exciting as going on holidays in the Med etc because we're just the nicest and most interesting and witty bunch of people on the planet as far as I'm concerned - and that goes for all the haters on this thread, I bet you're all sound, compared to Germans and feckin' Australians etc. Embrace your natural Irish charm! Sorry lads I've had a few...

maninasia · 25-01-2014 02:57AM

SamAK wrote: »

First thing i'd suggest - get the hell out of the cities!

Ever been to the Northern Rivers, north NSW(Byron bay and inward)?

Yes I have actually, I am very familiar with Queensland aswell, which why I said they are NOT liberal. I live in Asia so am used to the police Not getting in your face about everything and a generally more relaxed view if law enforcement and regularions. Also the 'put a fee on everything' hasn't reached most of Asia yet, long may it continue.

ArnieSilvia · 25-01-2014 08:34AM

hedgehog2 wrote: »

Why did you leave your own country;what were your reasons to come here.
The thread us about reasons for leaving Irekand but be interesting to hear why you left your birth country and why come to Ireland as I am sure there will be similarities.

You're dead right there, reasons are very similar regardless where you come from. It's just the "unfairness" bit that can be more or less severe.

I outlined some reasons why I would like to leave Ireland after coming here. Reasons for leaving my original country were as follows:

1. We found it ridiculous that having 3rd level education we were not able to support ourselves in full time work. We had to rely on our parents to survive on top of the fact that my parents gave us a place to live and paid all bills. 2001-2005 were really dreadful, unemployment sky high. I was on 80 CENT per hour. Working 60 hours each week, after taxes my take home pay was equivalent 40 euro per week. This was in a country entering EU. Bag of nappies for our child was 12 euro, 2L coke 85 cent. Imagine working 1.5 days (before tax) to buy nappies:eek: Or the best - petrol 80 cent. Commuting mere 20 km's meant 2.5 hours wages gone on petrol for each day.

2. I was sick and tired of sending CV's which seemed like wasting money really (this was an expensive task back then). I sent THREE CV's to Ireland and 7 to UK (I aimed at certain businesses where I was an expert) and got a phone call and was in a job a week later.

3. Constantly changing government, law, business environment, unstable currency (high fluctuation, impossible to import/export anything)

4. Idiotic employer's requirements for given work position. 3rd level degree required for simple jobs, languages (certified!!!) where not needed at all. This all cost time/money.

5. Growing disproportion between rich and poor. I felt that it become a national sport that an owner of business was driving a fancy new car and his workers were starving.

6. Massive frustration, sadness, tragedy of all involved in above mess.

Of course, there were positives - parents, friends, own house, weather (I actually like to have 4 seasons), food I could cook (availability of certain ingredients), no road tax (included in price of petrol). But all these become irrelevant once we settled in Ireland as we worked our lives around it.

One thing hasn't changed though - certain OTC medicines aren't available here (presume they are generics now and market is too small to bother implementing them by big names). It's sad to see kids with vomiting bug in hospitals every year treated with Nurofen/Calpol/dehydration/mess etc while 1 spoon of proper stuff can sort it out within hours. We bring them here ourselves. And do my teeth at home. 200 euro for top specialist job using endoscope.

It's also very difficult with parents getting very old. We visit them every year and I was glad to hear my sister with family is returning after 14 years in Germany.

maninasia · 25-01-2014 09:44AM

ArnieSilvia wrote: »

What you said about education is what I meant and thanks for that. No need to mix Tipp with it, true. Sometimes I find it difficult to say what I mean. If you know what I mean:D

On more serious note, my wife had a work placement in my kids' school and that's how she got "insider" knowledge and how we confirmed our worries. We decided to move to Dublin when she came back home one day crying "we fail as parents for what we do to our kids by them having to attend this school" You are right, it's the system, local powers and agenda rather than teachers. And to clear things up, I'm a Catholic. Not much so these days though.

Having a choice on how to educate your kids is extremely important. I get why that was a big problem.

The important thing for me is to get religious influence out of Irish schools and to promote a more modern curriculum and more independent activities. This education together program sounds really good (and it did not exist until recently..which goes to show Ireland is changing for the better in some ways). I've also heard that many immigrants do have a tough time in rural areas because of the lack of such schools and the fact that locals would be a bit more insular and the community less diverse. Try being a person of color in those places, it would be much more difficult than a European moving there! There is prejudice towards people of colour and it is alive and well in Ireland. In the end it's not surprising that immigrants tend to concentrate in Dublin especially.

I'm guessing Arnie hasn't mentioned a bit of an uptick in 'furriners taking our jobs' attitudes that is occurring in Ireland. While it's to be expected in times of economic distress that the rabble look for somebody that looks different to blame for their problems (and the same happens in the UK), it's also a push factor for immigrants to leave Ireland again.

