What are the pros and cons on Ireland?

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Irish Guy

Pros:
Great craic with lots of people
beautiful country sides
Our own native language
Hundreds of touristy sites to see

Cons:
Bad weather
Gang land stuff
Drugs

The Nine Lives of Laura Gonzales

Firstly, I just want to say GW is talking a load of crap and has no idea what he (she?) is talking about. This user spent his time in Ireland surrounded by what we call "Skangers" (Similar to chavs in the UK, look them up on urbandictionary.) in what was obviously a rough area. I can assure you, most of the country isn't like this.
I'm guessing GW spent his time in Dublin. As a general rule of thumb, things are more expensive there. I won't lie, the rest of the country isn't dirt cheap, but you will pay less for things than you would in the capital.
As for the Polish/Chinese comment, again this is untrue. Yes, there are a lot of Polish and Chinese emigrants working in the service industry, but they speak english. They wouldn't be employed otherwise. I live in Ireland and I don't speak a single word of Chinese or Polish.

Pros:

* The vast majority of people are friendly and welcoming. (In some disadvantaged areas there ARE thuggish youths, but the same could be said for any country.)
*Great education system.
* Low crime rate.

Cons:

* Crap health care.
* Can be expensive.
* Skangers =P (Just kidding!)

Anyways, enjoy your time here! =]

Podge and Rodge Tribute Band

Pros:
Grainne and Sile Seioge
Caroline Morahan
Kathryn Thomas
Sharon Ni Bheolain

Cons:
That weather benny on TV3
Failte Towers
The weather is shyte
The price of a pint of plain is only shockin so it is

robbie d

pros
its a beautiful country
its people are the friendliest in europe ( fact)
its culture and history are varied and amazing
its great for a party (obviously)

cons
wheather is sometimes miserable
can be expensive but as was said already mainly in larger towns and cities
public travel can be unreliable

Conor O

PROS:
Its a beautiful country
Great people
Great culture and history
Great education system
Good food (I'm not talking about stew or other dishes associated with ireland, these are far less common than most people think)

CONS:
Expensive
Poor weather (personally i prefer a cooler climate but most people don't)

grumpyolgit

GW is absolutely right about the widespread thuggery, but it is most prevalent in cities and large - ish towns with the rural hinterland less affected. Northern Ireland is probably worse than the Republic in this respect and the likelihood of witnessing drunken brawls is probably higher than in other part of Europe. The same holds true for England, Wales and Scotland.

Avoid hanging around outside pubs and nightclubs after closing time and you should be alright. Customer service is variable - when it's good it is possibly the best in the entire world - when it's bad, it's truly awful.

Perolpe are indeed friendly, at the level of superficial banter, but many have difficulty in developing deep friendships as they are usually very reluctant to open up about the 'real' issues in their lives. Very easy to pick up loads of drinking buddies in Ireland but not so easy to find true friends.

If you can''t cope with rough and often miserable weather, stay in the east, especially the south-east corner (Wicklow, Wexford) The far west and North-West have the wettest and windiest weather, but also, by far the most beautiful scenery.

Across the island, levels of mental and physical ill-health are appallingly high and large sections of society are almost entirely dependant on social security benefits. The Irish have huge problems with all issues relating to sexuality and this sometimes has a devastating affect at the level of personal happiness. The Irish (like their British cousins) are never happier than when moaning, but are probably the leat likely people in the world to complain assertively and effectively.

Some say that many of these negative points are compensated for by their indomitable and often wildly irreverent sense of humour and their eternal gift of being able to laugh at their own stupidity. Many other nations lack this.

Kdl...xx

I live in Ireland,always have,always will!

pros:

friendly people
great range of culture and taste
beautiful scenery
clean (always good to know!)
quiet enough

cons:

weather is usually bad for most of the year (even Summer!)
some places expensive and beware of prices going up!

hope i could help!
xxx
=]
oh...and enjoy it!

Shiori_hime

Pros:
-It's been said before, but Ireland is really really pretty.
-Also been said before, but most Irish people are quite friendly and helpful.
-English is widely spoken there, so you don't have to worry about learning another language just to survive.
-I have found that it's fairly easy to get around cities like Dublin and Galway on foot, except in some cases (e.g. you live on one side of the city and the place you need to go is on the other side of the city).

