What is an immersion in ireland? 2023

With Dublin regarded as one of the top 10 most expensive cities in Europe, the cost of living throughout the nation is higher than the continental average.
But although owning or even renting a house in Ireland is more expensive than many other nations across the world, individuals are nevertheless attracted to for the way of life, the landscape, the prospect of a decent work or just for having discovered the love of their life.
We talked to three individuals who, despite the expense of setting up house, have opted to lay down roots and spend their lives in Ireland.
Emily Manoras and her husband Paolo Montanari came here from their home Italy little over three years ago, expecting that finding someplace to live would be ‘a piece of cake’. But it took two years of living with her parents and a lot of nail-biting bidding before they eventually moved into their own house last year.
The couple relocated here so their children might have a better way of life and although they can’t blame this choice, Emily says the housing market in Ireland is extremely different to what she was accustomed to.
“We wanted our children Nicole and Filippo to experience a less materialistic lifestyle than they would have done in Italy and we have always liked Ireland, so making the choice to move here wasn’t difficult,” she explains. “I have never had to worry about finding a good property since in Italy the main challenge would always be having too much choice and attempting to determine which, of numerous residences, was the best option.\s” So when we got here in 2014, we moved in with my parents, who have a huge old country home in Broadford, Co Clare, to start with and assumed it would only be a short period until we found our own place. But we weren’t prepared for the lack of rental houses and the fact that even if we did find somewhere, we could easily be gazumped by someone who offered a few euro more to the landlord – as this is not allowed in Italy.

“It took us two years of research and seeing and when we eventually found something we had a nerve agonizing wait to see whether our offer would be approved over another family.”
The Italians won the bidding battle at a cost of €300 more per month than the listed rental charge, but the property suited their requirements and although they are still aiming to purchase their own home, didn’t mind paying over-the-odds for their present residence.
“In Italy we are accustomed to vast spaces where everyone comes together however in Ireland a lot of the properties we visited appeared to have little rooms and décor from the 1970’s,” explains Emily who operates Passatempo restaurant in Ennis with Paolo. “So when we saw the spacious kitchen and rooms in this property, we knew it was suitable for us.
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Ideally we would like to buy or build our own home, but because we are sole traders we couldn’t get a mortgage for 2 ½ years as we need to show proof of our earnings, despite the fact that we already have a deposit and savings. But we have just approximately six months to go and the restaurant is doing incredibly well so perhaps we will be able to get started on finding a house of our own in the not too distant future.”
Christos Tsigaridas has finally acquired his own house after spending many years traveling among rented apartments in Dublin. The Greek native has been living in the city since 2010 when his wife’s employment enabled them to get established.
“Maria and I were excited to make the move to Ireland and were helped by the company who provided us with a trailer big enough for both a car and a horse for our belongings, but all we had in the world were two suitcases of clothes,” recalls Christos, senior account manager for a multinational company.
“So the transition was pretty straightforward and we had a great apartment to begin with, but after four weeks we had to locate our own home and that was a bit more challenging. Eventually after a lot of searching we found an apartment. ” But as summer turned to winter, we realised it was actually very cold and not very homely so again the company stepped in and looked after us until we were able to find something suitable – which initially was a rental home but after realising how much we were spending on rent, we decided that we should buy somewhere of our own and last year we finally bought our own apartment across the street from Maria’s work.

The rental fees are ridiculous so it is costing us less on our monthly mortgage installments than the rent did. Now that we have a young daughter, Anna, and a second baby on the way, it was the perfect time to move and our two-bedroom apartment is ideal, particularly as we are down the street from Anna’s creche and there is both a playground nearby and a courtyard in the apartment block where she can ride her bike.”
Dave Marra from the US has also found the rental rates to be fairly expensive in the capital where he works from Monday to Friday.
“I reside in a modest ‘granny’ apartment in north Dublin and according to friends and coworkers, I was really fortunate since I discovered it very easy,” he adds. “But it is incredibly pricey since I’m paying 30% more for this little property than I am for the mortgage on my 4-bedroom semidetached house down the country.”
Detroit-born Dave says he has been gone from America too long to compare the cost of purchasing or renting a house but has seen some quite unusual oddities about Irish dwellings.
“I haven’t leased a house in the US since I was in college in 1999 since I moved to Europe not long after that,” says the 39 year old. “Then after meeting my wife, Lauren, chose to lay down roots in Ireland. And although I doubt I would ever go back to America since I genuinely enjoy life here, there were several aspects which took some getting used to – the first being the ‘immersion’. I couldn’t understand how everyone didn’t have hot water on demand all the time and would have to wait for the tank to heat up. Plus in the beginning I couldn’t figure out the electrical switches – I mean why do you need to turn on a socket at the wall as well as turning on the oven? That didn’t make sense to me. ” But I love the fact that windows don’t have screens on them here so you can see out properly and I much prefer drying clothes outside rather than in a tumble dryer like everyone does in America – so there are lots of little positives as well as well as the obvious big ones.”
Dave, who works for a huge global IT business believes Ireland has been the ‘land of opportunity’ for him as he not only found his wife, but also made a tremendous success of his life.
“Once I met Lauren I knew I wanted to remain and did everything I could to make that happen,” he adds. “And since then I acclimated to Irish life pretty effortlessly and have gained so many friends, possibly because I made a point of integrating into the community. And I learned that there are many chances here for individuals to move on in life. I have done really well in my career, Lauren and I own our own house and I’m pretty sure that if I stayed in the US I wouldn’t be doing what I am doing now – either on a personal or a professional level.”
35-year-old Christos Tsigaridas agrees and says the opportunities he has been afforded since moving to Ireland are way over and above his expectations.
“If someone had told me ten years ago that both Maria and I own our own apartment in Dublin and have great jobs, I would not have believed it possible,” he says. “Of course I do miss home and family in Greece and everything is a lot more expensive here – for example, my mother-in-law has a house overlooking the sea which probably costs about €50k in Greece and here it would be over €1 million. ” But it’s all relative as we earn a lot more than we could ever hope to earn back home. And we have made a lot of friends, both Irish and Greek, so we are very settled and really have put down Irish roots. In fact, Anna has an Irish passport, so we need to get that sorted for ourselves now so we can truly be Irish citizens. The only negative thing is the weather, which is very different to what we were used to at home, but I guess you can’t have it all.”