An Expat's Guide to Ireland: Life in a Second World Country

by Mr Milo Denison

An Expat's Guide to Ireland describes the experiences of the author who left the United States in order to build a new life in Ireland, including the necessary bureaucratic steps such as sorting out customs, work permit and the perils of apartment hunting in Dublin. Scattered throughout the book are anecdotes about the pitfalls of navigating Irish life as an expat, in between extensive useful information and tips and tricks for moving and getting the most out of life in one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

170 pages, Paperback

First published November 22, 2014

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a let down for me. First, it seems to be self-published with no editing, so along with plenty of grammar/spelling errors, there was a sentence about mail that had the phrase "Irish Whisky Tour" randomly in the middle.

But I could've over looked it if the content had been strong. While the title claims this is a guide, I wouldn't consider it to be one. Denison would start telling about something (dealing with immigration for example), but wouldn't give helpful details for how to navigate the situation. There were other details thrown in that are not important, but leaves the reader guessing about what steps they should be taking.

The stories included fell flat. Again, there was a lack of details to make it interesting or relatable. For example, the motorcycle trip at the end. It starts out like a guide or travelogue, breaking the story up by day, but beyond talking about the highway or the overcrowding at the Cliffs of Moher, there are no details to make it fun. There's never a B&B name, and rarely a town name.

As much as I wanted to like this book, in my mind it failed as a guide and failed as a travelogue. The only reason it gets two stars from me instead of one is that I DID learn about a few things I never would have known existed, but I will have to go elsewhere to find out more information as this book left out a lot of the details.

[Robert Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Milo Denison’s An Expat's Guide to Ireland: Life in a Second World Country is a meticulously detailed mélange of travel genres that succeeds both fractionally and holistically. Alternately sincere and sardonic, Mr. Denison’s no-nonsense and occasionally politically incorrect guide to traveling, emigrating, touring and simply being an American in Ireland or really any other country is an entertaining and informative read. Denison makes maneuvering through governmental bureaucracy, adhering to two country’s tax laws and apartment shopping a hundred times more enjoyable for us readers than it was for him. We both have fun and learn from his experiences, two benefits well worth the price of the eBook or paperback. It’s said that one of the greatest challenges in doing something completely new is that “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Mr. Denison dove in with both feet and found the hidden challenges about which we wouldn’t have known to ask. A tax for your TV? Black or white pudding? PPS? Region Locking? Denison covers it all and more, and in the end interestingly says as much about life itself as he does about an expat’s life in Ireland.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful information for people wanting to move to Ireland (temporarily --> permanently) but not balanced. If this is the only book you ever read about moving to Ireland you might head the opposite direction. The book shows Ireland (especially Dublin) to be expensive, with an overloaded and failing infrastructure, and way too many layers of bureaucracy. But, while it does mention a few sights to be seen in Ireland and Dublin and briefly mentions the friendliness and enjoyability of the Irish people, it just doesn't give much reason why one would ever want to move there.