Urban or rural?

I'd say we have a fair mix of rural and urban dwellers online here. There would be the city urban and the town/village urban - and then the rural.

I am an ultra urban. Born and reared half an hour walk from O'Connell St with a few factory units over the lane at the back of the house. A big industrial chimney looking at me all my life and various industries over the years - including a lollipop factory. Walk out the front and in a direct line looking left was the O'Connell Monument. Fifteen minutes from Dalyer, Tolka and Croker. I delivered papers and can remember hearing the Dublin bombings 36 years ago last Monday. The city was mostly all I knew.

But for holidays it was a small town in Wicklow or Courtown - before it was destroyed. The small town in Wicklow is also destroyed IMO. But I have fond memories of rural events - turf cutting, tug of war, general farming and country air - the scent of evergreen trees is especially reminiscent. I have always travelled a fair bit and have been all over the country for one reason or another. You can land in a place in Ireland on a sunny day and think you are in heaven. Then you can land there in November and think you are in hell.

Sometimes the thought of living in the middle of nowhere appeals to me - then I think the isolation would kill me. There are some beautiful places - no doubt - but I don't know if they would hold the interest to keep me there - not being used to it. Small places can be very claustrophobic but then cities can be crowded but lonely.

A good few on here would be from rural places - but going to college or working in Cork, Dublin etc. They have the pull of home all the time and I'd imagine going back for weekends is mostly a good experience.

If you are in that position - do you yearn to get back to base? Do you want to get back asap or after you have experienced life elsewhere. Or do you hate the homplace, the town and want to stay away. And for city heads - would you like to get away from the chaos to a small village in rural Ireland?

I'd be interested to hear experiences and thoughts on this one.

Born and reared half an hour walk from O'Connell St



Never figured you for a Culchie Jayo.

Just goes to show.

Me, city, through and through.

Rural to the bone.. When I moved to the City for college, still cabbage looking around the lugs, I found the urban thing very disturbing. It didn't seem natural to me to be living in a large estate with hundreds of other people and not knowing one of them. Getting broke into on the second night wasn't a great way to start the settling in process either... 5 years later and home in the sticks still feels like base camp and living away is more like an extended sojourn than actually 'living'.

I definitely fall into the rural category although I did live in Dublin for a number of years whilst in college and spent many summers in Tallaght where I have an aunt and uncle and cousins. I would have regarded myself as a home bird and never spent too many weekends in Dublin as there was always football and farming or females to return to.

I've also lived in other cities such as New York, London and Belfast but I always knew it would be a temporary arrangement as I could never settle in a built up area were your just basically another face on the street and your neighbour is only a neighbour because they happen to occupy the flat next door but not in the true sense of a good old fashioned country neighbour that stops to have a yarn with you on the road whilst another neighbour waits patiently in the car behind for the conversation to end without blowing the horn or shouting foul language at you to move on.

I suppose its also a feeling of belonging to a parish where everyone know's your name and family background and business probably! Its also the freedom you have for example to play music as loud as you want without fear of anyone knocking the partition wall asking for you to turn it down or threaten to call the cops. The security you also have knowing that your kids are safe and sound in your front or back yard or garden without the worry of speeding motorists bouncing over speed ramps etc. and also the ability to roar at the top of your voice without anyone paying a blind bit of difference to you (Even the kids!!)

At the end of the day it all boils down to what your used to and what you've been brought up with but its the country life for me without a shadow of a doubt.

Although born in the Liberties I am from a wholly rural background, curiously though not one of my grandparents were farmers. .

I am not unfamiliar with urban dwellers though. As far back as I can remember they came to my area for it's natural beauty and amenities. I recall in the mid 1990's an influx of tourists for West Dublin frequented the area, often bringing souvenirs with them such as televisons, motor cars and stock from the local tobacconists on the way home.

Since I've went to college I've started to appreciate the idiosyncrasies of the local 'nutjobs' back home. At my place of work I often encounter these folk, instead of exchanging normal pleasantries about the weather etc... they often proceed to inform me of tales of woe and happiness. One such occurrence was when this man (a greyhound enthusiast) told me of a time when he suffered from severe back pain that was cured during a trip on a bumpy road from Clonmel to Dublin. A friend of his suggested taking painkillers intended for his greyhound , so he consumed said pills and he claims to have never suffered from back pain since ( a quarter of a century later). The same individual, during a different encounter, informed me why the Chinese economy will never develop ahead of the U.S 'cus the Yanks are cute Hoors'. I nodded in agreement after minutes of failing to persuade him his argument lacked fact.

