The Irish Homecoming - Time to move back to Ireland if you are thinking of it

Celtic Tiger collapse has made it far more livable

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April with Colum and Sadie enjoying Foto Island Wildlife Park, County Cork

Photo by April Drew

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If we moved home to this Ireland three years ago, living expenses would have been a lot higher and our lives wouldn’t be as comfortable as they are now.

I do 90 percent of my shopping in the Aldi down the road. Several of their products are Irish sourced and packaged too. I only go to Tescos for baby formula simply because Aldi doesn’t carry any.

I even use the German diapers (or nappies as they are called here). They are almost 60 percent cheaper than Pampers and Huggies. Their quality is equal to that of the big brand names we’ve become slaves to over the past few years. 

The same size packet of pasta in Dunnes (Dunnes own brand) is €1.59. It is 69 cent in Aldi. My total weekly shop (and remember I’ve two kids) is less than €90 ($70) and that feeds us for the week.

In New York I would easily spend double that in Stop n Shop and I would buy the kids diapers, formula, toilet paper, baby wipes and water in bulk at BJs on a monthly basis. (Our BJ’s bill always hit over the $400 mark).

If we go out for a meal here in Limerick we can enjoy a few glasses of wine, a nice dinner and a taxi home for about €80. If we avail of the early bird (dinner between 5-7 p.m.) we can even do it a little cheaper. And having family around to babysit helps with the cost of a sitter.

In New York (in our single days before the kids) we would easily spent $200 on a night out and a guaranteed $300 if we went all out with a sitter in the past two years.

It’s rare now to see a 2012 car parked in any front yard here. Car sales are down enormously, much to our advantage when we got home. 

However, the cost of a car is still a lot cheaper in the U.S. and currently the gas prices in Ireland are about to hit a record high this year, thus making traveling a lot more expensive. People are now foregoing the Sunday afternoon dinners with family a few towns over for a lazy day on the couch because of the rising fuel prices.

I’m on the road a lot with work so I spend about €150 ($110) a week on diesel. John, who works 15 minutes from the house, spends about €100 every two weeks. He also has a diesel car.

Gone are the days of big birthday parties for the kids in expensive outdoor/indoor play areas.

People are reverting back to having a few children over at the house, making rice-crispy buns and playing games.

It makes it a lot more affordable and also a lot more personal. People had lost the run of themselves there for a while, trying to out-do one another.

And people are back vacationing in Ireland. It’s nice. It really is.

We took the kids to Fota Wildlife Park in Co. Cork two weeks ago. We stayed overnight at the amazing Garryvoe Hotel in Ballycotton, right on the water.

We had a fantastic, memorable trip and we weren’t alone. The hotel was booked out with Irish visitors.

I asked the girl at reception and she said nearly all their customers that week were from various parts of Ireland. People can’t afford to take a family to Europe anymore, so they sacrifice a few days in the sun to spend time in rainy Ireland and they make the most of it. It’s fun. 

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