tru oirish
I have to say I don't know what the lot of you negative nellies are waffling on about! I love living here. There is loads to do besides drinking in the pub! Any amount of sports clubs, drama clubs, kids clubs, womens clubs, mens clubs, singing, walking, hiking, fishing, driving, fresh air, countryside, beaches (I love long beach walks), city life etc. You can safely practice or not practice any religion you want. IRISH PEOPLE LOVE THEIR CHILDREN VERY MUCH AND LOOK AFTER THEM BETTER THAN ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD. Yes some parents are mean to their kids but that is not unique to the Irish. I have a 3 year old and have never, on my life, experienced any negativity going into a restaurant and looking for a high chair or whatever. Always found a changing facility, any number of them around, what thick idiot said there was none, you must be blind. The waitor or waitress always have smilled and said hello to the child and given him colours or straw for his drink or whatever. I remember Captain Americas as a kid and they were friendly to me and my brother, still the same now with my own son. When I was growing up women in Ireland were only starting to enter the work force, my mother still remembers when a woman gave up work when she got married, therefore not many creches etc. Then women started to go to work and shared amongst themselves the childminding (most only did part-time when they had kids). Now women want (for some) and need (for others) to work full-time and the facilities are struggling to keep up, but its not the end of the world and they are on the way, and I've yet to meet the woman, or man for that matter, who can't make adequate childminding arrangements. Kids for the most part have a free lifestyle, they can go out and play. My cousins in Belguim could never do that. Every year they would come over for the summer and when it came to leaving there would be alot of tears and sadness. All three live here now and love it as much as they did as kids, even their dad is back home, it was his Greek wife who dragged them over to live there. You can become anything you want here, a teacher, a doctor, lawyer, nurse, chef, builder, factory worker (and whats wrong with that), cleaner, tv presenter, business person, surgeon, baker, journalist, programmer, fireman, rock star or anything else you dream of, even set up your own message board/forum on Irish financial issues.
The Health system and infrastructure needs serious attention, I think we can all agree on that, but lets do something about it instead of writing off everything else thats good about the country. Billions have been spent over the last ten years on improvements but there are alot more people living here with certain standards and it takes time to reach those standards. Rome wasn't built in a day. You can't come from having nothing and go to having everything without blood sweat and tears. Its not fair to compare Ireland to the likes of Sweden when Sweden has been building its wonderfull self for longer than we have.
Yes we have problems, same as any other country, but we are working on it and with the right attitude we will solve them. If you can't wait well thats just tough, go else where, we are enjoying the craic here and don't care if a few grumpy nay sayers, who in my opinion have become spoilt by there adventures abroad, come home and don't get everything they want handed to them with a wave of a magic wand.