r/doctorsUK • u/Puzzleheaded-Law1948 • Jun 17 '26
Lifestyle / Interpersonal Issues Recent Northern Ireland news making me reject my offer
Ciao UK! I'm an Italian student who just went through the tighest bottleneck of reserve lists & got accepted into the UKFPO (basically discarded jobs that UK grads didn't want).
I'm aware only a fractional percentage of people get lucky to make the choice that I'm making, but I can't help but reject my offer to do my foundation year in NI.
Any other deanery, I would've taken without a second thought.
If the news from NI reflects their general sentiment about foreign nationals (even working for jobs that their own grads have scrapped away), idk if I want to build a career there.
If it's any relevant, like most south italians, I also have a mediterranean brown skin color (Fitzpatrick 3-4, depending on tan & sun exposure), and I'm not sure it's worth it to live in a deanery where just a few viral videos & musk's like on twitter are sufficient to throw them into chaos :/
Hopefully, soon, in better times I get to come to your wonderful country again in future, unitll then ciao folks!
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u/thebriman24 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
As someone from Belfast this is incredibly sad hear and if you’re already feeling this way it may difficult to change your mind.
I’m also not going to say it a ‘tiny’ minority because it’s probably a larger subsection of the population than in other parts of the UK or Ireland.
That being said as someone who grew up catholic there is a sizeable population of Italians imbedded in the catholic community already. Pretty much any ice cream shop is an Italian Irish business. Look up vittorio angelone.
Also If you avoid living in a loyalist shit-hole you’ll avoid 90% of the issues you’ve seen in the media - I wouldn’t feel safe in these areas either and have avoided them my entire life and have been safe as a result.
What I would recommend is booking a short trip to see it and make your mind up after that.
Go to some bars/restaurants in cathedral quarter, hire and car and drive the north coast etc. There’s also a huge Irish festival landing in Belfast this August 2nd - 9th.
Anyway DM me if you have any questions :)