Canadian family moving to Ireland 2023 - Best town for young outdoorsy family (2+2 small kids)?

If being within 90mins of Dublin or Shannon airport is criteria then you have a massive choice. Obviously west coast probably you'll get more bang for your buck house wise (I live 30mins from Shannon airport and I paid <€320k for a 3500sqft house in west clare for instance).

Prices in any town over 5000 will be that little bit higher than leaving in a rural village.

The population number you give means you're only ruling out Dublin and Cork cities!

Larger towns with lots of amenities within your 90 mins to Shannon would be Galway, Limerick and Ennis. But between 5-20k population that meets your other criteria there must 10's of towns if not 100+.

I'd recommend you come up with some other criteria you'd like to try and narrow that list down a bit!

I don't think there's anywhere in Ireland that will meet those requirements. Like in any country, you're never very far from a "rough area". Even the very good and expensive areas have "rough areas" fairly close.

I've lived in Ireland almost all of my life and can't say I know whether my neighbours went to university or not.

State of the art schools, do you expect to pay or not?

Your infrastructure asks are tough too.

Have you ever been to Ireland? I'd suggest you come and rent/Airbnb for a couple of months before you buy so you can check out some areas properly.

Are you talking about Dublin?

There's no real rough areas within a 100kms of me.

OP,it's pricier than most places in the West but Westport fits your criteria (your airport would be Knock instead of shannon)

Galway would be another although more expensive again and a biggish city by Irish standards.

I think Wicklow town vicinity is lovely.

*East coast- better temperatures usually.

*Under an hour from Dublin Airport/City/3rd level institutions.

*Beautiful town with picturesque beaches on the outskirts (Brittas Bay especially).

*Within half an hour, you can be in the Wicklow Mountains which are simply stunning and perfect for hiking, cycling, lake activities.

*The town has a good vibe about it, very clean, well maintained and artsy.

*Really friendly people, even just going into the shops, the staff are very welcoming.

I'm not from there but did a lockdown mini break last year and absolutely loved it.

I'm definitely going back.

Mullingar is a lovely town to live in. An hour from Dublin, surrounded by lakes, quiet, great schools and lovely pubs. Canal walks and cycle ways. You won’t get much better.

Killaloe, pronounced Killalu, Co Clare would tick a lot of boxes

A few things and places come to mind.

kerry … fantastic beaches out door life, friendly people, who look after one another. Scenery is world class especially on the coast. Shannon 1.5 hours, Farranfore max 40 minutes from anywhere. Great pubs. Educationally same as most schools in ireland, less anti social behaviour outside Killarney and Especially Tralee.

kildare… clane/Newbridge/Naas…more anti social behaviour more shopping options lots for kids to do. Clongowes or Newbridge college and many other state schools. Curragh for walking/ hiking. Dublin airport max 45 minutes, Dublin not too far and available through train also in Naas and Newbridge. House prices higher though.

Depending on your career choices, Westport. Without a shadow of a doubt. Moved the 30 years ago and I'll never live on the East Coast again. A most wonderful place to raise kids.

Mullingar is a nice quiet town, Good schools, plenty of shops , cafes shopping centres, nice park, look on daft ie Westmeath, Mullingar, houses 200k plus 3bed, make sure it's a non council estate, private estate, less than 45 minutes from Dublin City . Good place to live, safe, low crime rate I lived there for 12 years you don't want to live in a small town like 3000 population. Mullingar is a medium sized town but not a city , good range of schools, and shops cable TV and fast broadband avaidable eg 50 Meg plus or fibre installed see google broadband Mullingar eir or virgin media providers

Nice friendly people, good place to bring up a family

Hi OP, I live in the US but am looking to move back with my American born wife at some point over the next couple of years. My situation is a little different from yours but a few things come to mind from looking at your criteria and from thinking about my wife’s situation and what it will be like for in making the jump over to Ireland.

ireland is a great place to raise kids and the schools are great in my opinion but at the same time understand that virtually everyone in Ireland goes to public schools and given that, a lot of the kids in school will not be on track to go to university. These days most go to some form of third level but a lot won’t and in my opinion that’s one of the things that make the schools great. You meet all kinds of people from all different backgrounds at school in Ireland and that experience gives children a lot of life skills. It’s a different set up to the US and Canada though where a lot of the “good” schools seem to have kids from very homogenous backgrounds.

similarly you’ll have a hard time finding a town where most people are college educated and professional. That’s not a bad thing from my point of view but be aware that there are no Portlands or Vancouvers in Ireland. Dublin would be the closest thing but I wouldn’t recommend it for reasons that would take to long to explain and you’re clearly looking for a smaller city/town and different environment anyway.

i reckon you’ll have a hard time finding somewhere that meets all of your criteria. For instance public transport and trains are fairly shite in Ireland, especially compared to most of the rest of Europe. You’ll end up using a car a lot just for regular day to day stuff unless you’re right in the middle of town in somewhere like Galway or Cork. Even though it’s larger than your criteria Cork might be a good bet for you in terms of social life, access to transport, cultural and sporting amenities etc. but getting a nice detached house there, even in the suburbs might be outside of your price range.

