What is Galway Like for young families?

Caz2008

Hello.
I am thinking about moving to Galway from Australia.
I have 3 children 2,4 and 5 yrs old.

Where are the nice areas to live?
What is your typical house like?
What are the schools like?
Lifestyle?

My hubby and I are after as much info as you can give us. We are both 30 yrs old and would love a general overview of Galway if possible.

Thank you
Caz

Faith

I'm stumped as to why you asked that in the Abroad forum, rather than the Galway one, but I'll go ahead and move it for you.

biko

Caz2008, have you ever been to Ireland before? England?
Where in Oz are you based?

Galway is generally regarded as the nicest city in Ireland but being on the Atlantic coast it can get very rainy, windy and cold.

workaccount

biko wrote: »

Caz2008, have you ever been to Ireland before? England?
Where in Oz are you based?

Galway is generally regarded as the nicest city in Ireland but being on the Atlantic coast it can get very rainy, windy and cold.

It's not big. Infrastructure is not brilliant - regarding roads, rail. Airport though which is good. Very expensive. (Ireland in general)

I should actually add that I don't like Galway and am looking forward to leaving here in the future.

skelliser

galway has a population of about 60/70 thousand people. its on a river, the corrib which runs into galway bay. we have a relatively young population thanks to the university and the institute of technology so this swells the pop. by ~20,000 during term time.
public transport is not great but this is a problem throughout ireland, so there is a heavy use/relience on cars, put galway has some decent roads etc.
there are loads of schools in galway city and must are great, there is also a few gael scoils which are primary schools that teach thru the irish language. this is due to galway being located near a gaeltacht, irish speaking region and conemara, a scenic mountainous area to the west of the city.
since we're near the atlantic it rains quiet alot during the year but our summers are (generally) mild and sunny!
its also steaped in history and has lovely scenery. galway is also well known for its laid back attitude and relaxed and friendly people. this is evident from the amount of people from other parts of ireland who flock to live here.

check out www.galway.net for local news etc and the wikipedia page is quite accurate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galway

oh and by the way i love galway!!
Gaillimh Abu!!!

biko

http://wikitravel.org/en/Galway

Galway is safe town by any standards. It's a small town compared to Dublin, and it luckily doesn't have to deal with the problems big cities have.

With that said, it is a party down and the weekends can get pretty crazy. Keep your wits about ya, and stay in groups if you don't know the city. For example, I have seen a man (quite intoxicated) get swarmed by woman dressed like Roma in City Centre. If you do get lost, the locals are always helpful.

Areas that should be avoid are Ballybrit and Renmore. They are a bit dodgy, but far from any tourist areas so it's doubtful you'll come close to them.

http://www.google.ie/search?q=moving+to+galway

What other boardsers said

Lockstep

skelliser wrote: »

check out www.galway.net for local news etc and the wikipedia page is quite accurate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galway

oh and by the way i love galway!!
Gaillimh Abu!!!

Pff screw that serious stuff.

The lady would want to know what Galway is REALLY like.

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Galway

Mrs OBumble

You won't get many replies from people with young families here, they're too busy raising their children to be on the boards!

Galway is extremely vibrant, given it's population (60-70 thousand). The population has doubled in the last ten-ish years, the infrastructure hasn't. So really crowded roads, somewhat limited shops, .. but a brand new water treatment system!

There are lots of artistic/cultural activites, which do included a children's festival each year. But most are aimed at adults. Galway is far more open to immigrants than many other Irish towns and cities (and has been since it was a trading post back in the 1500s I've been told). But there is some racism.

Do you know anything about living in Ireland? In many ways, Galway isn't different to other Irish towns, for an immigrant. Do you have any way to get citizenship (eg Irish parent) or a work-visa? Will you able to support yourself (eg healthcare for kids) without govt assistance for the first two years (until you qualify for habitual residency).

Are you Catholic? Will you mind your kids going to Catholic schools? There are a few non-denominational schools opening, slowing, but places are pretty limited. If you are Catholic, does it bother you that the flavour here is pretty conservative and unfriendly: don't expect the mega-parishes here to be warm friendly communities like you might meet elsewhere, they ain't.

JohnCleary

kickoutthejams wrote: »

Pff screw that serious stuff.

The lady would want to know what Galway is REALLY like.

