Dublin, Ireland

[Revenant]

There have been a few threads here and there mentioning Dublin. Since I will be attending either UCD for a MA (accepted) or UCD or Trinity for a PhD (waiting) I thought I would get the ball rolling on specific city information. 

I've been poring over Daft.ie and it seems apparent that 1. housing comes quick and gets snapped up just as fast, and 2. it's next to impossible to get affordable campus-side accommodation. I'm moving to Dublin with my two-year-old so I need to find a self-contained flat (studio/one bedroom is fine) rather than shared/student housing.

My budget is €1000/month and housing starts at around 2km away from either campus. I don't mind the walk even in the rain (I've lived in Cork so I'm used to the weather) but am I going to be stuck with shiteholes at that price? Is it better to find something on the DART/LUAS many km away? 

Alternatively, and this is just for the PhD programs since they're research only, I have family with a huge house in Carlow right next to the train station. Would it be wise or crazy to consider commuting? 

Any information about student living in Dublin would be appreciated.

[manseca]

Hiya @Revenant

I can't comment specifically on being solely a student in Dublin, but I'm an American (Irish wife) that's been living in Ireland for 4 years and have worked in Dublin for about half that time and I couldn't afford rent on a 50K salary with a small family (I'm in Kerry now). At the moment, I am studying through UCD (part eLearning/part research) for an MSc and working full time.

The housing market has gotten completely out of control across the country and you'll be very lucky to find anything for your budget at the moment as you are right in that there are literally ques of people with deposits in-hand during viewings. My recommendation would be to go the direction of Wicklow for a couple of reasons: 1) You can easily take the train from Wicklow Town into Blackrock Station which will connect you to UCD quite easily via Dublin Bus - you'll just use the leapcard from there -  monthly train - non student from Wicklow to Pearse/Connolly/Blackrock would be 230/month 2) You get WAY more space for your money (think 800 euro vs 1800 euro for a studio/1bd) than you would in Dublin 3) There is a great network of young mothers in Wicklow Town and Greystones as I see you have a wee one. (You could look for rentals in Greystones as well which will get you within 30 min of the city centre but you're looking at higher rent again.) and 4) You have a nice coastal walk, playgrounds, enough shops, a great (award-winning) local bookshop, etc. I can't comment on nightlife as I didn't go out much work and a wee girl at the time.

Since you'll be doing mostly research and I imagine there won't be as many set lecture times, it would likely be best for you to look down the coast or up the coast. I have a preference for Wicklow because of the mountains and coast. You'll have Brittas Bay within 15 minutes and Laragh/Glendalough within half an hour. Again, you could take the Carlow route to save cash, but Wicklow would probably give you a better quality of life, but that's just my opinion.

I've gone on now, ha. Best of luck with it all.

Good things

Edited March 8, 2017 by manseca

[Revenant]

Thank you so much @manseca! I'm private messaging you the personal details so this forum still stays relevant to others, but in short I think taking transit into Dublin is a wise idea.

[cydxb]

If you're at UCD then certainly the Wicklow area makes sense. If you end up at TCD you can also look north along the coast as it's easy to get to TCD from any of the city centre train stations (Connolly, Tara, and Pearse) that the commuter trains go into. 

I even know of people who commute to Dublin from Drogheda, depending on your course commitments that would be an option.