For me, its the mad folk that make living rurally brilliant, not the fresh air or any of that B.S.

Im a city girl but I want to be a wee rural person, They are so cool!

Rural all the way.

Great post JC - spent most of my life in the village i was born in. Grew up in a housing estate were the craic was mighty. Its were i got my love of football and hurling were all the skills were garnered on a daily basis from a very young age. During the summer it was up at the craic of dawn and after a bite to eat for breakfast there would be a gathering at the top of the estate for a football or hurling match.

Everyone was your friend and everyone was your neighbour, you could walk in and out of any of the 30 odd houses in the estate and no one would bat at eyelid in fact they'd almost go looking for you if you didnt appear during the course of the day. It was the sort of place were as Mugsy says you knew you were safe. Your parents didnt feel the need to go checking on you constantly ad they knew the other children in the estate looked out for everyone else. You only went home if you were hungry or tired.

At the age of 14 we moved a few mile out the road to a more rural part of the village. If was a big culture shock to be honest - coming from a place were there was no quiet time to a place were there was only 3 houses was so different. In some ways i regretted it as i lost touch with many friends and also missed the craic. Being an only boy it brought a whole new meaning to 'playing with yourself' and there is only so many times you can kick a ball and run after it yourself before you got bored.

At the same time though when i look back the house move was probably the single biggest influence on my life as it is now. Had i stayed were i was i would probably be an alcoholic now with no job and no prospect, in the rural setting i had 'peace' to study and concentrate on the books with no obvious distractions. I spent a few years in Belfast at Uni and i have to say while the social life was great the people of Belfast were not - you knew no one and could easily become a stranger in a major city, i still hate Belfast...........

Thankfully work has returned me to my roots back in the village i was born about a mile from the house i was brought up in. The wife is from a rural area and it is rural believe me, they're next door neighbours are a short plane journey away its so remote. That said the peace and tranquillity is something to admire i just don't know if i could stick it long term.

I often wonder which is the best environment to bring children up in but both have their advantages and disadvantages.

I've lived here in Yorkshire all my life. The area I live in you would definitely class as rural, it is half on the hilly land of the Yorkshire Wolds and half on the flatter land Vale of York, between York and Hull.

All the land here is farming, and the closest settlement you might class as a city is York, even though judging by the size of it York is more of a large town.

The hub of my area is the market town of Pocklington, this is where I go to school and where all the shops are etc. 'Pock' isn't that big either, perhaps 25000 population.

There is a similar market town, Market Weighton, about 5 miles down the road. This is pretty much the same in size and amenities as Pock. It tends to be the case that if you go to one, you never go to the other.

These two towns are built up around the York-Hull road, the A1079, and scattered around across the farmland of the Wolds and the Vale of York are countless small villages.

I live in one of these, Everingham. We have no shops, no pub, the post office closed years ago. The only thing Everingham does have is a village hall, a small sports field and a tennis court.

This being said I do like living in a village. As mentioned above, everybody knows everybody else and there's a real feeling of community. I could walk into just about any house in this village and be welcomed as a friend.

The land round here is owned by companies who produce high quality turf, so the fields for miles around tend to be used for nothing but growing turf. The turf for Wimbledon, Wembley ( ) and loads of other grounds comes from round here.

Whilst Everingham is my home, I have always considered Pocklington as my home town. It is 5 miles away on the small country roads which link these parts and most of my life revolves around the place. My secondary school is in Pocklington and is made up of residents of the town and people from the villages like me. I would class Pock as a rural town any day.

My primary school was in a village called Melbourne. Looking back, this was a tiny school - only 150 pupils made up largely of kids from five villages Melbourne, Everingham, Thornton, Bielby and Seaton Ross. The primary school in Sutton-on-Derwent, however, has a mere 17 pupils. This is how rural the area is.

For a larger town, it has always been York which is about 20 minutes away. Nobody ever goes to Hull (45 mins), it's a dump.

Yeah, so after that ramble, all in all - I'm rural.

Great posts here altogether - keep them coming - very interesting to see the different perspectives.

