259 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
259 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: post
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title: "Why I don't recommend Ireland when asked"
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date: 2022-10-27 00:00:00
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permalink: i-dont-recommend-ireland/
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categories: personal, ireland
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author: Mahdi
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---
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I have been living in Ireland for the past three years, and when asked about
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what I think of Ireland, and more specifically when people ask me for my
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perspective to factor in their decision to move to Ireland or not, I usually don't
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recommend Ireland, and here I will explain why.
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# Bureaucracy
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For anyone who lives here, the slow and carelessness of the bureaucractic system
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is a familiar fact.
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## Visa and Immigration
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The immigration office has a 1.8 review on [Google
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Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Garda+National+Immigration+Bureau/@53.3173976,-6.2685184,14z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x48670e856a8d9255:0x36a986ddb0dc0915!8m2!3d53.3473339!4d-6.2561597),
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which I completely understand, here are some personal experiences dealing with
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this office:
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When I came here first in 2019, I was given a short-term visa that had to be
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replaced by an Irish Residence Permit (lasting for a single year only). I
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couldn't believe the process: There was a website from the government which
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you would have to keep refreshing at certain times of the day, with the hopes
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that appointment slots would show up as you refreshed page, and you had to
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use those buttons, fill out the form as fast as possible to get an
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appointment. I believe this system has changed since, but it was mostly
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pushed by COVID to make the change.
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The fact that I have to renew my residence permit every year, going through a
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process that takes at least 2-3 months at a time, is itself extremely
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painful. When I want to apply for visas to other countries, the expiry date
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of my residence permit has an important influence over their decision, and as
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such this is not merely an inconvenience but a very limiting factor. It
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usually means the last few months of the residence permit and while
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conducting the process to renew it, I am unable to travel.
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When I and two couple friends of mine were applying to get our Stamp 4 visas
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last year, every single one of us encountered a problem in our process,
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"mistakes" you might call them, but the frequency of such mistakes is
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annoying: For me, they gave me a Stamp 4 visa for one year, which is supposed
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to be two years in duration. They of course did not answer emails or phone
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calls, so I had to show up to the office and drill the mind of the guard standing in
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front of the building to let me get my IRP and passport to someone inside to
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resolve this issue. He accepted (which was nice of him), but when he came
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back, he only came back with my passport and said "You are right, this was a
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mistake, we will send you another IRP soon". "Okay, where is my current
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IRP?", and to my astonishment, they had thrown it in the bin, that left me
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with no residence permit until the new one arrives. This was while I had an
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appointment at Spain BLS to get a schengen visa, which required me to bring
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my IRP... I insisted and insisted but they didn't give me back my current IRP
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until the new one arrives. To me this is just ignorance about the problems
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caused for people who depend on their residence permit. My two other couple
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friends also had similar issues and had to chase the office down to be re-issued
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correct residence permits.
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I started working here on a Critical Skills Work Permit with a company, and I
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realised the company's culture at the time was toxic (later the product manager
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who was creating this atmosphere was fired), and I wanted to change my company,
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but I was surprised to learn that the Critical Skills Work Permit does not allow
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you to leave your job before a year, and if you do, you are not eligible for
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another work permit before the year ends. I felt like a slave that one year.
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## Driving License
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The process to get a driving license in Ireland is probably the most horrific
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process I have had to go through ever. Here is the painful journey:
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To get a driver license class exemption because I had a driver license in my
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own country, I had to send my passport, my residence permit and my original
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driver license with a translation to the NDLS office _by post_. If it's not clear, that
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means I am literally left with no identity document whatsoever. If I am
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stopped by a Gardai and asked to bring identification documents, I will be
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unable to provide anything. That's part of the problem, once they had
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processed my application (which took months), they sent me back my passport
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and IRP, but not my original driver license. Of course, they had lost or or
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forgotten or some other "mistake". I call them, and chase it down and they
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say "don't worry we will send it to you and you should have it next week".
