Inis Mór (Inishmore) isn’t completely desolate. It even had a small airport. There are some shops and a B&B and a little town around the ferry station.
And even a supermacs :) Ireland's local McDonald's clone with gunky burgers and soggy fries. I don't know what people see in it. It's way worse consistency and quality than the real McDonald's. It was a big happening when it arrived though because previously the fish & chips shop would charge 10 bucks for a portion of chips :)
The airports on the arann islands (each one of the three has one, even Inish Oirr the smallest one, Inish Mór is the biggest) are under constant funding pressure though. Inishboffin had one built but it was never opened, nor the nearby one on the mainland near Cleggan. Both are still X'ed out 10 years later: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30895268.html . After spending all that money on infrastructure nobody cared enough to actually open it up for business.
This is really the problem with these islands. Once in a few years the government starts a half-assed stimulation program. A year or two later it's all abandoned again. They just don't know what they want. For remote working it's far from ideal too because services are sparse and connections very poor especially outside the tourist season. Most people operate tourist B&Bs or are on welfare.
Achill Island mentioned in the article is actually accessible by road with a short bridge, so it's a bit like a peninsula.
It's a beautiful place but like most of rural Ireland it's extremely remote. You'd really have to be ok with seeing the same 100 people day in day out, having only one or two tiny shops to deal with, being hours from anything or anyone new that you've never seen. To me that's a nightmare. I hate tiny, close-knit communities, sorry :) Which by the way are much less close-knit than they seem because they're usually pockmarked by decades-old feuds. I knew some Islanders that would fill me in on all the intrigues and it was not a happy world.
I lived in Galway, officially a city but even that was way way too small for me. It drove me crazy to know every street, every shop. You could never walk there for 5 minutes without seeing someone you know. Some people love that but to me it was very claustrophobic. The islands however, well that's another class of 'remote' altogether.
Now I live in Barcelona. Always new things to discover, feeling connected to the world. Big things happening. Ireland just isn't for me.
I absolutely love Achill, it's stunning out there. I would love to live out there, if I knew I had reliable internet so I could work.
However, the €80k the government grant for doing up a derelict house is not going to very far. Ireland has always been one of the most expensive places in Europe, and the cost of living has steadily increased in the last 12 months.
In particular, building, renovating or extending homes has become prohibitively expensive because of a combination of labor shortage, rising materials costs and price gouging.
Yes starlink would probably perform admirably out there. It's in range of base stations for the downlink, and sparse population density to not stretch the bandwidth out too much between subscribers.
A lot of people out there wouldn't be heavy internet users either.
Yes, especially on the "real" islands that are only accessible by boat, that money will not go very far. You'll have to pay to bring all the materials on the ferry, put up workers in a hotel etc...
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 40.6 ms ] threadThe airports on the arann islands (each one of the three has one, even Inish Oirr the smallest one, Inish Mór is the biggest) are under constant funding pressure though. Inishboffin had one built but it was never opened, nor the nearby one on the mainland near Cleggan. Both are still X'ed out 10 years later: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30895268.html . After spending all that money on infrastructure nobody cared enough to actually open it up for business.
This is really the problem with these islands. Once in a few years the government starts a half-assed stimulation program. A year or two later it's all abandoned again. They just don't know what they want. For remote working it's far from ideal too because services are sparse and connections very poor especially outside the tourist season. Most people operate tourist B&Bs or are on welfare.
I have to say, I'm fond of a Snack Box or a chicken breast sandwich on occasion. Something fierce nostalgic about it.
It's a beautiful place but like most of rural Ireland it's extremely remote. You'd really have to be ok with seeing the same 100 people day in day out, having only one or two tiny shops to deal with, being hours from anything or anyone new that you've never seen. To me that's a nightmare. I hate tiny, close-knit communities, sorry :) Which by the way are much less close-knit than they seem because they're usually pockmarked by decades-old feuds. I knew some Islanders that would fill me in on all the intrigues and it was not a happy world.
I lived in Galway, officially a city but even that was way way too small for me. It drove me crazy to know every street, every shop. You could never walk there for 5 minutes without seeing someone you know. Some people love that but to me it was very claustrophobic. The islands however, well that's another class of 'remote' altogether.
Now I live in Barcelona. Always new things to discover, feeling connected to the world. Big things happening. Ireland just isn't for me.
However, the €80k the government grant for doing up a derelict house is not going to very far. Ireland has always been one of the most expensive places in Europe, and the cost of living has steadily increased in the last 12 months.
In particular, building, renovating or extending homes has become prohibitively expensive because of a combination of labor shortage, rising materials costs and price gouging.
A lot of people out there wouldn't be heavy internet users either.
It's stunning yes. But also extremely remote. I just need new people and new impulses daily. But I guess it's not for me :)