Cons:
-Ireland is expensive. No two ways about it. And if you're moving there from the USA, you get the double whammy of high prices and a nasty USD/Euro exchange rate.
-The weather can be on the rainy and windy side, especially if you're right near the ocean (during a two-week period in late February and early March when I lived in Galway, I went through three umbrellas because the wind destroyed them).

Things that could go either way or always be neutral:
-Driving on the left side of the road instead of the right side. You can get used to it, but until you do you have to be extra-vigilant and get used to the idea that you might have a hair-raising experience or two.
-The health care system. The one experience I've had with it was very good. I got an ear infection and had to see a doctor. The doctor at the walk-in clinic I went to was very nice and helpful. The wait to be seen was at most 20 minutes. I did have to pay a co-pay for my visit (I want to say it was 45 Euro, but I can't remember exactly) but my penicillin prescription was very cheap -- about $10 for a full course of penicillin. On the other hand, one of my host-brothers did some serious damage to his wrist and wound up spending the entire day at the hospital, first waiting to be seen and then getting his wrist treated.
-In my opinion, Ireland is still a fairly conservative country. That might not be a problem for you, or it might be a problem in some areas but not in others.

'Er indoors!!

Pro's.
Gorgeous scenery
Great music
Great dancing
(Mainly) friendly people.
Con's.
nasty little people like Greenorlagh.
Too much alcohol abuse.
The Irish are terrible litter louts.
The weather aint always good.

As most have said, take no notice of G.W. he's talking out of his ar$e. I visited my Father's birthplace, Spiddal Galway, for the first time 2 years ago, and was blown away by the wild beauty of the place, and the warmth of the Irish people, who treated us like like friends, and not strangers. However, I DO have one complaint. My Husband is a keen fisherman, and we visited a few lakes for fishing, and we were disgusted by the amount of litter, and "fly tipping" we saw, and couldn't understand why the Irish people would want to make such a mess of their gorgeous environment.

Burnzy

Hey there, I would just like to say that Ireland is a beautiful country, However like every other country in the world it has its good point and bad points.
I honestly believe that GW is someone that has a very negative view on life and because of that he has missed some truly wonderful Irish experiences because he felt that everything was awful or else he is someone that was born on friday the 13th at 13:13pm and is cursed with bad luck hence all his negative comments and misfortunes on his trip to Ireland.

Pro's
Great Night life
Great Restaraunts
Great Pubs
Excellent for Business and Career Opps (a lot of major blue chip companies operate in Dublin and Ireland such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Pfizer, Citibank and the list goes on)
People are Friendly and welcoming
Beautiful Landscape and scenery
Excellent Shoping
Good Communications network, ie Mobile and Internet.
Lots of things to see and do
Very multicultural
Excellent Entertainment, ie Digital TV, Cinemas etc.

Con's
Weather is not great (Usually dull and rainy, however there is occasionally sunny days)
Transport is not on par with other EU countries but is getting better.
Ireland can be expensive but you pay for what you get and Ireland is worth it.

So this is my honest opinion of my country and i sincerely hope that you visit and not let any negative thinkers stop you from coming.

Enjoy Ireland.

John

agooddub

the pros are in Hardcourt St. and the cons are in Mountjoy.

Tony Heaney

well the pros are not cheap and ther dirty and as for the cons well they's rob ya blind and if you ask me the both take your money and screw you over,

shelly

Pros-
Beautiful!
Cultural
Great people
Just about everything!

Cons-
Some peoples accents are very string and it's hard to understand.
They drive ont he opposite side of the road and t's very hilly and curvy.

DON'T MOVE TO IRELAND!

I recently returned from Ireland after having spent 2 months there with relatives, I will not return for a long long time. Things are ridiculously priced, they have no concept of customer service, a lot of people are depressed and rude, there are so many wanna be thugs with the most ridiculous haircuts you've ever seen (think mullets, bangs gelled to foreheads, designs shaved in hair), and it seemed that almost everyday I saw somebody pissing on something. I saw people getting punched in the face on numerous occasions.

I could honestly go on for ages about this, it was that shitty, after visiting the UK (england), the Netherlands, France and Italy in the same trip, I can say that Ireland is by far the LAST place in Europe I would want to move (from what I've seen of it at least).

I hope you still have a chance to change your moving plans, DON'T GO!!! (PS. make sure you learn Polish and Chinese if you move there as these are now major languages in Ireland).

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