One of the moderators in charge of running the r/ireland subreddit was kind enough to tell us about the online community’s roots, what the members are like, and how to tell whether a post is ‘Irish enough’ (and, therefore, fit for the sub) or not. The entire mod team is Irish or from Northern Ireland, however, that’s not a requirement to join them.

“The subreddit has been around a long time, 14 years. Back in those days, there was a huge proliferation of subreddits for different places and r/ireland was one. It's meant to be a haven for Irish redditors to talk to other Irish redditors about things that are interesting to Irish folks,” the team representative explained to Bored Panda.

“The rest of Reddit is heavily dominated by Americans talking about American stuff in an American way. Our culture is a little more casual and it's nice to have our own space,” they noted.

According to the moderator, each country-specific subreddit is going to be “a reflection of that country.” The r/ireland sub is no exception.

“We're a fun bunch and like to joke around (especially referencing the ‘90s sitcom Father Ted— that's where our icon comes from), but we also love to argue. Ireland has changed a lot over the last 30 years and the mods see some pretty heated conflicts between our users that would be typical of that.”

They gave Bored Panda some examples of what some of the arguments were about. “A few years ago, r/ireland users were heavily involved in the abortion and gay marriage referendum campaigns. Our users mostly skew liberal and the sub showed that, but when those users ‘have a row’ with some of our right-wing users, it can get pretty messy.”

They continued: “In the past year, we've covered some pretty controversial topics like transsexuals in sports, crime in and discrimination against the traveler community (an ethnic group specific to Ireland and the UK), the housing crisis, and the current politically hot topic is how the country should be accommodating asylum seekers.”

Meanwhile, we were curious about how redditors can tell that their posts are ‘Irish enough’ for r/ireland, so they don’t end up getting removed.

“A post is Irish enough if a) it's about Ireland, b) it's about an Irish person, c) it will have a large effect on Ireland, or d) it's a joke we know our users like.”

The moderator also shared where the line between a regular and a ‘substandard’ post is. “A post is substandard if it looks like it took very little effort to make and is not clever, or a joke that has been overused. A lot of substandard posts are from users that are making an effort,but don't frequent the subreddit enough to know what's been said 20 times in the last week... which is probably a good sign for them!”

The only requirements for joining the r/ireland team is to be active when it comes to modding the community, as well as being familiar with the subreddit’s culture. That way, they’ll understand the in-jokes and won’t overreact to normal banter.

“The team rotates pretty frequently because it's hard work and I know in the past we've had mods that weren't Irish, but had lived in Ireland at some point in their lives.”

Bored Panda also reached out to writer Keith, who runs ‘The Irish Road Trip,’ to get his opinion on life and travel in the country. He was happy to answer our questions.

We were interested to hear how the cost of living crisis has affected Ireland, and whether it’s had much of an impact on travel.

“The changes in the cost of living are affecting different people/families/businesses very differently. Many people are living hand-to-mouth and businesses are closing due to skyrocketing energy bills,” Keith told us that the situation varies a lot.

“Speaking from my own experience, we're being much more careful about how we use electricity in the house. In particular, we've become much more conscious about how and when we turn on the heating,” he said.

Fortunately, the current economic doom and gloom hasn’t changed how Keith travels. “There's a lot of talk about how expensive Ireland is, and it absolutely can be. However, there are still plenty of places offering great value (although they can be hard to find!),” the travel writer told Bored Panda.

“You just need to be prepared to either 1) go mid-week, 2) plan a trip during the quiet season, or 3) step a little off the beaten path.”

Meanwhile, we wanted to find out more about Keith’s passion for travel across Ireland. We also asked him for some advice that he’d give someone who yearns for adventure but might be a tad scared to take the first step.

“Long before creating The Irish Road Trip, I spent a lot of solo trips traveling around Ireland. Back then, heading off into the quieter corners of Ireland, like the Beara Peninsula, helped me clear my head,” he opened up to Bored Panda.