Grew up just outside of Sligo town (the council try to call it a city, but they're fooling no one) in what would best be described as a rural-suburban environment. Anyone familiar with the road from Sligo town to Rosses Point will know what I mean! The "Sligo Suburban Bus Service" meant that we were probably more urban than rural in our outlook, as most free afternoons would be spent in the town.
However, the mother's family from a distinctly rural background in south Mayo, and spent the vast majority of childhood summers there, and so got a good taste of true rural life as well.
Moved to full-on city living with the move to college. Four years in Galway confirmed what I'd thought previously, and I realised that whilst I mightn't like to live in a city, I'll always need to be within 20 minutes of one!
Currently living in Dublin (for last 4 years) and don't see myself moving homewards anytime soon. Back to NY or Boston would be more likely if I'm being honest (just don't tell the auld pair!). Over the summer I'll be home most weekends (whenever there's a match), but over the winter once a month would be the most. I enjoy seeing the family, and all the mates at home, but the limitations of a small town (and I'd class Sligo as a small town - especially in comparison to Galway or Dublin) only become more apparant to me each time I go home.
Even now I could probably name who will be doing what around Sligo town tomorrow afternoon, who will be in what pubs tomorrow night, who they will be talking to, and even what they will be drinking!
It's the routine, the lack of variety. It doesn't sit easily with me. Go shopping during the day and there's the same 5/6 shops you go into, you stop into the same coffee shop for a break. You go for a pint in the same pubs, go to the same club. Familiarity can be nice, but not all the time!

Boxty is a rural typ'a guy as this shot from Chez Boxty enunciates.......

Pretty much the city I grew up in.


Now living in Belfast

Boxtyeater wrote:

Boxty is a rural typ'a guy as this shot from Chez Boxty enunciates.......

Born and reared with this landscape and forever grateful for it...Where would get it? A panaroma of water, mountains, glens and coeteries of "group living"..Take this scene:
1.Where would grand-children of today find tadpoles in a quarry bed, that their Grandad would label and mind, as they progressed through the "mankeeper" stage 'till they became fully fledged frogs?
2.Where would you casually bump into what must be Ireland's oldest driver (parishoner) as we supped a lock of half-ones in Tommy Creegan's in Cloone after a funeral.......Possibly Jonsmith might know this "legend" whose 98.
3. I digess..The leged wonders would President McAleese be surprised if he drove from the gates of the Phoenix Park to the Arás to collect the cheque......
4. As Boxty is partial to a pint, he might, at this time of year, depart the residence around the 8 mark. And as he meanders along the bóreen he may be accosted by one or both of the XXX brothers....These guys are batchelors in their 70's who maintain, in unison, that Bobby Bare's version of "The Streets of Baltimore" is the greatest country song of all time..*

I haven't reached the main road yet in my 2.7k ramble....more to follow.....

*To follow....

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This is the one.......Class job.....replace Baltimore with Ballinamore...Hup!!!

There's more arsonists around Ballinamore these days than Baltimore Boxty by the looks of things..

Jonsmith wrote:There's more arsonists around Ballinamore these days than Baltimore Boxty by the looks of things..

Ballinamore is a good oul' town JS.....Ye' Corlough lads should know that...Ye wouldn't have arses in ye're trousers if it wasn't for Duignans.....

A grand town indeed Boxty, a few years back there was nowhere else you'd be of a Saturday night but throwin' your money into Fred's biscuit tin. Sadly that all ended when the publicans around Ballyconnel decided to get their act together. Smyths is a nice place for a relatively quiet pint..

Have lived most of my life in "rural suburbia" and still do, For the last nine years I have lived about 2 miles outside of reasonable sized town on a quiet enough backroad Within a square mile of the house there are probably another 20/25 houses half a dozen of which of which would be farmhouses. To be honest its what I'd always choose - I like to have a bit of space
decent size garden few trees around the house, country walks, a field out the back to let the dog run around, whilst at the same time less than five minutes from shops, creche, schools, work, cinema, swimming pool, gym, gaa grounds, golf club, restaurants etc etc and of course the key upside is that both myself and the wife have to endure an 8.50 departure to navigate the hazardous commute to our respective workplaces.

We lived in a number of places when I grew up but all pretty much of a similar vein as above - we typically lived within 5 miles of the nearest town in areas that were reasonably built up, but always in a "one off" house rather than in an estate or development. Lots of our neighbours and ny friends were farmers so over the years I've done all the haysaving, sillage cutting, Turf Saving, Spud picking etc without actually having been raised on a farm.

Have lived in Dublin, cork, London etc over the years and I'd always prefer the country. When I lived in Dublin I used to walk to work but had a car with street parking, When I got home I would hardly ever take the car out as it was going to be more hassle to find parking when I got back. So I felt more "trapped" than I would do in the country side. So it would always be country living for me