Education standards in developed parts of Asia can be fairly high , especially in maths and foreign languages, and schools often have better and more modern facilities than Ireland and more resources, but I think the Irish system is better overall as it has not become completely cram school infested (yet) and kids still have time off for other activities and to participate in sports.

Lastly I'd say moving within Europe, while challenging , is nothing compared to an Asian moving to Europe or a Westerner moving to Asia or the Middle East. I mean the real Asia or Middle East here not Dubai or HK

.

ArnieSilvia · 25-01-2014 10:22AM

I think that religion has no place in schools. Catholic or any other. But I find it extremely important to maintain cultural status quo. And to expect newcomers to follow the rule "If you want to live here, fine. You want to maintain your culture, language, fine. But respect our culture and don't impose your rules on us". Seems like UK, Sweden, France etc are already in trouble for letting certain people in. Those people are well known for not respecting laws of countries they visit.

I like that Ireland maintains hard line expecting newcomers to adjust themselves. A lot of people are laughing now about old fashioned approach of christian countries rejecting gender, muslims etc but and I think there might be a time in our history when French, British, Swedes will come to say Poland or Ireland only for reason they wont' have to follow Sharia law. Wasn't it problems with minorities that started wars? The whole idea of countries containing single nation isn't that old. And it came up for a reason.

On a side note, I recall a story of some ppl from Pakistan who lived in Galway, were not happy with their kid going to catholic shool. So they moved to Dublin, put kids in ET shool, not happy again because of "we are all equal" attitude, not really compatible with muslims. So they put their kid in muslim shool and after few months it came back saying crap about jihad, they freaked out and put kid back into ET shool. Their reason for leaving far east was religious extremism. Reason for leaving London was reputation muslims already had there. I noticed that a lot of them end up in Canada once they got EU papers anyway.

25-01-2014 10:40AM

Voluntary redundancy, a desire to travel and I thought I'd get a good job in Melbourne in the same career path.. Teaching in Vietnam instead.

hedgehog2 · 25-01-2014 10:53AM

maninasia wrote: »

Having a choice on how to educate your kids is extremely important. I get why that was a big problem.

The important thing for me is to get religious influence out of Irish schools and to promote a more modern curriculum and more independent activities. This education together program sounds really good (and it did not exist until recently..which goes to show Ireland is changing for the better in some ways). I've also heard that many immigrants do have a tough time in rural areas because of the lack of such schools and the fact that locals would be a bit more insular and the community less diverse. Try being a person of color in those places, it would be much more difficult than a European moving there! There is prejudice towards people of colour and it is alive and well in Ireland. In the end it's not surprising that immigrants tend to concentrate in Dublin especially.

I'm guessing Arnie hasn't mentioned a bit of an uptick in 'furriners taking our jobs' attitudes that is occurring in Ireland. While it's to be expected in times of economic distress that the rabble look for somebody that looks different to blame for their problems (and the same happens in the UK), it's also a push factor for immigrants to leave Ireland again.

Education standards in developed parts of Asia can be fairly high , especially in maths and foreign languages, and schools often have better and more modern facilities than Ireland and more resources, but I think the Irish system is better overall as it has not become completely cram school infested (yet) and kids still have time off for other activities and to participate in sports.

Lastly I'd say moving within Europe, while challenging , is nothing compared to an Asian moving to Europe or a Westerner moving to Asia or the Middle East. I mean the real Asia or Middle East here not Dubai or HK .

Have to disagree with you on some of you points merley from experience.
My wife when she came here is from Asia and one of the poorest countries in Asia.
We hace lived in rural Irelabd abd not once experienced any insular views,maybe they keep them to themselves but as a whole its been a very positive welcome towards her.
She is a tough cookie either way and has educated herself hete,taken the jobs most wont and always is positive about it.
Your right about those educate together schools,my neice attends one and her mother is fairly religious but thinks this school is great.

MonaPizza · 25-01-2014 11:01AM

Women.

I've always had a weakness for Aussie women with tattoos and the kind of vocabulary that would make a docker blush.

Then there are dark-skinned coffee coloured princesses. Serious deficit of such creatures in Ireland.

Then there are the violent-tempered Latin flowers who throw boiling soup at you if you dare to look at another woman.

It's all good!

JoyousThumbs · 25-01-2014 11:07AM

Been in Australia over 3 years. Left simply due to boredom and frustration with Ireland. Beginning of the recession, all doom and gloom, enough of that. Don't regret leaving. Australia is a great country and the things I complain about here are the same as everyone complains about everywhere, taxes, laws, other drivers. But iv learnt the grass isnt always greener and you cant change who you are. Leaving Ireland in a strange way has brought me closer to it. Iv had time to move beyond all the negative things people are posting about Ireland and instead remember my homeland fondly.

