For Indian students eyeing Ireland as a study-abroad destination, a cautionary tale from a Reddit user may give serious pause. Posted under the subreddit r/Indians_StudyAbroad, the detailed account lists “20 reasons why not to choose Ireland for your masters,” ranging from poor academic value to rising crime and skyrocketing living costs.
“Ireland has very poor quality of education even poorer than India,” the user wrote, alleging that professors “just post YouTube videos which are freely available in portal instead of taking lectures.” They added that the master’s course was effectively over in six months, with the rest of the time spent juggling assignments across 10 modules.
The user, who holds a master’s degree in AI and has over four years of experience as a software engineer, claimed they spent around ₹35 lakh on the course with no return on investment. “I paid around 20 lakhs for fees and didn’t even get a internship or placement opportunity,” they wrote, adding that the “careers team or fair is just a event promotion scam.”
Poor weather and cultural mismatch were also part of the complaint. “The weather is so bad the whole year around it rains every day, and you hardly get any sun,” they noted. “Most Irish people just drink and party never do anything outside of that. There is no motivation for anyone to do anything or revolutionary.”
Beyond academics and lifestyle, job prospects were described as grim. “The whole market is down. I hardly got 1-2 interview after applying to 100s of jobs here,” the post stated. Even part-time work is tough to land due to stiff competition. “My friends didn’t get any part time because of all the international students wants to work and Irish students even work this low pay works cause of everything so expensive.”
The Redditor also flagged issues with public infrastructure and safety. “There is no public transport in the county only with 2-3 cities… Robbery and car theft happen almost everyday,” they wrote. “The government just want to take half of your income and give you nothing in return.”
High costs, rising racism, and poor healthcare access also featured in the post. “Everything is 2-3x more expensive than Europe,” they said, blaming import dependency. “The medical service is so scam that even after insurance for small things you have to pay 50 euros just for seeing doctor.”
The post concluded on a bleak note: “I have to go back to India because there is no jobs in the AI field here and everyone wants you to be 5-7+ yoe in specific tools.”
