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My oldest is in their last year of school and they are thinking of doing teaching.

The long summer holidays seems to be thing that is attracting them which I think is the wrong way to look at it.

I hear from a few at work who are married to teachers who say the job gets worse by the year.

I want him to make his own mind up but at the same time I don't want him to do something he will regret in a few years. 

My parents just let me tear way whenever I was picking courses but that was 30 years ago and the landscape was completely different in terms of student debt, cost of living etc.  That being said I see recently if you are teaching a stem subject you get your fees covered.

Is there any economic and / or social upside for the 26 to take on the 6 counties?

[No new housing means a bigger pool of people are chasing whatever comes on the market and pushing the prices up.]

What is driving the costs up? Labour/materials/location/demand/greed

If a 'reset' comes about what's going to come down? Cost of materials the demand for housing the cost of labour and then the knock on effects from that..

Did the price of housing drop after the last reset? Did they drop to the rate it was before the last collapse?

Down our way it's the lack of a sewage system that's fit for purpose preventing anyone from building a house or even some developers from starting builds.

No new housing means a bigger pool of people are chasing whatever comes on the market and pushing the prices up.

Shít show.

Probably the reason why rents are shooting up as well, 3 bed semis around our way are north of £800 per month. If you are in the position of trying to manage this, car payments and possibly student loan you have not a pups chance of saving up for a deposit. 

Current house prices in NI are unsustainable let alone in RoI.

A reset is inevitable if not required so that our own kids have half a chance of owning their own house.

Some fairly modest new builds our own town are now over £400k, even a 5% deposit is £20k.  When you throw in stamp duty, legals and £ for basic furniture you would need at least £40 - £50k of your own money gathered up outside what you are borrowing.

From what I am hearing the Holylands is a complete dump these days.

Don't want our ones mounting up the debt but at the same time I would be a hypocrite if I was trying to convince them to commute when I know that craic I had there back in the day.  I know a few at work who had children that stayed in Belfast for the first year and then commuted thereafter, maybe not a bad idea.

If our ones in years to come were going to move to Belfast I would be directing them towards Stranmillis.

[But he will miss all the craic and life skills you learn from carrying on in a student house.]

18 years old picking courses and deciding what you want to do for the rest of your life. I'd say a small enough percentage would work out that way. And sure a lot of the time 18 year olds will do what they want anyway as they know better than their parents.

These apprenticeships are a good job to be fair. My nephew got one with a construction firm. He will be coming out with no debt and a head start with his career. But he will miss all the craic and life skills you learn from carrying on in a student house.

As I said, I don't know how you could decide at 18 years old what you want to do for your career. I'd of course be encouraging my lad to pick something worthwhile and something that will lead into a good job etc. but I'll also be encouraging him to do at least a few years in the middle of the craic. Then do the whole travelling carryon round Australia or somewhere and avoiding serious work for as long as he can. I know I learned more from doing those things than any uni degree.

Would not swap it for the world.

It would seem more and more students are just commuting every day, I might be wrong but from what I hear the whole university social scene is not maybe what it was years ago.

All the usual stuff in the news / media today, over 30 years since I got my results, seems like yesterday.

Well done to those who got the grades they wanted but when you see them being interviewed and they are going on about the course they are planning to do at Uni I end up saying to myself good luck to them as some seem to be doing completely stupid courses with little job prospects on the other side.

[Stereotypical Belfast pikeys out of their minds on god knows what with their hands down their trousers. Sorry, tracksuit bottoms.]

My nearly 80 year old aul fella went in today and had a great time. Thought the atmosphere was terrific and everyone was just being social and friendly, looking to have a good time. He did feel the music got lost a bit in the midst of the big piss-up which I'd agree with. Some of the music has been very hard to hear in some of the spots over the sheer din of people having a good time.

Did see a couple of rats last night beside Kelly's in need of a good hiding screaming Islamic abuse at a group of security guards. "Jesus Christ is our Lord and saviour you f**king Mohammed c***ts" I believe it was. Stereotypical Belfast pikeys out of their minds on god knows what with their hands down their trousers. Sorry, tracksuit bottoms.

100%

[Plenty prods never been across the border too]

This could be in the WTF thread. I have never met a southerner who thinks like this...

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/comment/opinion/fleadhs-arrival-in-belfast-is-a-breakthrough-for-southerners-who-see-northern-ireland-as-foreign/a/159497353.html?fbclid=IwdGRjcATerThwZG9mAWZkaWQWUL3P00q2wu6FfZe9owu8N4TpHgo3iWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR7cSA5Tjjh4UveBVV6es1YaJ0GWRfkrPSUphHXECu7y6-9rYBQflx6iGx1uCA_aem_6nZZ4GztH-jw26s31K0RCw

Back in the day I knew grown ass man (from Belfast) that never had a pint in the city center! Work with a colleague from the south who'd never been to the North until we had a works function, up to that point the furthest north was Carlinford for a xmas do.. Plenty prods never been across the border too

Worked with people in the past who would go for weekends away to Limavady (Radisson), Kesh and Castlerock.  Mention Donegal to them and you may as well be suggesting Australia.

Francesca Albanese ICC rule of law judicial

https://youtu.be/z5n1-9Zwxok?is=Ywa9pK9O_HKTH6L3

She is 100% correct, this all just shows how f@#ked up the world is.

Were Gerry & Martin involved, fair to say they were not.

Did they know who was involved, would be fairly confident within the 24 hours after Omagh they would have been up to date regarding the who, what, were and how.

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2026/07/23/co-meath-man-has-14m-nama-debt-written-off-for-37000/

Something not right about this.

Reminds me a of a saying I heard years ago;

If you owe the bank £1,000 it is your problem, you owe then £1m it is their problem.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2026/0721/1584495-garda-investigation-woman/

[But Deco from the Dominick Street flats who steals cars and deals drugs for years can stay? Can we not just f**k him into the sea or something?]

https://www.northernsound.ie/news/number-of-people-assaulted-during-virginia-incident-286881

Anyone who didn't think immigration is causing problems will be thinking again.
And of course it's not all immigrants and not all races of immigrants.

No idea if it even was immigrants tbh but if so, should have all rights to be here revoked (if guilty)

Any immigrant who commits a crime (maybe be more specific?) should have all their rights taken away? Human rights? Civil rights? What about if they're an Irish citizen?

If they are an Irish citizen, they shouldn't be regarded as an immigrant.

If they are not an Irish citizen and they commit crimes in Ireland. They should be sent back to whatever country they came from.

Why not? Very easy to be both.

So commit any crime and pack them off home? Steal a loaf of bread to feed a starving family etc and it's "sorry, that's it. Off you go"

But Deco from the Dominick Street flats who steals cars and deals drugs for years can stay? Can we not just f**k him into the sea or something?

+1

Most money moved to Special provision in schools.

If this is where the money is needed then so be it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3ryp29l1pqo

Feel for the parents in these situations and they deserve all the support they can get.