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

if you base your decision on where to buy because ryanair currently fly there you could make a foolish mistake because ryanair will drop a route faster than you can say “the roads are all ****”

granted its very unlikely they drop routes ex dublin but dont buy near shannon because of something like that.

Internet speeds are a difficult subject, living in any big town like kinsale / ennis / athlone etc etc will typically be fine, but more rural more hit and miss. You could find a phone number of somewhere nearby and check its speeds on the eir website which would give you an idea.

as far as health insurance goes its only relevant for more serious things. Local GPs will charge €60 for a consult but kids are free up to 7 or 8 yrs old i think, this could depend on having a PPS number / residency etc.

check vhi / irishlifehealth / laya for quotes but probably around €1k per adult annually for a decent package.

One word of advice when you do get settled is to find your local GAA club and put the kids into it playing football and hurling, they are often a real center of the community, a great way to get to know people and for kids to make friends.

A lot of Irish people move to canada for work, opportunity and experience but i think when you get past the hassle and adjust to the change Ireland is a great place with lots to see and do if you get out and do it, with friendly and helpfull communities.

Personally if had your choice i would pick galway, decent size city with a lot to offer, great university, suffer the traffic for the great pubs, put up with the drive to dublin because of the proximity to connemara.

Here's my tuppence worth:

(Assuming we're talking about RoI here rather than including the north - would Northern Ireland be an option?) I think you should try to decide on east coast (Louth to Waterford) vs west coast (Donegal to Cork) vs midlands (everything in the middle) first and these are what I'd see as the main pros/cons of each:

Pros 

East coast

closest to Dublin for the best flight options

weather is a good bit drier

West coast

cheaper cost of housing/living 

Scenery & outdoors options are generally better

Midlands

Close to everywhere

Lots of greenways & lakes 

Cons

East coast

Higher cost of housing/living

West coast

It rains a lot

Midlands

Distance from the sea

Once you've decided generally which area you'd like to live, it'll be easier to choose a town. If I were to give you 5 from each area, it'd be something like this:

East coast:

Carlingford 

Dungarvan

Donabate

Bunclody

Wicklow town

West coast

Westport (or Newport which is close by)

Enniscrone

Kilmallock (close to Ballyhoura for mountain biking)

Clonakility 

Mullaghmore

Midlands

Kilkenny

Banagher

Fethard (Tipperary)

Kilbeggan

Belturbet

Hi there,

We are a European family that moved from Ireland to the US a few years ago. My husband is Irish, I am from mainland Europe and I have lived in Ireland for 18 years. I’ve always loved Ireland… until I had children. I know nothing about Canada but here’s my perpective US/Ireland if it can be any help.

The weather in Ireland is no joke - it rains horizontally 250 days a year, it really limits the activities you can do with your children. Because of the wind the weather changes very quickly. It’s common to experience 4 seasons in 1 day! You can never plan anything outdoors ahead of time. Biking with your family may be tricky. Ireland is not bike friendly, very few cycle paths. Kayaking with children might be a challenge given that Ireland is always windy. Parks and playgrounds are nowhere near north american standards. Ireland is a very small country that can’t really invest in outdoor infrastructures as they don’t have the money or the weather to justify it. Infrastructures in general are poor compared to North America. I think there is only one 50 metre pool in the entire country. No ice rink (will you miss it??? There is one in Belfast!). If you are looking for an outdoorsy lifestyle, look into Spain, Portugal, south of France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria or Germany. We live in the US Rockies. I have hiked, biked, swam, paddled, kayaked a lot more in the last few years here than I have in 18 years in Ireland.

90% of public schools in Ireland are catholic meaning that they will teach catholiscism during school hours. If you are catholic great, but if you are not, think about the implications for your family. We are not catholic and it was hard. My son was exempt from religion classes, he spent a lot of time sitting at the back of the class or at the back of the church on his own with a book. There are some fantastic multi denominational schools (Educate together) but it’s hard to get a place as parents register their children at birth (we never got a place unfortunately). School facilities are not great, it’s not unusual to see schools with prefab buildings. The population of Ireland has grown, but not the facilities. You won’t find state of the art school facilities the way they exist in North America. There are no play structures on schools grounds for recess, no balls allowed and not allowed to run outside (!) My children couldn’t beleive their eyes when their first saw their US school, with 3 play structures and a choice of 20 balls to play with at recess. For secondary school, depending on where you live but it could be a lottery system to enter. You basically have no idea where your child is going to end up. You apply to 4/5 secondary schools, cross your fingers and hope for the best. A lot of secondary schools are single sex schools, are you ok with that? You might not even have a choice. Also the choice of subjects/electives in secondary is very limited compared to what my son was offered in US middle school. And if your child has special needs, you might not get support. Both my children needed support in school but never received any because their needs weren’t deemed serious enough and I was laughed at. When we moved to the US (local public school) they were both assessed on their first week of school, one of my children was identified as gifted and was placed into a gifted programme and has thrived ever since (like he never did in Ireland), my second child goes a few hours a week to a resource teacher for 1 on 1 support and has made huge progress.

