There are quite a few things about Ireland that would make it an attractive bolthole for Americans.
We speak English and have grown up on American TV and music, so although it is different culturally, an American won’t be entirely alien here. We’re objectively pretty friendly and have a history of being welcoming to Americans. Lot’s of Irish people have been to America and even those that haven’t will have friends and family that emigrated there.
The Irish are generally well educated and there is a pretty big tech economy, and prior to Covid unemployment was low.
Driving on the left isn’t really much of an impediment. Driving in the cities is challenging but the rest of the country is straightforward to navigate. In my experience driving in the rest of Europe where they drive on the right, after a couple of weeks something clicked in my brain and I can switch back and forth without much difficulty.
That’s not to say Ireland is without its problems. The two biggest being housing and the health service but there are a variety of social other problems including childcare, homelessness, poverty and drug addiction. Most of these are minor compared to the problems facing the US, but housing is the outlier.
Housing is weirdly expensive here, and unless you are in the upper end of the market it’s very difficult to find an affordable, decent place to live.
However, once you can overcome the problem of finding somewhere to live, I think life here as an ex-pat could be pretty agreeable.
But seriously… having been to both the UK and Ireland, my better half and I can’t agree on what would be a better future retirement place… some island in Scotland, or somewhere in Ireland… Both are lovely, both seem rather welcoming of American ex-pats (in normal times, anyhow), both seem like great places to settle down and run a book shop…A girl can dream, can’t she?
I think as English speakers, Americans, Brits and Irish have a huge amount in common, temperamentally and culturally and especially, sub-culturally. I’ve lived in the UK and been to the US a couple of times and I would be happy to live in either country.
But I think a lot of the problems facing the US now are also applicable to the UK but maybe to a slightly lesser degree. And I think the immediate future in both countries is at best uncertain if not actually pessimistic. And so I think so long as the GOP and the Tories are around, little will change for the good.
Ireland OTOH has a gruesome history of social problems, but has made a lot of progress over the last 40 years and because of that I’m hopeful for the future here (climate change not withstanding). The overall trends seem to me to be progressive.
I think the biggest problem you would face here is affording the rent on your bookshop.
Having sailed professionally, I can say that customs and pratique are taken very seriously by all island nations, and ‘yachts’ and their crew do not get a bye, but rather tend to be more closely looked at than, say, airport arrivals on a tourism package.
Is that 93 million American citizens traveled outside the country, or is it American citizens made 93 million trips outside the country? I recall that not a lot of Americans even own a passport compared to other countries.
What JonS said about “marital status is largely irrelevant for visa purposes in NZ” is somewhat correct. Simply being married doesn’t give you any additional advantage in applying for residency in New Zealand. However, if you can show that the two of you are in a genuine, supportive relationship (wink, wink) the two of you can combine your points when you apply for residency.
In my case, me and the other Mr. YankinNewZealand did just that when we applied to move here in 2005 – we had a mortgage together and were in each others wills and medical powers of attorney. So that was enough for NZ immigration to say, “Yep… those two guys are a couple.” (We weren’t gay married (because it wasn’t legal then) but we were civilly unionised; which was recognised by the city we lived in at the time.)
We’re in this together. Otherwise we are all fucked.
This does feel like a possible end to the American empire. And I say that with no glee whatsoever as it could well usher in dark times. I don’t see anyone standing up with strength for solidarity. The EU was negotiating a possible vaccine deal which would be based only on urgent need - rationing for high risk and health workers. Tories figured fuck that we can look after ourselves and come out laughing from the cluster fuck.
People are outraged at tourists coming here now, and I don’t think that’s going to be our big problem. We had a spike of 30ish cases today. I don’t think it was tourism.
Aaand, Justin Trudeau wakes, trembling, in a cold sweat… There’s a caravan forming south if the border, moving north to lay siege to our border…
They’re not sending their best…
Some are, I suppose, fine people…
awww, shite. You get it. I can’t even… I grow wearier and wearier.
Agreed. It obviously bad for me, living here, but I think it has larger global repercussions, as the end of other empires have had (the British, the Soviet, the Ottoman, etc).
Yeah. Now is not the time for going pub hopping and being an ugly American in small Irish towns…
“The fact that the rest of the world thinks the US is a laughing stock/basket case and not safe to be let out, isn’t of some general concern? Almost sounds like “America first”.”
aaaaaaaaaaactually…
caring about what other countries think of America leans towards NPD… especially with the self harm America is currently busy doing.
"People with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) are in love with an idealized, grandiose image of themselves. And they’re in love with this inflated self-image precisely because it allows them to avoid deep feelings of insecurity. But propping up their delusions of grandeur takes a lot of work—and that’s where the dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors come in.
Narcissistic personality disorder involves a pattern of self-centered, arrogant thinking and behavior, a lack of empathy and consideration for other people, and an excessive need for admiration. Others often describe people with NPD as cocky, manipulative, selfish, patronizing, and demanding. This way of thinking and behaving surfaces in every area of the narcissist’s life: from work and friendships to family and love relationships"
Hey @anon73430903 regarding refugees in Ireland and the current programme for government. The minister with responsibility for this is an old friend and colleague of mine Roderic O’Gorman. Here’s an interview with him. It’s a really soft interview as he suffered homophobic abuse from the fash on social media. I trust him to work on making things right and it is a genuine red line for the Green party so they can legitimately take down the government if the other parties dig in their heels.
Either way, it’s pretty clear we’re not moving anywhere for a while to come!