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Galway

I'd love to know what cnut wrote that, I'm mentioned in it

skelliser

JohnCleary wrote: »

I'd love to know what cnut wrote that, I'm mentioned in it

so u are actually knacker dwarf?!:eek:

Lockstep

JohnCleary wrote: »

I'd love to know what cnut wrote that, I'm mentioned in it

Which person on it are you?

Interceptor

OP - don't even think about it. Raising kids in or around Galway is a nightmare. You will spend your life either sitting in traffic or wet. I have a 4 and an 8 year old and only for the fact we live in the boonies outside Galway I would have moved ANYWHERE years ago. Any of my 30's-40's friends who are raising kids in town are heading for early graves with their pockets empty.

Unless you have independant means (i.e you are rich) or either you or your hubby will work as well paid civil servants or college lecturers then I would look elsewhere with a proper quality of life for young families - Australia springs to mind but you already know what that is like...

Galway is a great town if you are 20-50 with no money or kids and you want to drink, surf, act, party, study or waste ten years writing a 'novel'. Sorry - I've overstayed by ten years and can't give an unbiased view. Oh and it NEVER stops flipping raining.

'cptr

dafunk

1) It rains an enormous amount in Galway compared to anywhere else in Ireland, and it rains alot everywhere else in Ireland.

2) The countryside is beautiful and easily accessible.

3) If you're into outdoorsy stuff for you or your kids it's fantastic. Hiking, swimming, water sports etc. These activities need to be done regardless of the weather, the expression 'Lets wait til it clears up' will result in never doing anything.

4) People complain a lot about the traffic but it's not too bad compared to most cities.

5) I would describe it more as a large town than a small city. It's a small place, which has advantages and disadvantages.

6) Regarding your kids I would look into schools in the areas.

7) Galway has been described to me many a time as 'The graveyard of ambition'.

8) Did I mention it rains a lot

9) The people are great, very friendly.

Caz2008

Thanks for your replies.

As for many things mentioned.....Not Catholic, Husband will have a very well paying job, curious about what houses are like in nice areas( do they have enough room for a garden/are 4 bedroom houses rare?)

Traffic wont be too much of a bother as Sydney has terrible traffic so thats normal for me.

Are there areas that are better than others? Any really nice suburbs?

Thanks for your help.

Caz

sandy mc

Hi Iam from Galway & have lived in the city for the past 5 years with my two little boys (3 & 6) Galway is a very small city which makes it a nice place to live and it is easy to get around. I live in Renmore at the moment but before we moved we lived in the westside of the city nearer to salthill and i must say i miss it! I would recommend moving to Galway before any other city in Ireland! There are lots of playschools & the schools are very good. The one thing we do not have is sun unlike Australia! We were just saying the last day how we wished we could move there!! Best of luck if you do move. Sandra

sandy mc

me again - of course we have 4 bedroomed houses! And of course we have gardens! Most houses have 3 or more rooms and all will have a garden. I live in a 5 bed-roomed house with a pretty big garden in Renmore (some-one mentioned that Renmore is a rough area, well that is very untrue, Renmore is a lovely part of Galway). You could always try buy in Barna, Moycullen or Oughterard, these little villages are 15 -20 mins drive outside the city, all 3 are lovely areas (with posh houses) but good luck, houses are millions!!

Lockstep

sandy mc wrote: »

me again - of course we have 4 bedroomed houses! And of course we have gardens! Most houses have 3 or more rooms and all will have a garden. I live in a 5 bed-roomed house with a pretty big garden in Renmore (some-one mentioned that Renmore is a rough area, well that is very untrue, Renmore is a lovely part of Galway). You could always try buy in Barna, Moycullen or Oughterard, these little villages are 15 -20 mins drive outside the city, all 3 are lovely areas (with posh houses) but good luck, houses are millions!!

Barna is great but if you havnt got a car, it's a complete pain.

The buses out here are atrocious.

Caz2008

Thanks Sandra

Great help!

Will look into suburbs you mentioned. My husbands business is going to find us a place to live and cover rent. They want us to be really comfortable to help lure us to come.

Thanks again

Caz

Mrs OBumble

Ahh, executive shift: that puts you in a whole different category!

Find out which side of town your husband's work is on, it may be a lot less stressful to live on the same side.

