What is it like to live in Ireland?

Just as Irish young people can do a year's working holiday in Australia, http://www.dfa.ie/home/index.aspx?id=80991 says that young Australian adults may do a year's working holiday here. It allows work of a casual or temporary nature only. This might exclude marketing, but if you did get any experience in this field, it would look good on your CV, to help you find work when you return home.

The above website also says

To avoid any risk of misunderstanding or unrealistic expectations, applicants are advised that the market for short term casual work in Ireland is highly competitive and is adequately supplied from the large number of school leavers and other young Irish and EU nationals looking for work.

But as your visa would allow you to work, you could try to find something.

Weather - our summer is rather like your winter. We have had some hotter days in the past few weeks, but summer here is mostly around 20 °C and we get more than our share of rainy days. Oh, our summer days are long - daylight soon after 3am until after 10pm, though we make up for it in winter when it is daylight only from about 10am to 3pm. We do get winter sub-zero temperatures, but not usually very much snow.

People are friendly, education is excellent, we have high standards of health care but it can be expensive unless you qualify for free health care - and you won't. Employment is in the doldrums at the moment, there really aren't many jobs and our young people are emigrating in droves. Our roads are not like your long straight highways, and our towns are pretty close together. I visited your country this year and could drive for several hours before reaching any town. Here, rather less than half an hour will bring you to another town or village. I found your supermarket prices for food very expensive, so our prices will come as nice surprise to you. We may not have as many food brands on offer, though. Wages are lower here than in Australia. Your higher wages, higher food prices, higher home rental ... all go hand in hand. All these things are a bit lower here because wages are a bit lower too, and you might have to budget carefully to live well.

Government ...... is much the same anywhere. In your country too, it is "jobs for the boys" and politicians in their gilded towers and expenses refunds have no real idea what it is like for the ordinary man. Just the same here.

Other facts you should know - don't believe the stereotypes. We aren't all red-headed, we don't eat potatoes at every meal, we don't drink Guinness all day, etc.

A year's working holiday would give you a great opportunity to see our country, and you will have a brilliant fun time. It is not easy to get permission to move here permanently, but that applies in your country too.

Hi,

Yes Ireland is an amazing place to live. You will get a lot of people moaning about all sorts of things from Government to health to weather, most of these people just love to moan. I'm not saying that everything is perfect but its pretty good, certainly our standard of living is in the top 10% of countries. I have never been to Aussieland but i'd say it was pretty similar to here except for the weather which is colder and wetter :-)

A lot of people are saying that people outside the EU can't get into Marketing, it's not true, I have a friend who owns a Marketing company in Belfast, she is from the states. I have no idea about the rules for getting a visa but you should check the relevant embassies and remember your talking about two different countries, Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland, so check the Irish embassy and also the UK embassy (the UK may have relaxed rules for members of the commonwealth - I don't know). You didn't mention your own situation but if you are good at your profession and can prove it then there is no reason you can't get a job if you are allowed to wok here. There is no 'Jobs to Locals First' rule, in fact that attitude is illegal. The job should go to the best qualified, however it is true that there are a lot of graduates and not many jobs, but there are jobs, you just need to be the best option for the employer.

Good Luck

Weather = unpredictable. Just last week we had officially entered draught after more than 20 days without rain, that changed super quick. Now we're experiencing thunderstorms and parts of Ireland are now flooded.

People = some are friendly, some aren't so nice. Depends.

Education = well again, that depends. What school/college are you looking to attend?

Health = absolute joke.

Government = well they say st Patrick banished all the snakes from Ireland, obviously he missed a few, Leinster house is full of them.

Employment = do you think many young people are emigrating to Australia for the Craic like? There's little to no employment here.

I'm just going to stop there - you're a non-European, so your chances of working here see extremely slim. Usually it's only those who are highly skilled in the medical field who qualify for a working visa - we have plenty of marketing people here which are our own, what makes you so special?

ADD:

Also don't call it "southern Ireland" - its simply Ireland, or the Republic of Ireland. We're not just an "add on" to the north.

I'm sorry but Marketing graduates are something we are definitely not short of in Ireland. It is extremely difficult for someone outside the EU to move to Ireland especially when unemployment is so high.

At the moment, it is very difficult to impossible for any non-EU national to work in Ireland, simply because employment visas are not issued to many.

Unfortunately Marketing is not one of the professions for which visas are issued, sorry.

It is hard for ANYONE to get a work visa into any country in the EU.......... jobs in Europe are first open to everyone who doesn't need a visa, there are a few VERY speicalist skilled jobs where non EUs can get a visa to do, apart from that you have little to no chance of living/working in Ireland .....................