I have to say I’m curious if you’ve spent much time in Ireland? Have you ever done a winter there? Are you aware most of the schools are Catholic and the homes are FREEZING compared to north American standards? I’m not trying to put you off for a second, but the culture is very different to the US and Canada. For instance you mentioned you are looking for somewhere that is close knit. You need have no worries about that - pretty much everywhere in Ireland outside of the big cities is close knit but the flip side of that is that it can be a bit insular. Having kids will definitely help you make connections with other parents etc though.

Again, not trying to put you off for a second, you can have an amazing life in places like Kerry or West Cork, amazing scenery but long wet winters. Somewhere like Wicklow also has amazing scenery nearby and access to Dublin’s amenities but will be pricier and you might get less house than you’re hoping for as it’s basically within the commuter belt these days.

There are a lot of comments here about crime, manly they claim that Ireland is especially safe. This is not true. Cities and towns alike would have crime crime rates that are middle of pick compared with Europe if you look at stats. I'm from a rural area. My house had about four break-ins over the years, but the risks are not extremely higher either. So Ireland is neither very dangerous or very safe.

If I was the OP I'd choose Central Europe, or Iberia over Ireland. You have everything, with much better value, and noticeable safer and far better scenery and nature. Ireland is death zone for ecology. The country has the worst ecological integrity index in Europe.

OP when you say biking and kayaking.

Like whitewater and downhill or just flat water or sea kayak and road biking with few hills.

I ask cus a lot of good whitewater and downhill biking in some areas of Canada. Some areas here better than others. Like Wicklow and Kerry are hotspots. But some areas be a disaster, like most of the midlands.

But plenty flatwater spots.

Into surf?

When you say 90 mins to Shannon or Dublin. That a deal breaker.

Cus lot of those suggestions like Westport are not in there. Or any west Cork. Wexford be a stretch. Cork city be very tight.

No point being near the wrong airport for you.

OP you are hunting for a unicorn.

Nowhere has everything.

Especially the train connectivity, excellent schooling, high educational achievement mix. Apart from the ecologically minded, most people with high education see sharing a vehicle with strangers as failure.

Many of the places named in this thread have good schools. Few would be excellent.

Also, I don't think you have thought thru the implications of community spirit. In short, you don't become part of it just by moving in. Many places will welcome a foreigner who moves in. But close-knit ones will view you with suspicion and exclude you for a couple of decades.

The only place I have seen mentionsed which might meet the criteria is probably athlone. It is on a direct motorway link to both Dublin and Shannon and is also quite near Knock. It is water sports on the Shannon and sits in the middle of open countryside. Houses are available in the price bracket, educationally there are reasonably good schools with a high progression rate to Third Level and a University campus. It is also a town where quite a lot of the people who live there were not born there so there isn't a big "blow-in" culture. For all that, there is crime, some of it quite serious.

A relative moved his family to Canada for a few years and the kids told me that they found the schools there very unchallenging, almost dumbed down in comparison to what they were used to, and they were all glad to get back before starting the leaving cert cycle. Their local school in ireland is just average.

The only thing I ever heard them saying they miss was a bit of wintersports. Mobile phones charges in Canada were supposedly a shocker in comparison to here. The coast being a day trip will be a novelty for most Canadians. I reckon if work location isn't an issue then most towns in Ireland would suit. Some are better amenities than others, like parks or watersports etc.

Having said that I would suggest this as a base line criteria, any town that has at least both a Lidl and an Aldi and a primary care centre probably is a descent size. Bonus points if it's on a trainline or bus route with airport links.

to be fair if he is coming from BC his version of FREEZING is a hell of a lot colder than ours!!

OP,

You could pick most of Ireland and it would tick a lot of your requirements.

You haven't said what your work requirements are i.e. work from home, work in a specialised area etc.

For example, rural broadband is poor. That might affect your work choices. Also, if you work in, for example, aircraft leasing, your housing locations may be influenced accordingly.

Finally, building the one-off house of your dreams in rural Ireland will be very difficult because of very restrictive planning rules. You will probably end up buying one that ticks your boxes or one to "do up" and expand.

Most of Ireland has already been suggested in the posts above and most are, indeed, lovely places. You need to narrow down your search!!

I'd suggest you pick a spot that comes as close to satisfying your needs and rent for a while to find out what it is like. Whilst both Killaloe and Greystones are both lovely places, they are two very different towns.

Shannon and Dublin airport have lots of transatlantic flights, Knock doesn't. I don't know of any other airport that charges you €10 on top of the airlines charges to board a flight.