MonaPizza · 25-01-2014 11:48AM

JoyousThumbs wrote: »

Been in Australia over 3 years. Left simply due to boredom and frustration with Ireland. Beginning of the recession, all doom and gloom, enough of that. Don't regret leaving. Australia is a great country and the things I complain about here are the same as everyone complains about everywhere, taxes, laws, other drivers. But iv learnt the grass isnt always greener and you cant change who you are. Leaving Ireland in a strange way has brought me closer to it. Iv had time to move beyond all the negative things people are posting about Ireland and instead remember my homeland fondly.

I've lived in several different countries outside of Ireland and I can safely say that the Irish are a bunch of money grubbing **** who fumble in the greasy till. Generalisation? For sure but I find that the richest English or Dutch or German person who could buy and sell some half in hock Paddy would never brag about their wealth and would never ask you what you earned or owned. The Irish pursuit of a few pennies is embarrassing and disgusting.

SamAK · 25-01-2014 07:46PM

I beg young people to travel. If you don’t have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. Have your mind blown. Eat interesting food. Dig some interesting people. Have an adventure. Be careful. Come back and you’re going to see your country differently, you’re going to see your president differently, no matter who it is. Music, culture, food, water. Your showers will become shorter. You’re going to get a sense of what globalization looks like. It’s not what Tom Friedman writes about; I’m sorry. You’re going to see that global climate change is very real. And that for some people, their day consists of walking 12 miles for four buckets of water. And so there are lessons that you can’t get out of a book that are waiting for you at the other end of that flight. A lot of people—Americans and Europeans—come back and go, ohhhhh. And the light bulb goes on.”
― Henry Rollins

maninasia · 26-01-2014 01:38AM

LETHAL LADY wrote: »

Fair points until ya slagged Tipp. Seriously though my experience with education in rural Ireland is that they stick to what is the norm and there is no options for something different. The small town I'm from has schools all attached to religious orders so there is no choice. I don't blame the teachers, they gots to gets paid.

Just after reading some schools spend up to 9 hours a week on religion. WTF.

Get religion out of schools in Ireland!

eternal · 26-01-2014 05:23AM

Nobody speaks to me in Ireland. I am actually being ousted out of the country.

beks101 · 26-01-2014 05:26AM

eternal wrote: »

Nobody speaks to me in Ireland. I am actually being ousted out of the country.

Hello Eternal!
How are you?
Any news?

eternal · 26-01-2014 05:53AM

beks101 wrote: »

Hello Eternal!
How are you?
Any news?

Thank you for verifying my existence through my other wise ghost life state

lufties · 26-01-2014 08:14AM

Push Pop wrote: »

The best thing about Hong Kong is Neptune's nightclub 1-3, got the shift within 2 minutes

Nah, the old neptune's is gone. Escape is probably the best, in the wan chai area at least. Personally I prefer going out in soho.

Daveysil15 · 26-01-2014 10:08AM

FTA69 wrote: »

I was stuck in a major rut at the time that revolved around drinking. I just couldn't fathom hanging around that town for years on end, drinking in the same pubs and doing the same sh*t week in and week out.

^^^This, the only reason I emigrated tbh. I was sick of the drinking culture in Ireland and doing the same thing every weekend. I was never much of a drinker, so I just stopped going out and realised there was feck all else to do. So myself and a mate who felt the same way decided to move abroad. I'm 30 now, but I'm a lot happier living in Ireland now than what I was in my early 20's. I have a better job and some good hobbies which allow me to meet lots of interesting people, and I'm just generally happier in myself. There seems to be a lot more to do now. I still think the nightlife in crap here, but there isn't the same pressure to go out and get pissed like there was when I was younger. Whenever I do go out now its just for a few drinks to catch up with some mates.

DoozerT6 · 26-01-2014 11:25AM

ArnieSilvia wrote: »

Lots of lost potential in ruined/unrestored castles making an impression that there is no respect for the past.

I know this is only a small point from your very informative post, but I just thought I'd address it.

Personally I think ruined or unrestored castles SHOWS a great respect for the past. Why upgrade or restore everything to the hilt? We have plenty of heritage sites that ARE restored, been upgraded, have visitor centres and tours - people actually do come here to see unrestored buildings, to see what it was like to live in a place with bare stone walls, tiny windows with no glass, to see what a place might have looked like in it's raw state, before The Gubbermint, or Bord Failte, or whoever, decided that a historic site needed a makeover.

It's the ruined buildings and castles that are part of our heritage. They are part of our history and our landscape. THAT'S what's real about this country, which is not found in many countries outside of Europe. It's why tourists come here.

Anyway, I haven't had any coffee yet. Maybe I better go get some.

Your reasons for emigrating

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