If it's on the west, then Salthill, Taylors Hill (old suburbs), Knocknacarra, Barna (newer suburbs, latter was a village 'til urban sprawl took it over), or Clifden, Spiddal (if you fancy village life.

If it's on the east, of if he'll have to travel by air a lot, hmm, that's a bit harder: there are nice places in Renmore/Mervue, and Oranmore, but also some not so flash bits there too. Or maybe look more towards some of the villages like Clarenbridge, Loughrea or Kinvara (sorry, I'm not so familiar with what's flash out there). Avoid Ballybane, Ballybrit, Dougiskha ... the latter is just a huge housing estate with less character than anywhere on the planet.

Unless he's working in the central city and you're living in a close suburb, then you will need two cars.

Kids here start school at age 4, but don't seem to learn a lot for the first year or two - and they don't have full days initially either (making pick-up times a pain!) They will be taught Irish as a 2nd language .. if you're planning on staying more than a year or two, you should learn some yourself (if only so you know what they're talking about .. don't want teenagers plotting behind your back right in front of you!) Pre-schools are pretty rare, and the ones that exist are usually Montessori, and most staff aren't trained

Also, have a read thru here: http://www.educatetogether.ie/index.html
It may seem stunning to you that such an initiative is a at such a basic stage .. but until reasonably recently, Ireland has been 90+% Catholic, so everyone's been happy that virtually all schools were church-run. It's now down to 86% overall (and lower still in some places, like Dublin and Galway)

The good news is that to the Irish, Aussies don't seem as foreign as the Poles, Czechs, Romanians etc who've flooed here in recent years, so you will get a pretty warm welcome.

Good luck!

galwaybabe

No public transport.
Parks are few and far between and they are magnets for bush drinkers.
I can count the amount of children's playgrounds on one hand.
Childcare outrageously expensive.
Very few activities for young kids.
Most restaurants give you dirty looks for daring to bring your kids in.
You would need to be related to the pope to get your kids into the good schools. Some schools don't even have a decent playgound. In fact the schools that do have space to run around have generally banned running in the playgound becuase of fear of litigation.
When your children become teenagers it is even worse in terms of facilities and activities. Everything costs an arm and a leg and you will be a glorified taxi driver for years.
The traffic is terrible. Prepare to be stuck in it for hours.
This country is seriously expensive.
It rains a lot and the winter wind cuts you in half.
I would seriously reconsider if I were you.

kevmy

As always you will hear the good and the bad.

If you come here with some idea of what to expect and an attitude of 'I'm going to make the best of it' then you will probably be grand.

Most of the better suburbs are on the westside of the city. Knocknacarra, Taylors Hill, Salthill etc. And it is easier to live on the same side of the river you work on for traffic reasons. If your working on the eastside try some places on that side but houses vary greatly and you probably would need to check them out personally. Renmore is probably your best bet if your working on the eastside.

From the way your talking you will not be working therefore you won't have to worry about childcare costs which are high. Galway is expensive if your coming from Australia but it's not nearly as expensive as Dublin so you should be alright. If work is paying for housing you will defo be alright as housing costs are high.

Don't worry about people going on about this whole Catholic thing. People on these boards are a bit hung up on religion and I don't really know why. All schools will accept students of all religions and religion only becomes an issue when the school is oversubscribed. This is a bit of an issue in with a few schools in Dublin but hasn't reared it's head in Galway yet. Kids and teachers couldn't care less what your religion is as far as i know there are no priests/nuns still teaching in any primary schools and all schools must abide by the Department of Education curriculum (which is completely secular).

The Irish schools system is pretty good if some of the facilities and schools are underfunded. Kids learn English, Irish (compulsory if your child is under 10), Maths, Science, Geography, History (with an Irish slant), music most of the usual stuff. Kids enter at 4/5 leave at 12/13 and there are no exams in primary. Secondary school has 5 year and there are exams at 3rd Year and a Leaving Cert in final year. Sports and PE is generally Gaelic football, hurling, soccer and rugby depending on which school you attend (rowing is also popular in Galways secondary schools. Most teachers are parents are on the same page and hopefully facilities will improve as our population boom eases up.

