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>...if you're considered an outsider in the community it can be close to impossible for you or your family to ever break in. To be fair, having experienced the

>...if you're considered an outsider in the community it can be close to impossible for you or your family to ever break in. To be fair, having experienced the Irish culture for a larger part of three years, this sentiment doesn't seem - implicitly - limited to the rural areas. A cursory search on <insert your chosen search engine here> for things like "making friends in Ireland" will demonstrate this. This isn't to discredit your entire premise about rural life in Ireland, as I've definitely noticed the trends you're speaking of but this particular facet isn't inherenly a symptom of rural life in Ireland but, rather, seems to be a symptom of the overall culture. (Note: I'm not trying to speak ill of Ireland, whatsoever, just noting my own anecdotal observations compared to what you suggest.)

JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
If there's an issue with Ireland overall, I suspect it might have a lot to do with the relatively large rural population actually. Outside of Dublin (which isn't that big in itself and has infrastructure issues that limit its potential as a city too), there's a pretty limited range of social options. With any kind of remotely niche social option (e.g. community theatre) you'll probably be able to build enough of an audience for one small established group of people who all know each other (who may be very welcoming, but this is still intimidating to a newcomer) but there won't be enough to build a secondary option... there's a tendency for things to drift into a social endgame, maybe? I dunno if I'm being coherent...