Yeah, I discovered the Generation Emigration section on The Times Dahling™ last year. The overall sentiment is either "I used to live in a foreign country, and people thought I was cool because I had an Irish accent. Now I'm back in Ireland, and nobody gives a feck about me, and aren't treating me like the special little creature I am" or "Gawsh, despite being a stauuuuunch Fine Gael man my whole life, they just AREN'T doing enough with offers of tax breaks and incentives for me to return to my GODAWFUL life in Montennotte."
It's basically a forum for begrudgers to piss and moan about Ireland in general. Which, fair enough, the place is far from perfect, nowhere that naive, but some of the cnuts in there need a slap.
As to how awkward the government's making it, I'm not seeing it from my research. I emailed the INIS explaining my situation - Irish fella coming home, American born wife, and American born daughter. Reply waiting for me the following morning. No problems - wife will be given a stamp 4 straight away, and can look for work before the ink dries. Has to renew it every year, after three years she can apply for citizenship. Daughter's already an Irish citizen through me, not a bother there either. Follow up questions were replied to within 24 hours as well, from the same person, very nice she was and all. Compare that to here, where my green card is $1,000 every time I renew it, and it's a six week slog through paperwork and office visits.
As to having a job waiting for me, or expecting the government to give me grants or incentives to move back, why the feck would people demand that? I'm a grown man, there were certainly no handouts for me when I came to America, there are none for those moving to London, why would people expect them coming back? As if the country owes us immigrants something for taking a look around during the dark times and saying "Well, good luck with that, I'm offski."
Entitled gobshites, the lot of them.
