one person's "delightfully silent" is another's "uncomfortably silent". As someone who grew up in a rural area (Irish rural, so nowhere near the kind of rural you can get in other countries), there seemed to be a shared feeling amongst just about everyone that everyone else knew far too much about their affairs. And if you're considered an outsider in the community it can be close to impossible for you or your family to ever break in.
It's easy to romanticise a rural area too and mourn knowledge being lost, but that simultaneously involves condemning kids to continue the same cycles as their parents maintaining traditions and practices with little motive behind it beyond it being the thing that was always done.
The small bubbles of rural areas are often far smaller and far more ignorant than densely populated areas too. I had no source of knowledge whatsoever as to how the rest of the world functioned until I moved away. There was basically no chance in hell I was going to be able to know what I might like to do with my life at 18.
One thing I never got with families who moved out of a city to live in a (much much bigger) house in the country was why they didn't factor the sheer amount of extra work that will be involved in expanding their child's worldview when out of school activities become slim-to-nonexistent.
>...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.)
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...
I'd be curious where you were, if you don't mind. I'm moving near Tullamore soon because I was sick of paying to be in Dublin when there was little real benefit as a remote worker with a kid (not like I get out much)
If nothing else, I heard several different languages at Lidl and there seemed to have people from many different places. But Tullamore is still commutable to Dublin (if only just) and probably not as rural as you'r thinking.
I'd be a bit further than Athlone, very much the hard ending of the commuter belt. The actual area I'm from is at the very edge of Tullamore Hospital's general area of coverage, so most my experience of Tullamore is having to go there in tragic circumstances, not super positive!
If the tradeoff includes no change in income and not having to deal with the daily commute, I think the amount of additional time and money to spend with kids would be a huge positive. Most of the ones I know are doing a daily ~80 minute train journey (complete with panicked rush to get to the station for their particular train each morning)... I dunno how anyone can justify erasing that much time from every day of their lives, or how they can have the time to do anything with/for their kids.
Yeah, remote work is a huge part of it. To be honest it comes down to a big mortgage in Dublin or using my deposit to buy a house in cash in Offaly. I suspect we're due for a crash, too, making said mortgage even less enticing.
But if I find myself cramming in to the Luas from Heuston to the Docklands in a few years, well, it'll be my comeuppance for wanting to own a home outright.
It's easy to romanticise a rural area too and mourn knowledge being lost, but that simultaneously involves condemning kids to continue the same cycles as their parents maintaining traditions and practices with little motive behind it beyond it being the thing that was always done.
The small bubbles of rural areas are often far smaller and far more ignorant than densely populated areas too. I had no source of knowledge whatsoever as to how the rest of the world functioned until I moved away. There was basically no chance in hell I was going to be able to know what I might like to do with my life at 18.
One thing I never got with families who moved out of a city to live in a (much much bigger) house in the country was why they didn't factor the sheer amount of extra work that will be involved in expanding their child's worldview when out of school activities become slim-to-nonexistent.