[hopeless]

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.

[dkersten]

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.

[arethuza]

"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 ;-)

[SideburnsOfDoom]

> "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.

[hopeless]

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.

[stylishgnome]

The east coast is pretty dry in contrast to the rest of the country. Galway, for instance, gets 1156mm of rain per year.

[mahyarm]

It's pretty much seattle weather then.

[jamroom]

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...