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by Peroni 5203 days ago
From a business perspective, everything the author says makes sense. From a human perspective, as someone who was born & raised in Ireland and subsequently left the country 6 years ago at the age of 24 I can promise you, Ireland is far from a vibrant, positive place to live.

Every single element of the media is drowned in the desperation of the economic crisis, the cost of living is exorbitant and the weather is truly depressing.

The education system is by far Irelands biggest selling point, aside from the fact that it's mostly free, the standard of education and the amount of school leavers undergoing degree courses is continuing to rise mainly because there are no jobs available so the nation is instead looking to educate itself in the hope that when the economy improves they will stand a chance of earning a half decent wage.

I would love to see the tech culture in Ireland experience a revival, we were once the worlds largest exporter of software second only to Japan and our CS Graduates were some of the most sought after candidates on the planet but for those of you considering a move, remember, whilst he timing may be right from a business perspective, the atmosphere and culture is a huge barrier to overcome.

5 comments

You can mostly ignore the media if you're in the tech industry because there's basically two economies here: one is fecked and the other is the tech industry, with tons of open positions.

Re. the weather: yeah, it rains. And when it doesn't rain it's often cloudy. And sometimes it's inbetween (a "soft" day). But then the hills, fields and mountains look fantastic (unlike, say much of the UK) because it isn't being burnt to a crisp.

Of far more concern is the poor broadband infrastructure outside of Dublin, particularly in rural areas but even in some cities. It ranges from 25Mbs fibre to no fixed broadband at all in Cork city. Out in the country (i.e., 10miles from a city), it's mostly a choice between mobile (3G), fixed wireless or satellite.

there's basically two economies here: one is fecked and the other is the tech industry, with tons of open positions.

So true! Its a great time to be in tech here right now and a terrible time to be in anything else.

"it rains"

Not that much - according to Wikipedia Dublin gets about 695mm of rain a year, from a Scottish perspective that's practically a desert ;-)

> "it rains" ... Not that much

It depends if you're measuring quantity of "it rains" in mm of rainfall per year, or percentage of wet time per year.

Some places are very wet by the first metric, but mostly dry by the second. I haven't spent a lot of time in Ireland, but it seemed to be the other way around.

yes, Scotland is definitely wetter though the rainfall in most of Ireland is much more like 750-1250mm [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Ireland#Rainfall]

And in general terms, Ireland has less extreme weather than the England: it's typically warmer and with less ice/snow in the winter but not as hot in the summer.

The east coast is pretty dry in contrast to the rest of the country. Galway, for instance, gets 1156mm of rain per year.
It's pretty much seattle weather then.
Living in Seattle I'm thinking the same thing reading the responses here. It looks like Seattle averages 944mm per year, so here's a "hello" to our Irish friends enjoying the same gray skies we have...
Every single element of the media is drowned in the desperation of the economic crisis, the cost of living is exorbitant and the weather is truly depressing.

I see your "media desperation" and raise you 11 years of war and government stoked fears of terrorism.

I'm part of the Irish Diaspora, two generations removed. The Emerald Isle has been calling to me lately.

After five years in the UK I can say the rain is one of the things I miss the most!

On an anecdotal note most of the CS graduates that I know are not in Ireland any more but are split evenly between the UK and Australia. Also, Dublin is obscenely expensive in my experience.

Being in the process of moving back from London, I can assure you that Dublin is not nearly as bad as it used to be (I lived there in 2007, and it was ridiculous then).
>the weather is truly depressing.

It's not that bad in my opinion. We have a mild climate. Looking on the bright side we don't get heavy snowfall or droughts or heat waves. Personally I like the lack of extremes.

The problem is that in the context of startups, you are competing with Silicon Valley, which also has no snowfall, no serious heat waves, and 80% sunny vs. 80% rainy.
So that means Silicon Valley has the 3 most fearful enemies: fresh air, sunshine and the unbearable roaring of birds? -- Thanks, I'll go with the 80% rain :)
"I would love to see the tech culture in Ireland experience a revival"

Have you visited Ireland recently? Next time you're in Dublin, give me a shout, I'll be happy to show you what's been happening since you left.