Amazotheamazing

Interesting that the people who have kids for the most part don't seem to recommend the move.

yakyak

:)Hi Caz,
Galway is a great place to live, myself and my partner built our own place two years ago when we moved up from Cork. Thing is, we are both in our mid/late thirties and would not even consider living in or too near to the city. We live approx' 25 minutes outside the city, really nice area with fields all around us, great for the fishing/shooting/walking etc.
Initially when we sought to relocate, we had a first preference of west of Galway for the semi rural lifestyle. The city can be a nightmare with the traffic, but where is'nt in any city.
Regardless of where you will be working, i would strongly reccomend (especially with young kids) a semi rural location, it is vital you get into the local community where you will find a great welcoming attitude, i highly suggest your seek advice and guidance from a reputeable auctioneer, or indeed check out www.daft.ie and browse the localities and property prices. It would be advisable to rent for an initial period and once you get yourself settled into the lifestyle, get out and about and find your perfect location.

Do not expect too much from the weather, suffice to say pack yer umbrellas , but be prepared for some of the most striking landscapes europe has to offer!!!

Good luck to you.

leninbenjamin

Galway? young family? no... just no.

well, that's a bit extreme. I moved here when i was around 11 from Letterkenny in Donegal. took me a good while to adjust, Galway just hadn't much to offer for me at that age, feck we could hardly find a proper plot for a game of football back then. Galway's much better for the young adults than the children in my book.

Caz2008

Thank you for your messages.
I have a few more questions.

What exactly do you mean by semi rural? How big are the blocks of land? How close are your neighbours? We are not talking countryside where you cant see your neighbours are we?

My 4 and 6 yr old will be at school while I look after my 2 yr old so most days I will be doing the school drop offs and fiddling around home. Going to the shops and wandering around. My husband will be working in Galway city area but we will have a car so traffic and driving ourselves around wont bother us.

I guess I am just looking forward to living somewhere with a nice community feel. Having nice surroundings is really important to me. By the sounds of most of your posts Galway will be perfect for us and I am really looking forward to it.

Do many people have children at 30? We are 30 and have 3 kids under 5 and love it. Do most of the people in the neighbourhoods westside have kids? And more info on what is meant by semi rural would be great!

Thanks Caz

kevmy

What I presume most people mean by semi-rural is either a rural area very near Galway or in one of the smaller towns outside of Galway.

This is Ireland so if you live in a rural area your neighbours will be pretty close as in a couple of hundred meters at most. I personally grew up in a rural area bout half an hour from Galway and loved it. However be advised that in Ireland people have a tendency to get in your business a bit in rural areas. This gives a better community feeling and means your never short of people dropping over for tea. Some people don't like this because they think people are nosey - which generally they aren't but it can come across that way.

Mrs OBumble

I'm not sure how many stay-at-home mothers you'll meet ... but that could just be because I'm working (and childless!) so most of the women I know are working too. But quite a few seem to go back to work quite quickly.

I've not really seen too many places with ladies-who-lunch over here on the west of Ireland, but there were quite a few over on the east coast though .. again, this could just be the random luck of where I went.

I'd say that there are more established families like yours on the west side of the city: a friend who was looking for nannying jobs said that they were mainly out towards Knocknacarra etc.

Riverwalk

Hi
I have been reading your posts. We moved to Galway this summer from Arizona and are currently renting in Moycullen, a village on the west side. My husband works at the university and I am at home with a 2 year old with a 4 year old in school, started this year. We like it here. It rains, but who comes to Ireland with any other expectation. The weather is changeable enough that the bright spells are frequent too, at least so far. THe primary schools are fine. The 4 year old started at a catholic school in Busy park, although we were hoping to get her into the Galway Educate together (forget it unless you register at birth.. no kidding). She loves it. It is filled with all kinds of kids, really diverse. They do have religoius education like all schools but its fine, even for us (not catholic, or even christian). The town is great, but after Phoenix what wouldnt be!

The only thing I am finding is that the area lacks things to do for little kids, dance/ music classes, ways to get together with other mums. Although Moycullen has a parent toddle group that we have started to go to.

We also have been looking on this side of town to buy. You can get nice houses for around Euros 500 and up. Lots are often half acre. SOme 1 acre. If you go for new developments, its cheaper but more squeezed in. Galway city you get to have a 4 bed detatched for around 500 Euros to 800 Euros without the space.

I do know at least one other family that relocated from Australia so you are not alone in your move...


Hope this helps.