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Next week and I don't get anything, I call them again and they say "Oh no, we
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had not sent it, but I will make sure it is sent this time.", I hang up, and
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again, a week later nothing. I call them again, this time I am not hanging up
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until it is done. To put it into perspective, each one of those calls took
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more than 50 minutes because I had to wait behind a queue for about 40
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minutes, and put on hold for long times as they were investigating what
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happened.
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After the months-long process of getting the exemption from 12 classes down
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to 6 classes for having a foreign license, I start looking for instructors to
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do the classes with and then try to do the test. All instructors are busy and
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you are lucky if you can get classes in weeks, sometimes they accept students
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for the next 2-3 months.
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Once you do finish your classes, then you can get on the waiting list for a
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driving test, and that easily takes 8 weeks or more, and once you do get an
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invitation to book your test, you don't get to book a test for tomorrow,
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sometimes there are only slots available for the next few weeks, which puts
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the actual time from class to test to a range of 8 - 10 weeks.
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I think of the Irish driving license process as essentially nepotistic: the
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system is built on the assumption that people have families with cars, and a lot
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of time on their hand to practice with the learner driver. If you do not qualify
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for these conditions, you are bound to have a very expensive, very long and very
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frustrating process ahead.
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You are expected to practice with a driver who has held a license for 2 years
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sitting beside you (that's the only legal way to drive on a learner permit),
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however this is not available to people who do not have a family here (i.e.
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people who have just moved to the country). This leaves them with the option of
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hiring a driving instructor, which can cost you at least €35, and given how long
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it may take you to get comfortable with their car, this can get very costly
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fast. It is not only the matter of money either, driving instructors are busy,
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and it means they are not even available to give you a class a lot of the times.
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I personally was turned down by many instructors because they were too busy.
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To hire the instructor's car for the test is usually more costly, in my case it
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cost €60 to hire their car, that's on top of the test price itself which is €85,
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that means if you want to do a one-hour pre-test, hire the instructor's car and
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pay the test, it will cost you around €180 per test!
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I wish everyone good luck on their test, because if you fail the test for any
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reason, you will not be given a re-test for another 6 - 8 weeks at best, and
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again, you won't be able to book immediately, and have to arrange with an
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instructor to see when they are free to lend you their car, etc. etc. All of
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this means the time between tests can easily grow to 10 weeks.
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All in all, if you want a driving license in Ireland, set aside at least a year
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or more, and a lot of patience and capacity for frustrations.
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# Diversity
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When I talk about lack of diversity, it's not only about ethnic groups, but it
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also includes a lack of diversity in art communities, sport communities, and
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other communities and areas that benefit from a diversity of population.
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According to Ireland's Central Statistics Office, In 2016, Ireland had 82.2%
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White Irish residents, followed by 9.5% other White backgrounds (91.7% total
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White), 1.7% non-Chinese Asian and 1.5% other backgrounds
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([source](https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp8iter/p8iter/p8e/)).
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It is different walking in London and Dublin, in London I, as a brown-skinned
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middle eastern, do not feel I am standing out among the crowd, but in Dublin,
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and more so outside of Ireland, I do.
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My main sport for the past 7 years or so has been parkour, a sport that you can
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find active communities for in every city in Iran, but in Ireland there is a
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tiny community with no strong facilities (I know of many parkour-specific gyms
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and parks in Iran). My only option was to use a gymnastic gym's adult class and
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just do my own training there using the equipment, which has since been closed
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and at the moment there is little opportunity for me to train since the small
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community in Dublin trains during work hours and weekdays. I'm not alone in
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this though, and I know in general other than specific favourite sports of
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Ireland, most other sports have tiny or nonexistant community among adults
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(children have much more facilities for sports, but apparently somehow people drop sports
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as they reach adulthood here).
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I decided to learn piano during COVID, so I bought a piano and started learning
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the basics on my own, but now that I would like to attend a sort of class or
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have an in-person teacher in a music academy, there are not many adult in-person
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classes with slots available. I have emailed and called different centres but
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was not able to get in-person classes.
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This also applies to work opportunities, as much as Dublin may be hyped as a
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tech hub, I find the work opportunity scene in Dublin to be very limited. Yes,
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large companies do have offices in Dublin, but there is not a strong startup
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culture here, and so you are limited to the Big Tech corps, and the small and
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far-in-between startups.