“Fast forward 5 or so years and the one thing that, even after hundreds of trips around the island, keeps me excited about exploring is that you always, without fail, discover some 'new' landscape that you previously never knew existed.”

According to adventurer Keith, a big part of the fear that surrounds traveling somewhere is “often the unknown.”

“The best bit of advice that I can give someone that's wary about planning a trip to Ireland is to dedicate a good chunk of time to mapping out their itinerary.” He added: “We're in the process of publishing the largest library of Irish Road Trip itineraries so they could always start there!”

The r/ireland subreddit has been around for nearly 15 years! It was originally created all the way back in March, 2008. In that time, the community moderators have helped build a flourishing online community.

At the time of writing, the sub had 625k members. A whopping increase of over 100k internet users since the last time Bored Panda featured the community’s posts. 

In order to have a healthy and happy online community, all members need to be aware of the rules and keep them front-of-mind before posting and commenting on anything.

For example, the moderator team’s main priority is to create a high-quality online group. There’s zero tolerance for abuse or hate speech, there’s no room for spam or self-promotion. Meanwhile, all of the posts have to be related to Ireland: they can’t be “substandard or generic.”

Repetitive and low-effort content can get removed, for the sake of the subreddit’s overall quality. That’s a good thing. Pretty much everyone wants to have high-quality infotainment in their feeds, instead of having to endlessly scroll through filler posts.

Something that we love about r/ireland is the community’s grounded approach to the news. The team running the whole show notes that the sub “is not a source for driving pageviews and ad-clicks through hysteria and fabricated reporting.” As such, any tabloid or non-news source links will be removed. Again, members are encouraged to make an effort when they post something.

Meanwhile, if you happen to have some specific questions or advice on tourism, immigration, and studying in Ireland, then r/ireland might actually not be the best sub for this. You might want to hop on to r/irishtourism for tourism advice, r/MoveToIreland for immigration tips, and r/StudyInIreland if you plan to study there.

There’s a huge support network on Reddit for the people living in Ireland or hoping to do so in the near future—you just need to know where to look.

The cost of living crisis has affected Ireland, just like many other developed nations. The inflation rate in the country stood at 8.9% in November 2022, dropping slightly from 9.2% in October. Housing and utility prices soared the most last year: they stood at 27.8% in October, easing to 27.1% in November. Meanwhile, the annual inflation rate for food and beverage costs was 11.2% in November, up slightly from 10.6% in October.

However, what probably hurts people’s wallets the most is the cost of housing. According to RTE, citing the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland, the average price of rent in the country has increased by a whopping 82% over the past 12 years. That’s compared to the 18% average in the rest of the European Union.

Ireland currently has just over 5 million people and the population has been slowly but steadily growing over the decades. In 2005, the country’s population stood at 4.1 million; in 1990 it was 3.5 million; and 3.1 million people lived on the Emerland Isle in 1975.

15,000 years ago, Ireland was completely covered by glaciers. As the sheets of ice moved, they completely stripped the soil in some places, leaving only limestone ground. Meanwhile, the peat bogs that you can find in the midlands and the west coast of the island are all the remains of the ancient lakes that were left by the glaciers. 

According to archeologists, the first people to settle in Ireland arrived on the island around 6000 BC. 2,500 years after that point, they were using stone tools to clear land for farming. By 700 BC, the Celts began to settle on the Emerald Isle. 

By the ninth century, Vikings began raiding Ireland. Their settlements later become some of the main cities on the island. That includes Dublin, the capital! By 1170, the Norman Vikings who had taken over England also invaded Ireland—the island became English territory. This lasted until 1922, until violent uprisings forged the Irish Free State. In 1948, Ireland became independent while six counties that made up Northern Ireland remained a part of Britain. The r/ireland subreddit was founded just as the global financial crisis hit the country. And here we are, now, at the edge of another recession.