I love telling people how different the price of things in Northern Ireland can be - read and enjoy! :)

Northern Ireland is part of the UK so their currency is the British Pound. Last summer the exchange rate was $2 USD to 1 British Pound. As of right now the rate is much better - yeah!

$1.60 USD for every 1 British Pound

The exchange rate in the Republic of Ireland is slightly better, since they are on the Euro Dollar.

$1.40 USD for every 1 Euro Dollar

This means that petrol (gas) is down from $12 USD to about $10 USD per gallon. It takes about $80 USD to fill up a VERY small car.

The other factor is the plain and simple fact that almost EVERYTHING has to be imported to Ireland - so the exchange rate is one thing - but then the price of items in general is fairly high.

A "gallon" of cheap paint is usually about $40 USD.

A small combo meal at McD's or BK is generally $10 USD.

A loaf of bread (you can get half loaves too!) is only $1 USD or so - but it goes bad in two to three days! There are no preservatives in most of the food - bread, milk, meat, etc.

Something that is much less expensive there are the large bottles of water. You can get a 2 Liter for about $0.25 USD!