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# Travel
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Ireland is an island of course, and more importantly, it is not part of the
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Schengen area, so if you do not have a passport that allows you to travel in
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Schengen area, you need to be chasing visas from Schengen countries to travel in
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Europe. You also will have to count these days that you travel in Europe and
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Schengen area as days that may be redacted from your reckonable residence when
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applying for citizenship, which is in contrast to Schengen countries that do not
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track days spent in the Schengen area.
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One might say getting a Schengen visa is not hard, but I lost a ticket to
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Iceland I had booked, because embassies and visa offices simply did not have the
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capacity to issue visas at certain points, and even though I tried to get my
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visa months before my travel, I was not able to find an appointment to get my
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visa on time. That's money lost, but more importantly, a chance to see the
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active Icelandic volcanos, due to visa issues.
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# Alcohol
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Just too much alcohol, if like me, you do not particularly enjoy alcohol
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drinking sessions, you will find it hard to socialise sometimes. Everyone's
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default activity is going to a pub to drink beer.
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I remember when I was in Iran, when we wanted to arrange to go out for a night,
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it was not for beer, it was for going to a cafe and playing boardgames, or going
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to the mountain side of Tehran and sitting at the top of the hill and chatting
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and having tea, or going to an Escape Room, or visiting a gallery or a museum or
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a theatre, or even gathering in someone's home and cooking together and watching
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a movie or a comedy show or something.
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These things are not impossible in Ireland, but they are definitely not the
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default, the default is always the pub, and alcohol. To use numbers, Ireland has
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the [6th highest alcohol consumption in the
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world](https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/alcohol-consumption-by-country).
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# Racism
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I know, I know, racism is everywhere, and in Ireland too. I've had racist
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encounters with the Gardai, I've had racist encounters with my neighbours who
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found my appearance intimidating and had an old lady living in my apartment
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scream twice at the sight of me walking in the apartment halls. I've heard many
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horror stories of racism in Ireland, and although some Irish people will tell
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you "Ireland is not racist!", it absolutely is. I don't know how it compares to
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other countries, and I don't think that's a good argument, but you will
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experience racism here, specially if you are not white (being white does not
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make you immune though!).
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# Infrastructure
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I always find it hard to believe how Ireland is considered a "developed"
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country, perhaps I don't understand what is meant with that word, but I expect a
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developed country to have good infrastructure and for systems to work well.
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The public transport system in Ireland is _very_ limited and not reliable. That
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means a bus not showing up will happen at some point during your time here (not
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very common), a bus being late will definitely happen (very common). The weak
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public transport system, together with the fact that getting a driving license
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and a car is so hard, makes mobility a problem. Bicycles are also not as common
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as some other European countries (looking at you, Netherlands!) and some drivers
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have no respect for cyclists and think of them as an enemy (quite literally). I
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know of many people who don't cycle in Dublin out of fear of car drivers, and I
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understand it, even though I don't share the fear myself.
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The housing crisis is an ongoing issue in Ireland for a long time, and again, it
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is intertwined with lack of public transport and ease of mobility. If you want
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to move out of Dublin to spread out the population, you need a way for people to
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be able to move around, but public transport outside Dublin is nonexistant in
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many places, and getting a license is hard and time-consuming, so you are stuck
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in Dublin with ridiculous rents.
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The public health system is just as broken. One time when I took my girlfriend
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at the time to a public hospital for an emergency, we had to pay €100
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"admittance fee", and after that it took them quite some time to get her a scan
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and a doctor to look at the scan, after which she was told to wait outside
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"until called", when she asked people sitting around her, they mentioned that
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they had been waiting for 7 hours until now, in the emergency room, waiting for
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_the next step_.
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The coach in the gymnastic gym that I used to go to to train parkour, had a knee
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injury, and for the whole 6 months I went to the gym, he was still in queue
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waiting for a surgery from public hospital. In Iran, my friend who had a
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shoulder injury got a surgery at a public hospital in a couple of weeks.
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