Ireland

Stamp 0 for retirees requires ~€50k/yr per person + access to a lump sum — one of Europe's steepest bars. BUT: Irish grandparent = citizenship by descent, the golden side door.

No restrictions on foreign buyers; the housing shortage is the real obstacle.

Two-tier: public (HSE) has queues; private insurance (~€2k+/yr) is how the middle class copes. Quality is good once you're in.

National broadband plan pushing fiber rural; cities well served.

Obviously.

Dublin rivals US coastal cities; the whole island is expensive by EU standards.

Safe, friendly; Dublin city center grit is the exception.

Good and improving; rural broadband push mostly delivered; Dublin transit stretched.

Dublin transit is fine and intercity rail exists; the west you fell in love with needs a car.

Left-side; motorways great, boreens (country lanes) are one-car wide with hedges.

UTC+0: ~5h of a 9–5 Pacific workday falls in local waking hours.

EU pet passport rules; no quarantine with paperwork.

Stable, consensus-driven, boringly competent.

Green in image and increasingly in policy.

Literature capital of the world per capita; music in every pub.

Dublin/Cork eat internationally now; rural Ireland is meat-and-two-veg.

A national housing crisis — scarce and expensive to buy or rent.

Nonstops from many US cities + US border preclearance at Dublin/Shannon flying home.

Naturalization at 5 years, dual welcomed — or instant via an Irish-born grandparent.

You won't need an expat bubble — cultural fluency is immediate.

Marriage equality by popular vote (2015); modern Ireland is strikingly progressive.

Atlantic storms bring wind and rain, and that's the whole list.

Illegal; medical access program narrow; possession prosecuted (first offenses often cautioned).

High income tax rates but remittance basis available for non-domiciled residents — foreign income kept abroad may escape Irish tax. US Social Security exempt under treaty.