the health system is under a lot pressure. I once spent 15 hours in the children’s hospital with my very sick then 16months old hooked up to an antibiotic drip in my arms, sitting on a plastic chair as they had no beds available. But he got the treatment he needed. You’ll definitely need to pay for private health insurance as waiting lists are very long if you need to see a consultant, you can see a private consultant a lot quicker. But there are no private children’s hospital or private ER in the country so in case of an emergency you’ll get the treatment you need but it could be under poor conditions/long wait times.

My advice would be to really research the school system, visit schools when you come to Ireland, ask about the curriculum and make sure it suits your family’s needs. It is VERY different.

Best of luck in your decision, as I know moving country with children is stressfull but research is key! I’ll be happy to answer any other questions if you need.

They're wrong about school places and registering at birth, the law on that changed years ago, you can only register the September before they start now. Also buildings policy moved away from prefabs too.

Wrong also about cycle paths, there has been significant investment in cycling infrastructure in recent years.

Wrong about the weather.

Wrong about no private ER.

But otherwise grand

The schools around here all have registration a year before but looking at the legislation even though it's 4 years old, schools were given until 2025 to phase out waiting lists.

Weather isn't purely an East West split. It's more West coast, East coast and the rest of the country. West coast has by far the wettest weather.

OP isn't looking at rural Ireland?

Would you consider Drogheda biggish town by Irish standards, about an hour from Dublin with a good motorway and regular buses and trains.

Infrastructure, weather, and schools in the US vary hugely from place to place. It is almost futile to compare the countries as a whole. But as a rule, wealthy professionals can have a higher standard of living in the US than in Ireland (so long a they don’t get sick and lose their jobs and health insurance), while the poor are much worse off. I’m a professional myself but no amount of money was enough for me to feel ok about my kids doing armed intruder drills in preschool.

On average schools in Ireland are better than the US (based on PISA scores), though a little behind Canada. To be honest, Canada seems wonderful. It seems to have many of the advantages of the US (higher salaries, more career prospects) without the toxic individualism.

Exactly as I said, winters are colder than they are here.

As an Irish person whose about to leave this country for a better life for my family I've found the replies here really interesting and certainly food for thought. I have to say though, I am stunned that someone currently living comfortably in BC would think that they could attain a better quality of life in Ireland. One thing stuck out for me in one of your posts, will my children have a better quality of life/opportunities in Ireland than in Canada. IMO no, they will not and if anything the opportunities they may have will be lessened by a lot of real life factors in Ireland. Transport, infrastructure, education systems, town planning, recreation, public spaces, primary health care and education are incredibly dysfunctional here, reactionary at best and non-existent at worst. The best advice anyone could give you is to come and live here for a year and see how it is. Three months or six months isn't enough, you need to see it from every seasonal perspective.

It pains me, because I love Ireland and I have spent the last 16 years working on behalf of the state and it's values. Daily I'm reminded of the generosity of spirit that Irish people have for one another and others but I can't build a life on good impressions. I'm lucky, my wife is Italian and we can move to another country with many problems of its own absolutely, but it will give us a better quality of life. Better weather, accessible healthcare, non-restrictive educational opportunities for our baby into the future, access to nature etc.

Good luck in making your decision. I can sincerely empathise with you on the challenges of making a decision like this with your partner for future of your family and yourself.

The grass is always greener. I live in Ireland and don't it's the hell hole some people make it out to be every country has it's pros and cons and I don't think Ireland is particularly bad to live in. There are some parts I would avoid but for the most part Ireland is a fairly decent place to live.

Its not like someone is swapping a first world country for a third world country,

There are aspects of life in both canada and here that are better and worse, but both are modern, safe societies so while you loose your skiing you gain surfing, you have to swap justin timberlake for luke kelly, the healthcare system is worse here, but the pubs are brilliant.

A lot of splitting hairs going on, moving from canada to ireland or visaversa should be a thoroughly enriching experience for anyone who makes an effort to enjoy either place.

So OP, go for it, broaden your horizons and spend time in ireland and dont forget that great places like Paris, barcelona, edinburgh, glasgow, london are only a short cheap flight away.