Ireland will pay you $90K to move to a beautiful island home
cnn.com
cnn.com
"idyllic" is not an accurate description of any island off the West of Ireland.
Occasionally beautiful in summer but... it rains 300+ days a year, in Spring and Autumn storms come barrelling in from the Atlantic, and midwinter days are very short and dark. There's a compelling stark beauty but it's not a lifestyle for the faint of heart.
But Donegal is, essentially, 100% Hicktown. It's a rural lifestyle and you raise cows or you farm or you cut peat bogs or something. There is definitely a tourist industry, focused on the quaint back country and the scenic views along the coast. And there are plenty of islands off the coast of Donegal just like the ones mentioned in the article (which are closer to Galway). So don't expect to purchase an island home and get a cushy 1st world experience. You'll be firmly in the backwater and you're lucky if you get modern services like high-speed Internet.
I am sure that some sort of digital nomad will happily colonize this sort of place, but it's definitely not for the faint of heart. Note that one of the stipulations for the $90K grant is that you refurbish a dilapidated "beautiful" home, and live in it too.
And the penny drops! Do you have to open it up to tourism too?
What are we talking? Upper Neolithic stone hovel? Middle age pastoral hut? Classic castle or manor?
I think the maintenance cost on any one of those would easily top 90k pounds.
It's just a scheme to scam the uninformed individuals - if there was any reasonable way to come out ahead, property developers would be queuing up to buy these. The fact they don't suggests it is not worth it and you'll be out of pocket in the end.
The other aspect is, while Donegal is more remote to the rest of the Republic, Derry in Northern Ireland is a city right beside it and is generally considered part of the overall area. North west that is, it's not within Donegal itself.
I can't speak for the islands though.
This is possibly the most uninformed and ignorant thing I've read on here in quite some time.
> I have been doing extensive genealogical work lately, and my ancestors hail from County Donegal
Well, that definitely qualifies you as an expert.
You know there are actual Irish people on this site with far more local knowledge than yourself? It's not just other uninformed Americans who you may have become accustomed to swallowing your utter braindead nonsense.
Donegal is a rural area - correct. It also (shocker!) has international software companies there(like SITA!). Ireland is geographically small so remote isn't hours on end to reach civilization. But I don't want to disperse any more tales your ancestors may have passed down through the family.
Admittedly my impressions are hasty and not based on a first-hand experience of any kind. Basically, I toured the place on Google Maps, did some tourism research, and basically did a lot of planning for a trip I won't be taking any time soon.
I did find that there are no major urban centers. Sure, Derry is right up there, but technically it's in Northern Ireland and not in Donegal. Every village I inspected (again, through the lens of Google Maps) seemed to contain a coffeehouse, a pub or two, a hotel, and a few independently-owned little shoppes.
I definitely know of a department store from which I ordered goods online, but what I did not spot in Donegal were any apartment-block highrises, downtown centres with a fast-food district and a promenade for people to stroll around, or any of the marks of upscale urban life. In learning about professions and occupations throughout Donegal, I came to know many dairy and beef farmers, lots of fishermen, there was one King of Tory Island in fact, and it seemed like a lot of subsistence workers and rather a lack of office workers in a "thriving tech industry" of some kind.
So correct me if I'm wrong, or just flame away instead, if that's your inclination, I guess. And then I can add "verbally abusive" to my impression of today's Irishman.
It makes an island sound like a start-up - it's a smaller community with fewer resident experts, so all the skills a person brings are potentially valuable.