Thomil's Random Ramblings

So it's now a few weeks on from receiving my notice, and interesting apartments are about as easy to find as honest politicians in Leinster House. Well, that is not quite true. They are available, just way outside of my price range. Granted, the tail end of September isn't the best time to go hunting, as the market is still saturated with university students desperately trying to find a shoebox where they can sleep, but regardless of that the market is noticeably smaller than in the previous years. Then, all of a sudden, something catches my eye. A two-bedroom apartment just a few minutes walk from the office, in a new estate known as the Quadrants which should sound familiar to regular readers of this blog. That thing really doesn't look bad if you ask me. The initial description sounds very intriguing indeed. Two bedrooms, modern furniture, in a gated complex, and equipped with all modern conveniences, including that ultimate luxury, a dishwasher. Seriously, Ever

So, what's so hard about getting an apartment in Cork anyway? That's a valid question, and one that you'll hear particularly often from people outside of Ireland. As someone who's been living in Ireland for more than five years now, I don't really think about the reasons anymore, not least because they are omnipresent in most Irish newspapers and other media. It only moved to the forefront of my thoughts again after a conversation with an old friend of mine from back in my boarding school days, and since Google Analytics always tells me that most of the visitors on this blog come from either the US or Russia, I thought that a bit of context certainly can't hurt here. Basically, the entire mess started with the collapse of the Irish economy back in 2008. The abundance of cheap credit available during the Celtic Tiger years had caused a massive building boom in Ireland, as literally everyone and their grandma tried to emulate Donald Trump and dabble in real esta